Fossil Collections

Broward College Fossil Collections

Broward College’s John H. Payne Hall (Building 7 on Central Campus) houses a number of fossil collections, with some specimens displayed in the cases installed in the corridors of the building.

Broward College maintains an extensive fossil collection some of which was collected by faculty, staff, and students and some of which was acquired from Florida Atlantic University.

Arthropods

F005 Crayfish

Brachiopods

F023 Spirifer sp.

Bryozoans

F007 Bryozoans

Cnidarians

F002 Fossil tabulate coral

F019 Rose coral

F020 Brain coral

Dinosaurs

F022 Ankylosaur skull cast

Edmontosaurus bone in jacket

Echinoderms

F006 Clypeaster sp., sea biscuit

F009 Crinoid stem

Fish

Knightia, a small species of freshwater herring, lived and died in the Eocene Epoch, approximately 50 million years ago. Their fossils have been found in great number in the limestone strata, lacustrine deposit, of the Green River Formation in southwestern Wyoming. Fossil evidence suggests that they traveled in large schools and ate primarily algae, plankton, and insects; in turn they were an important part of the diets of Diplomystus, Mioplosus, and other larger prehistoric fish. It is not uncommon to find a Knightia in the stomach (or even the mouth) of a Diplomystus. The remains of many other kinds of fish, mollusks, insects, and plants have been found alongside them, suggesting a subtropical (think Florida) environment. The Knightia are the most common fossils, however. What killed the Knightia in such large numbers? Paleontologists speculate that rapid changes in temperature or changes in lake chemistry may have been the cause. Modern herrings are very sensitive to drastic changes in their environment, particularly temperature fluctuation. Whatever the reason, large quantities of Knightia were preserved by being quickly buried in sediments. The best-preserved specimens died in summer, when oxygen levels were lowest due both to thermal stratification and algal blooms. A lack of oxygen both slowed decay and deterred scavengers, as well as increasing precipitation of the calcium carbonate sediment that became the limestone in which the fossils are now embedded.

F004 Knightia sp. Eocene, Green River Formation, Wyoming

F024 Knightia sp. Eocene, Green River Formation, Wyoming

F025 Knightia sp. Eocene, Green River Formation, Wyoming

F026 Knightia sp. Eocene, Green River Formation, Wyoming

Mammals

F021 Whale vertabrae

Whale Bones

Mollusks

F001 Cast of fossil shell

F010 Hystrivastum chilesi, Pliocene Florida

F011 Harpa sp.

F012 Terebra sp.

F013 Turitella sp.

F014 Turitella sp. in matrix

F015 Athleta sp.

F016 Aporrhais sp.

F017 Scallop, Bivalvia, Mollusca

F018 Patellidae, Gastropoda, Mollusca – limpet

Plants

F003a Petrified wood

F003b Petrified wood

F008 Fern