New Urchin And Sea Biscuit Images

Direct from NASA raw PNG images and showing better details

   Now that many of the raw PNG images are available from NASA, the fossils can be seen in greater detail.  I have downloaded the images for Opportunity Sol 054 that show the sea urchin with the six-fold symmetry and the rows of bumps where its spines were attached, and revealed a sea biscuit as well.

   This is important because this fossils shows three very biological features- first, it is conic and symmetrical, second, it shows a perfect circular lip around its upper orifice, and third, it also shows a spiral twist to its structure.  Closer examination reveals finer granular structure that follows the spiral pattern, which winds from the center out in a clockwise manner.

   The microscopic imager was moving slightly as this image was taken.  Focus was poor at first but improves greatly as the sequence progresses.  Unfortunately, the sea biscuit moves out of the frame as this happens.  I have posted this as a JPG image, but to see it as a bitmap with no artifacts or distortion, click here.  (NOTE:  File is 900 kb, slow download.)

A closer look at the third image, which shows only part of the sea biscuit (but in good focus) reveals an organism that is rather alien when compared to most terrestrial sea organisms, but still is recognizable.    Sea biscuits are related to urchins and sand dollars, and might be thought of as somewhere between the two forms.  They are thick and flattened and share many of the characteristics of both urchins and sand dollars.    This image is contrast enhanced to help make the details more visible.
Here is the marked up version based on further image enhancements.  The upper orifice is very clear, the rim around it is as well.  The shadow's structure indicated that it is a thickened, uniform ring around the orifice.    The outline is in indistinct polygon shape, and each spiral mark appears to terminate at a vertex.    Note also the very clear bump pattern on the urchin to the left, showing where each spine attached to it when it was alive.

    As more PNG data is now available, I will be reprocessing many of the original fossil images.  So far, they have revealed better details that the JPG images, and in all cases the new details have confirmed my image processing as accurate.