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Paleontology & Fossil

A design system preserved in stone

01 / Color Palette

Color Palette

Drawn from sandstone quarries, amber deposits, fossilized bone, and the layered strata of deep geological time.

Sandstone & Earth

Sandstone Light#f5ebe0
Sandstone#e6d5b8
Ochre#cc8a3e
Sienna#a0522d
Raw Umber#5c4033

Bone & Fossil

Bone White#f0ead6
Bone#e0d8c0
Bone Aged#c8bc9e
Fossil Grey#9e9687
Fossil Dark#6e665a

Amber

Amber Light#f5c842
Amber#e8a317
Amber Dark#c07f00
Amber Deep#8b5e00

Sediment Layers

Chalk#ece5d5
Limestone#d4c9a8
Clay#b5906a
Shale#8a8278
Slate#5a5550
02 / Typography

Typography

Museum-grade serif for display, scholarly body text, and typewriter field notes for labels and specimen data.

Display / Libre Baskerville 700
Traces in Stone
2.4rem / 700 / 1.2 leading
Heading / Libre Baskerville 700
The Burgess Shale Formation
1.5rem / 700 / 1.3 leading
Body / Crimson Pro 400

The fossil record represents an incomplete but invaluable archive of life's history on Earth. Each specimen is a window into ancient ecosystems, preserved by the slow work of mineralization across millions of years. Paleontologists read these stone pages to reconstruct the forms and behaviors of organisms long vanished from the living world.

1rem / 400 / 1.7 leading
Field Notes / Special Elite

Site B-7, Grid Square 14. Partial femur exposed at 2.3m depth. Matrix: fine-grained sandstone with iron oxide staining. Orientation NW-SE. Photographed in situ before extraction.

0.85rem / 400 / 1.6 leading
Caption / Crimson Pro 300 Italic

Fig. 12 — Articulated vertebral column of Diplodocus longus, Morrison Formation, Late Jurassic. Carnegie Museum specimen CM 84.

0.78rem / 300 italic / 1.5 leading
Heading Scale
  • H1

    Geological Survey

  • H2

    Excavation Report

  • H3

    Specimen Analysis

  • H4

    Formation Data

  • H5
    Field Notes
  • H6
    Catalog Number
03 / Spacing

Spacing

Measured in consistent increments, like the careful gridwork of an excavation site. Each layer matters.

xs
4px
sm
8px
md
16px
lg
32px
xl
48px
2xl
64px
3xl
96px
04 / Buttons

Buttons

Actions styled with the authority of museum placards and the warmth of amber resin.

Variants

Sizes

States

05 / Forms

Forms

Specimen catalog entry fields, designed for careful documentation of each discovery.

Specimen Registration
Include matrix type, preservation quality, and any associated fauna.
06 / Cards

Specimen Cards

Display cases for content, from museum specimen labels to amber-preserved highlights.

Cretaceous
Baltic Amber Inclusion
Hymenoptera sp.

A remarkably preserved wasp trapped in Baltic amber approximately 44 million years ago, with visible wing venation and compound eye structure.

Eocene Kaliningrad, Russia
Jurassic
Sauropod Femur
Brachiosaurus altithorax

Right femur measuring 2.04 meters in length, excavated from the Morrison Formation. Exhibits excellent permineralization with visible trabecular structure.

Late Jurassic Colorado, USA
Cambrian
Burgess Shale Arthropod
Anomalocaris canadensis

Complete body impression showing frontal appendages, circular mouth, and lateral lobes. One of the Cambrian period's apex predators.

Middle Cambrian British Columbia

Museum Label Card

Archaeopteryx lithographica
Late Jurassic, ~150 Ma
The earliest known bird, first described in 1861 from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria. Exhibits a mosaic of avian and reptilian features including feathered wings, clawed fingers, and a bony tail.
Trilobite Assemblage
Ordovician, ~470 Ma
Twelve articulated specimens of Isotelus maximus in association, suggesting gregarious behavior or mass mortality event. Enrolled and outstretched postures both represented.

Amber Highlight Card

Preserved in Amber

Some of the most spectacular fossils are organisms trapped in ancient tree resin. Amber preserves soft tissue, DNA fragments, and even behavioral moments frozen in time — an insect mid-flight, a spider spinning silk, a flower in bloom. These golden windows into the deep past offer detail that no other preservation method can match.

07 / Alerts

Alerts & Notices

Field notices, discovery announcements, and excavation warnings.

Identification Note This specimen has been tentatively assigned to the genus Deinonychus pending CT scan analysis of the pedal ungual. Revised classification may follow.
Discovery Confirmed Isotopic dating confirms a Late Cretaceous age (68.2 +/- 0.3 Ma) for the newly excavated ceratopsian material from Site C-12.
Excavation Caution Fragile matrix detected in Grid 7-B. Switch to pneumatic preparation tools and reduce air pressure to 15 PSI to avoid damaging delicate cranial elements.
Site Hazard Unstable overburden at the western cliff face. All personnel must evacuate the lower excavation trench until the geological survey team clears the area.
08 / Geological Time Scale

Geological Time Scale

The deep chronology of Earth, rendered as layered strata. Each era a chapter in the story of life.

Precambrian
Stromatolites, earliest single-celled life, Ediacaran biota4,600 – 541 Ma
Paleozoic
Cambrian explosion, trilobites, first land plants, Permian extinction541 – 252 Ma
Mesozoic
Age of dinosaurs, first mammals, flowering plants, K-Pg extinction252 – 66 Ma
Cenozoic
Rise of mammals, grasslands, hominid evolution, ice ages66 Ma – present
10 / Data Tables

Data Tables

Structured specimen data, rendered with the precision of a museum catalog.

Catalog No. Taxon Formation Period Element
AMNH 5027 Tyrannosaurus rex Hell Creek Late Cretaceous Partial skull
CM 11338 Diplodocus carnegii Morrison Late Jurassic Complete skeleton
ROM 1218 Parasaurolophus walkeri Dinosaur Park Late Cretaceous Skull with crest
FMNH PR 2081 Tyrannosaurus rex Hell Creek Late Cretaceous Complete skeleton
YPM 1800 Stegosaurus ungulatus Morrison Late Jurassic Partial postcranium
11 / Design Principles

Design Principles

The philosophy beneath the surface, like the layers beneath the dig site.

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Stratification

Information is layered with intention. Context builds from background to foreground, from broad era to specific specimen, just as sediment tells its story through accumulation.

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Careful Revelation

Details emerge through patient attention. Typography, spacing, and color guide the eye gradually, rewarding close observation the way a fossil rewards the brush.

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Precise Labeling

Every element is documented and cataloged. Museum-grade labels, consistent nomenclature, and structured metadata ensure nothing is lost to time.

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Deep Time

The palette and textures evoke geological spans. Warm earth tones ground the viewer in the physical reality of rock, bone, and amber that outlasts civilizations.