A long time ago while hiking in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, I chanced across this small piece of shale, with a slight crack, seen in the upper left photo. I spit it along the crack and found a tiny fossil shell inside which can barely be seen in the two pieces in the upper right photo.
Magnified images show the “part,” (bottom left) which projects slightly from the rock, and the “counterpart” (bottom right) which is a slight depression in the rock so, I have the complete fossil remnant. A geologist friend identified the tiny shell as a brachiopod, relatives of which, though uncommon, still exist to this day.
Eons ago, it was in a shallow sea and was buried in silt, which later turned to shale under the intense heat and pressure associated with of the uplift of the Wind River Mountains. The uplift also carried the fossil shell to an elevation of nearly two miles above sea level. Somehow through all of that, its complete remains survived as a tiny messenger with an amazing story!
#brachiopod #partandcounterpart #fossil #slate #windrivermountains
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