This is a middle Devonian brachiopod, species undetermined (by me, anyway), collected in western New York shales, in an area with lots of Mucrospirifer and other Spirifer genera.

Note:Many old comments were lost in a database crash in 2008. Some conversations may seem to make less sense than they would have. A few will make more sense now.

1. 
   Anne 2005 03 04 at 12:53:43 pm

   how VERY cool!

2. 
   tost 2005 03 04 at 2:34:19 pm

   I’d guess that would make it, oh, maybe 1400 years old for the biblical literalists among us.

3. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 03 04 at 2:55:42 pm

   Which would make it slightly older than the formica it’s resting on. (Becky’s hoping to redo our kitchen this summer.)

4. 
   beth 2005 03 04 at 6:23:31 pm

   Cool! And it looks pretty familiar to me. How about some more fossil pics?

5. 
   Craig 2005 03 04 at 6:31:36 pm

   there’s probably dozens of those still in dad’s basement.

6. 
   tost 2005 03 04 at 9:46:54 pm

   I don’t intend any disrespect, but that’s not formica in the photo’s background, it’s the Shroud of Turin.

7. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 03 04 at 9:50:43 pm

   Sorry, tost, you’re wrong. I thought so too at first, but it failed the Turin test.

8. 
   tost 2005 03 04 at 11:29:16 pm

   I’m probably going to hate myself for this, but what exactly is the Turin test? 

   And if it wasn’t the Shroud of Turin, was it some sort of pre-fabricated formica tunic?  Or Belushi’s toga from Animal House?

9. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 03 04 at 11:34:41 pm

   It’s a bad joke.

10. 
    the_bone 2005 03 05 at 10:27:50 pm

    Any day where I stumble upon a random Turing test joke is a fine day indeed.