Fossil turtle cut by Gary WilsonVariscite Sailing on a Turtle Sea Ring
    |
|
Sometimes my system of identifying my materials fails me, but I believe the pretty green stone in this ring is Variscite. It is set down into the turtle shell, surrounded by 14k gold, so it is well protected.
Whose shell was this? Sadly my invoice just says, "fossil turtle shell." I looked at various on-line sources, finally falling back to eBay vendors whose credentials we can't be sure about. (It always amuses me to see how fossil vendors describe their items: Some call them "new" and some call them "used" apparently because some creature originally used them... like for their survival?) I found three vendors who offered material that looks a lot like our fossil turtle, these listings claimed to offer:
1. A 67 MYO fossil turtle from the Lance Creek Formation of Wyoming
2. Soft-shelled turtle fossil belly scute from the deep south
3. Florida Bone Valley fossil turtle shell from the Megalodon Era
The "Megalodon Era" is a bit hard to pin down. Wiki claims Megalodons probably arose around 23 million years ago, though some claim they go back 28 million years. They are thought to have gone extinct about 2.6 million years ago. So this little fossil may be somewhere between 2.6 MYO and 67 MYO...
I'm embarrassed to have to defer to Wikipedia on this matter since Wiki's paleontology is notoriously ... ummm ... what's the word? "Conventional" might be right, or "traditional" perhaps, i.e., conforming to the views of establishment figures. I won't call it "scientific" as I perceive it as biased in favor of that which is already "known." That isn't science! It is the job of science to question, to deepen our understanding and never to rely on religious doctrine when novel creatures appear for example. Since as you may have noticed, I love all things cryptid, I am well aware of Lloyd Pye's unending battle with Wiki editors over the "Starchild skull." Despite his striking anatomical evidence, structural evidence that the bone is vastly different from human bone, that the orbital cavities are totally different, the extra sets of unerupted teeth, and later even with his DNA evidence, to this day Wiki maintains, "The Starchild skull is a malformed partial human skull, likely to have been that of a child who died as a result of congenital hydrocephalus." Lloyd Pye is no longer with us, but his work lives on at starchildproject.com. I watched his valiant attempts to provide balance to the Wiki article to no avail. His edits would be deleted within hours, sometimes minutes. You'll find these issues all over Wiki. I just looked up "Bigfoot" and it's the same story. I guess they never found themselves hiking alone in the desert within 10' of a tremendous "WHUMP" that sounded like a VW Bug falling straight down out of the sky when no VW Bug meteorites were in evidence. Or look up chemtrails. Or... but I digress. That was a long apology for deferring to Wikipedia for information. Sorry. And I also wish to apologize in advance for not having a comments section here where you could berate me for bringing up cryptids or to correct my paleontology. Someday! I'm just one person you know, every little thing like that needs research, implementation, debugging and maintenance. So if you want to correct me, use the contact link and perhaps I'll correct this page or add your well-considered opposing opinion.
Let's talk about Variscite for a minute. While this example looks like fine jade, it is softer (MOHS 4-5) which is why I surrounded this stone with fossil turtle padding, in addition to providing a great color combination and nicely contrasting textures. Variscite's element, metaphysically, is water according to Simmons and Ahsian, so the wavelets in the aquatic fossil seem to work too. Ahsian mentions that "Variscite's energy can help unite disparate types of people through the common bond of love" ... perhaps exactly what's needed to resolve the differences that divide us these days.
This is a large ring, you might enjoy wearing it on your index or middle finger so I made it a larger size. It is presently approximately size 9½ but it is adjustable. The band is quite heavy, I strongly recommend you give me your ring size when you order so I can shape it for you. And please order it and wear it as you navigate the crosscurrents of our society.
