Mesofossils

Mesofossils are "middle sized" fossils - you really need some magnification to study them but they are not true microfossils. They are often either small or juvenile macrofossils or bits of macrofossils (crinoids, sea urchins and starfish often disintegrate after death).

Most of hte mesofossils shown here are from the Yorkshire Chalk (Upper Cretaceous).

You can click on the images to get larger pictures

Terebratulina - a small brachiopod

small Terebratulid brachiopods

crinoid ossicles from the Red Chalk

pieces of the small crinoid Bourgeticrinus

sea urchin spines

broken sea urchin plates, probably from a Micraster

spines from the sea urchin Echinocorys

broken spines from Cidarid sea urchins

a shark's tooth

gastropods from the Tertiary of the Isle of Wight.

the calcareous sponge Porosphaera

the outer plate of a starfish

I am not quite sure what this is - perhaps a coprolite (fossil poo)

The images are direct scans of the fossils placed on a flat bed scanner