7.5" Cluster of Fossil Clams with Fluorescent Calcite - Rucks' Pit, FL

Cluster of Fossil Clams with Fluorescent Calcite - Rucks' Pit, FL #285894

This is a 7.5" wide cluster of fossil clams (Mercenaria permagna) from the famous Rucks' Pit quarry in Florida. The interior of the clams are filled with golden-yellow calcite crystals that are are highly fluorescent under both short and long-wave UV. A whelk fossil can be found near the middle on one side and there are clam fossils visible on both sides of the rock with the largest being 5.3" wide.

The base of the specimen has been cut flat for presentation.

Rucks' Pit was a small cement quarry that produced some amazing crystal lined fossils during the 2000s. Around 2006, the quarry was shut down and filled in with water. While some material can still be found in tailing piles from the quarry, high quality specimens of these remarkable crystal-filled fossils are becoming hard to acquire.

A geological paper on the unique geology and fossil occurrences in Rucks' Pit can be found here.

$795

SPECIES

Mercenaria permagna (Clams)

AGE

Early Pleistocene (2 Million Years Old)