Time is Money

On a whim, I went to a mineralogy exhibition in Tokyo yesterday, because a friend visited the show over the weekend and mentioned that there were a lot of fossils of marine animals on display (and also because I needed a break from the computer screen).

Sure enough, there were trilobites, crabs, fish, shark teeth, crinoids, ammonites, marine reptiles, cetaceans...and lots of other stuff. Way cool.

Out of all the awesome things on display, my eye went to a fossil of what looked to be a ray. "Hmmm...this looks interesting." I thought to myself. Rays are soft-bodied animals, meaning they don't have bones like we do. As a result, there are probably relatively few fossils of rays around.

I considered lugging the big rock back...until I saw the price...around US$10,000 at current exchange rates!

fossil