They’re back!  The People’s Choice Awards, hosted by Mama’s Minerals, give you the opportunity to showcase your work, acquire new customers, and win valuable prizes.  We are holding three separate beading contests – in our Albuquerque and Santa Fe stores, and an online contest at www.MamasMinerals.com.  Each contest has first, second, and third place prizes and each artist has the opportunity to enter one contest.  After one month of public voting, the winners will be decided by popular vote from a juried pool of entrants and celebrated with an awards reception.

Categories for the Albuquerque contest are Multi-Strand Necklace and Single-Strand Necklace.

Prizes for the Albuquerque contest are:

• Category - A – Multi-strand:
      1st Place - $200 gift certificate
      2nd Place - $100 gift certificate
      3rd Place - $75 gift certificate

• Category - B – Single Strand:
      1st Place - $100 gift certificate
      2nd Place - $75 gift certificate
      3rd Place - $50 gift certificate

Categories, prizes and details for the Santa Fe and online contests will be announced soon.

For full contest details, rules and entry form, please download the PDF document below.

  Download the Albuquerque contest details and entry form (PDF)

Please return completed applications for the Albuquerque contest in person, at our Albuquerque store.

  Download the Santa Fe contest details and entry form (PDF)

Santa Fe contest applications will be accepted in person beginning October 11th.
Please return completed applications for the Santa Fe contest in person, at our Santa Fe store.

Online contest entries will be accepted beginning October 1st.
[Online contest details and online entry form coming soon&91;

Expanded and Revised Edition is Now in Stock

James R. Mitchell's updated edition of Gem Trails of New Mexico is now available.

Some of the new book's features:

• 118 sites, including 25 completely new sites
• Each site lists GPS coordinates, what minerals may be found, road condition (4WD required, etc.), tools needed for collecting, driving directions and map
• 8 color pages of mineral specimens
• Contains a brief overview of New Mexico geology and mining history
• Appendices list local rock and mineral clubs in New Mexico, mineral museums, locations of geological interest

Price: $14.95

Get your copy today!

Planning your summer rockhounding adventure?

Bone up now on rockhounding sites, tips and techniques. Save 10% on our selection of other books in the Gem Trails series, covering states including Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon and more.

Save now on Rock Hammers, Picks and Chisels

Shop our selection of Estwing Rock Hammers, Picks and Chisels and save 10%.

Safety Note: Be sure to always wear eye protection when using these tools!

Save 10% on all Garret Gold Pans and Panning Equipment

For a limited time, save 10% on our entire stock of gold pans and gold panning equipment, including the Gold Miner Spiral Gold Panning Machine.

The major eruption of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano on April 14th made newspaper headlines and lead stories on television around the world. It has also created havoc in Europe, where airline traffic has been largely halted because of the threat posed to commercial aircraft by the immense ash cloud.

In point of fact, however, the volcano has actually been erupting for several weeks now, and local Icelanders have been flocking to the site to document the eruption. Here's some pretty spectacular photos we've found online:

Eyjafjallajökull volcano's ash plume generates some spectalular displays of lightning. Photo by hellboyjaa.

Albert Jakobsson captured this stunning image of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano with the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

A more distant shot of the volcano with the full moon casting a silvery glow, and illustrating the impressive height of the volcanic plume. Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

The volcano drew a crowd of local visitors, and has generated a burst of tourism to Iceland. Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

Photo by Albert Jakobsson.

The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured an Ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano over the North Atlantic at 11:35 UTC (7:35 a.m. EDT) on April 15, 2010. This image extends from Iceland (on the left) to the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland.
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team

False-color short-wavelength infrared image of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano from data obtained by NASA's EO-1 Hyperion satellite on March 24, 2010.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/EO-1 Mission/GSFC/Ashley Davies

Recent investigations by a team of Yale University paleobiologists have revealed color pigmentation in the plumage of the oldest known feathered dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi, according to a report published in Science Magazine. (See also our previous article on Anchiornis huxleyi.) The discovery of coloration in dinosaurs is significant in its own right, but paleontologists say it may also shed new light on why feathers evolved in certain dinosaurs in the first place.

The work of Yale University paleobiologist Jakob Vinther and his colleagues follows up on the groundbreaking research of Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England. Both investigations have revealed microscopic pigmentation structures known as melanosomes in the fossilized feathers of A. huxleyi and, in the case of Benton's investigations, other dinosaur species.

Vinther and his team examined microscopic melanosome structures at 29 separate sites on a specimen of A. huxleyi unearthed last year in northeastern China. They looked at two types of feathers: small, simple feathers covering the creature’s body and skull, and the longer, more complex feathers on its forelimbs (proto-wings), legs and feet. Almost all of the feathers examined showed well-preserved remains of the pigment-bearing melanosomes.

The Yale University team compared the size, shape, arrangement and density  of melanosomes in each fossil feather with colored feathers of modern birds. This allowed them to develop a picture of the coloration of A. huxleyi's plumage. “Using those comparisons, we can reliably predict (the creature’s) color and map the whole animal,” said Vinther.

The color schematic reveals that A. huxleyi had grey and black feathers on its body; the long feathers on the front and side of its crest were grey, and the feathers on the top and back of its head were reddish-brown. A. huxleyi's head and neck featured reddish-brown spots, and its legs and winglike forelimbs had prominent white stripes.

The University of Bristol's Michael Benton says the Yale team's findings “reveal an enormous array of information.” He notes that the black-and-white bars on A. huxleyi’s proto-wings, as well as its colorful crest, are similar to coloration features in modern birds. More significantly, understanding when color developed in feathers or filament structures may aid in solving the question of why these structures evolved to begin with, says Benton. For example, he notes that A. huxleyi’s feathered proto-wings weren’t large enough to actually carry the creature’s weight in flight. “What’s the function of half a wing?” he asks.

