At 09:11 AM 8/13/99 +1200, Andrew Grebneff wrote:
>I have been trying to find out a method for photography of fossil shells
>under UV light.
>
>Many fossil shells, some as old as Triassic and Permian, show visible color
>patterns. Using UV lights, I have checked my own and the collection of
>Otago University Geology Dept for specimens fluorescing, and found many.
>More often than not no pattern was visible in normal light. Turritella and
>"Turrids" were conspicuous here, especially middle Eocene Surculites and
>"Zemacies", with striking axial pattern similar to Conus princeps.
>magnatica sutherlandi proved to have 3 unsuspected rows of Naticalike
>spots.
>
Emily Vokes and her late husband Harold have done a lot in the past on
using UV to look at shell patterns
that fluoresced on fossil mollusca, particularly in Florida.  Later the
late Shirley Hoerle and even later Bill and Lois Pitt have done some work.
All are in Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology, if someone is
interested, I can pull the references out and post them.  The Vokes give
credit to the late Axel Olsson for coming up with some of the techniques
they used, but I have not been able to pin down his reference, as usual, it
would not be a paper on the subject, but just mentioned in the introduction
of a paper that he used the technique or developed it.  The was Axel's way
for a lot of things.  What I haven't seen mentioned here is the frequent
practice for fossil shells of soaking them in bleach prior to exposure to
UV light (after drying) to enhance the patterns observed.

>Color patterns are of taxonomic significance in many Recent species, and no
>less so in fossils. However I cannot remember ever seeing reference to
>color pattern in the description of a new fossil species, even when the
>holotype almost certainly showed one (as with Surculites pahiensis and
>"Zemacies" hamiltoni).
>
The only instance of this that comes to mind rapidly is a paper by Bill and
Lois Pitt in Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology, v 26, no 1 (1993)
entitled: "Ultra-Violet Light as a Useful Tool for Identifying Fossil
Mollusks, with Examples from the Gatun Formation, Panama".  In the paper
Bill and Lois do not actually name new species of fossil mollusks because
of their patterns under UV light, but do discriminate and identify three
potential new species (yet to be named?) of Conus, similar to Conus bravoi
Spieker, 1922 in structural characteristics but differing significantly in
patterns observed under the UV light.  Spieker, 1922 is a paper on the
paleontology of the tertiary Zorritos formation in Peru published by John
Hopkins.


Paul

>Has anyone out there worked out a good procedure for B&W UV photography?
>
>Andrew
>
>