Vivianite pseudomorph after whale bone (ex Dr. Barratt Phillips Collection)

Item Description

An interesting and seldom-seen pseudomorph / fossil from Richmond, Virginia featuring soft greenish-black Vivianite that has replaced a preexisting whale bone. Vivianite is an iron phosphate, and the phosphorus was provided from the whale bone, so if a bit of iron in the groundwater is introduced, low temperature Vivianite will form and start to take over the whale bone. This strange looking lumpy piece is composed of intergrown Vivianite nodules that nucleated around the bone. Highly unusual, but this material does remind me of the similar replacements of Vivianite after mollusc shells from Kerch (Crimea). From the collection of Dr. Barratt Phillips.