Last day in the University of Tartu Geology Department — and a great garden party

Tartu, Estonia — As a sign we’re near the end of our work in Tartu, there are no crinoids in this post. Instead, above is an Ordovician bryozoan from Estonia that encrusted the aragonitic shell of a nautiloid. The aragonite dissolved away, giving my favorite underside view of a bryozoan attachment from its ancestrula. We’ve seen this more than once in this blog. The bonus here are the just-visible chains of little crystalline teardrops across the surface.

These are the zooids of the cyclostome bryozoan Corynotrypa. They are encrusted right-side-up, meaning that they grew across the exposed attachment surface of the big bryozoan. The nautiloid shell thus dissolved between the two encrusting events — very early on the seafloor. Classic calcite sea dynamics.

After sorting out the specimens used in our crinoid studies, and doing some last microphotography, we finished our work for this season at the University of Tartu Department of Geology. A small and happy garden party followed.

Bill Ausich and some of our Estonian colleagues and friends. From the left is Oive Tinn, Mare Isakar, Bill, and Viirika Mastik. Great conversations. It actually got a little chilly outside, so we ended in Oive’s house (see below).