Paleontologists have suggested that because feathers appear in the fossil record long before flight-capable birds, feathers may have initially had a behavioral function, possibly for sending visual signals, and only later were used for flight. Vinther and his colleagues speculate along similar lines, suggesting that in addition to communicating with members of its own species -- for instance, in ritual mating behaviors and for driving off rival suitors -- their boldy colored plumage could have been used for startling an attacking predator or to flush their prey out of hiding.

This visual communication component seems to be borne out by looking at the morphology of dinosaurs, specifically the prevalence of very large eyes and sizable optic lobes in their brains. Says Philip J. Currie, a paleontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, “Ancient creatures didn’t just sprout feathers and start flying. The feathers were there for another reason first... Dinosaurs were very visual animals, just like birds are.”

For more information or to sign up for a class, please call us at 505-266-8443. Parents and kids, note our newly added classes for kids!

Celebrate Your Birthday with Mama's Minerals

Make your reservation today; call us at (505) 266-8443 or email us.

Birthday Package Includes:

• Personal Birthday Party Host
• Birthday activity of your choice
• Birthday cake and drink provided
• Invitations for your friends to join you on your special day
• Each invitation includes a 10% off coupon to use for future store purchases
• Special gift for the Birthday Child contains an assortment of Mother Earth’s treasures, and is personalized for each child.

Cost:

• $225 - up to 10 birthday party guests
• $15 for each additional child (15 children maximum)
• Bring your own cake and deduct $15 from the total cost.

At least two adults must be present.

Duration of the party is approximately 1.5 hours.

Choose from the following activities:

Fossils of the small-sized carnivore (about the size of a Great Dane), including a complete skeleton of a juvenile Tawa, were found at the world-renowned paleontological site at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico beginning in 2005. The Tawa featured feathers, a long neck and tail, and carnivore teeth and claws. It belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as theropods, which includes the Tyranosaurus Rex and Velociraptor.

The team of paleontologists studying the Tawa began developing their new insights into early carnivorous dinosaur evolution when they compared their find with a similar species discovered in Argentina in the 1960s, Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis. While Herrerasaurus featured some traits found in therapods – such as carnivore teeth and large claws – it was missing some other therapod features, such as the hollow areas in the neck vertebrae, which link the theropod to modern birds. These inconsistencies resulted in debates among paleontologists as to whether the Herrerasaurus was an early theropod or from an entirely separate evolutionary tree.

With the recent discovery of the Tawa, the team of paleontologists found that it shared a range of characteristics with both the Herrerasaurus and established therapod dinosaurs. Therefore, say the scientists, this demonstrates that the Herrerasaurus traits didn’t arise independently – as many paleontologists had thought – and that it is in fact, like the Tawa, an early theropod.

In turn, this has helped scientists to develop a clearer picture of the early diversification of dinosaurs across the Pangaea supercontinent, as well as showing that the characteristic bone structures of later therapods and modern birds were evolved much earlier than previously thought.

August 12-15, 2010
Contin-tail, The Rock Show at Buena Vista
See the web site for more information.

September 4-6, 2010
Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society Annual Show
Silver City, NM
See the web site for more information.

October 2-3, 2010
Chaparral Rockhounds Club Show
Roswell, NM
Chaparral Rockhounds presents an annual show held on the first weekend of October for the general public. Its purpose is to educate and inform the public about earth science and the world of geology. Members from Chaparral Rockhounds and surrounding clubs display a wide variety of the earth’s geological wonders. See a wide range of fossils, gems, rocks & minerals (some of which fluoresce in bright colors under ultraviolet light). Typically, the show has 4-6 dealers, a silent auction, wheel of fortune, over 100 exhibits, and field trips for the famous Pecos Valley diamonds and quartz clusters. In addition, members attend and exhibit at several other club shows in the region.
See the web site for more information.

October 8-10, 2010
Greater Detroit Gem, Mineral, Fossil & Jewelry Show
See the web site for more information.

October 16-17, 2010
Sedona Gem and Mineral Show
Free Admission
See the web site for more information.

October 23-24, 2010
38th Annual Rochester Gem, Mineral, Jewelry & Fossil Show
See the web site for more information.

November 13-14, 2010
31st Annual New Mexico Mineral Symposium
and 2nd Annual Mining Artifact Collectors Association Symposium
Socorro, NM
The New Mexico Mineral Symposium provides a forum for both professionals and amateurs interested in mineralogy. The meeting allows all to share their cumulative knowledge of mineral and artifact occurences, and provides stimulus for research and new discoveries.
Macey Center - New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Registration: $30 for general public, $25 for seniors over 55, $15 for students with ID.
See the web site for more information.

Upcoming 2011 Shows

Santa Fe Bead Fest 2011 (Date TBA)
See the web site for more information.

January 7-9, 2011
39th Flagg Gem and Mineral Show
Mesa, AZ
See the web site for more information.

April 2011 (Exact date TBA)
"Treasures of the Earth" 41st annual show
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sponsored by Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club. More than 40 dealers. Displays, door prizes, kids' booth, silent auctions, faceting demonstrations, gold panning, gem setting, free mineral/gem identification.
Creative Arts Center, New Mexico State Fairgrounds (Expo NM), San Pedro entrance, across the street from the Lujan Building
Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Adults: $1 on Friday, $3 on Saturday and Sunday
Children under 13 free
Contact: Paul Hlava, (505) 255-5478 -- e-mail: hpf5@qwest.net

May, 2011 (Exact date TBA)
21st Maine Mineral Symposium
See the web site for more information.