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| EPHEMERA + MULTIPLES by: Colin Keefe Richard Long Ben Neill Kiki Smith Patti Smith Robert Smithson Andrea Zittel :::::::::::::::::::::::: |
| Nummulites Fossils approximately 30 million years old, dug in the Southern Pyrenees, Spain. "Fossils encapsulate time and change." Courtesy of Zoe Leonard New York City |
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| Wikipedia entry: Nummulite A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, recognized by its numerous coils, subdivided by incomplete septae into squarish chambers. They are the shells of the extinct marine protozoan Nummilites, a type of foraminiferan. Nummulites reach 6 cm or 2.4 inches in diameter, and are common in tertiary rocks, particularly around the Mediterranean (e.g. Eocene limestones from Egypt). They are valuable as index fossils . |
| The name nummulite comes from the Latin nummulus meaning "little coin", a reference to their shape. In 1913, Randolph Kirkpatrick published a book, The Nummulosphere: an account of the Organic Origin of so-called Igneous Rocks and Abyssal Red Clays, proposing the theory that all rocks have been constructed by the accumulation of forams such as nummulites. |