Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is among the world’s leading academic institutions and natural science is one of its most celebrated programs. Since its founding in the seventeenth century, the university has been a repository […]
Deposits Magazine
The Magazine on Fossils, Geology & Minerals. Deposits is both a printed and online magazine featuring articles by high profile authors.
The Other Mass Extinctions
The extinctions at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary make up what is probably the most famous geological event in popular culture. This is the point when the great reptiles that characterise the Mesozoic went extinct. Alongside […]
Giant trilobites and biotite nodules in Portugal
The generally accepted reason for the fame of Arouca is Princess Mafalda, born 1195, who was responsible for the convent becoming Cistercian. Here is an interesting story – she was beatified in 1793. However, I […]
A new museum in Northern Greece: the Siatista Historical Paleontological Collection, the first record of a stegodon in Europe and the making of the straight-tusked elephant.
The Historical Palaeontological Collection of Siatista (HPCS), housed in a school building in Siatista, Kozani, Macedonia in Greece, was studied by the authors during the summer of 2009. The collection was assembled by local people […]
A new look for Utahraptor
One hundred and twenty eight million years ago, a killer stalked eastern Utah. Known as Utahraptor, this distant relative of Velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame was also equipped with a sickle-claw on its hind feet. […]
Fossil of hairy, squirrel-sized creature sheds light on evolution of earliest mammals
It appears that a 165myr-old omnivore may have had an armadillo-like gait. A newly discovered fossil has revealed the evolutionary adaptations of a 165myr-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur originated […]
John Hesketh and the finding of the ‘Aveley Elephants’
These days, there is little doubt that amateurs can influence science. This is commonly encountered in astronomy, with the regular discovery of comets and asteroids by amateurs. On the other hand, with some noteworthy exceptions, […]
The geology and fauna of the South Ferriby foreshore
The large working quarry at South Ferriby, North Lincolnshire (SE991204) is a well known and productive source of Late Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils, exposing beds from the Upper Oxfordian stage, Upper Jurassic (Ampthill clay, Ringsteadia […]
The West Coast Fossil Park, Western Cape, South Africa
While planning a touring holiday, which encompassed part of the west coast of South Africa, I spotted the words “fossil park” on the map, about 150km north of Cape Town, some distance from a village […]
The first description of dinosaur fossils by Al-Andalusī in the twelfth century
Western sources refer to a few scholars who were the pioneers in describing huge fossilised animals that are now known to be the remains of the long extinct dinosaurs. Around 1677, the British scholar, Robert […]
On fossil beaked whales, phosphorites and ocean floors
In 2007, the vessel Anita was fishing with bottom gillnets in about 400m-deep waters northwest of the island of Mykines in the Faroe Islands (about 62˚05’N-09˚28’W). One day, fisherman Bjarni Jacobsen from the village of […]
Miocene, mud and more: Miste 2013
‘Miste’… This word has an almost magical meaning for many fossil collectors in The Netherlands and neighbouring countries. That is because the extremely fossiliferous Miste Bed lies close to the surface around the municipality of […]
A dinosaur track investigation
My “Fossil Grandpa” took me to visit this neat site when I was in Texas last summer (2013). We drove to a small rural community, where it seemed there wasn’t anything to find. However, my […]
Encountering desert deposits in Oman
Oman is a geologically fascinating country, where the bedrock beautifully exposes a one-billion-year history. I had the opportunity to explore this country in a group expedition, during which we pursued our own scientific studies from […]
A warming medieval climate supports a revolution in agriculture
In the light of our current worries about climate change and global warming, this is the first a series of articles for Deposits that will cover significant climate changes that have occurred in the geological […]
Sand
As long as I can remember, I have collected interesting bits of rock, looking at their shapes and colours, and wondering what they were. This was fine as long as I had a garden shed […]
Emeralds from the Hohe Tauern (Austria): a precious stone with a long history
The mineral, emerald, represents the green variety of the hexagonal silicate mineral beryl, which has the chemical formula Be3Al2Si6O18. Its colour may be interpreted as the result of the addition of vanadium and chromium ions […]
The geology of islands
Islands are attractive places to visit, not just for geologists. Nonetheless, for us, they provide three advantages that favour collecting and research in the Earth Sciences. One of the attractions of an island is its […]
The abundant yet understudied fossil record of ghost shrimps
“Ghost shrimp” usually refers to decapod crustacean species from the family Callianassidae and Ctenochelidae, although sometimes the term is also used for other crustacean groups, such as caprelloid amphipods or, mostly in aquarium trading, for […]
Nebraska, USA: wonderful fossils, natural history museums and public art depicting fossils
Nebraska is known by vertebrate palaeontologists as the place in North America where there is a very complete Cenozoic geologic record of mammalian evolution over the last thirty-five million years or so. All you have […]
Erratic rocks in fields and on beaches of the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a marvellous place for the geologist on holiday, but there must be a suspicion that it has all been done before. When I first visited the island in 1999, my […]
Khajuraho stone temples of India
Khajuraho, in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India, was the cultural capital of the Chandela rulers of the tenth century and, even today, is a place that pays homage to artistic talent. There was […]
The histology of a sauropod rib bone found in the Wessex formation, Hanover point, Isle of Wight.
In September 2015, I went to Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight to hunt for dinosaur bones. It was equinox tides all week, so an ideal time to get out on the furthest rocks […]
Twilight of the Mammoths
Perched upon a grassy hill ancient hunters prepare to make a kill… Blaring trumpets shatter the air Terrified voices echo despair Hurtling towards their own demise A chance at life, their fate denies. The blood […]
The geology and landscape of Levisham and Newtondale, Yorkshire: an overview
This article is about the geology and geomorphology of the Levisham Bottoms and Newtondale area of Yorkshire. This is an interesting strip of virtually level land, which forms a shelf at about 150m above sea […]
Features in the field: ignimbrites of the Yr Arddu syncline (Caradoc, Upper Ordovician)
In July 1979, I was one of more than 20 undergraduate students at the Department of Geology, University of Manchester, to undertake their final year mapping project in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. […]
Exploding star missing from formation of solar system
A new study, published by University of Chicago researchers challenges, the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system. In this study, published online in Earth and Planetary […]
An unusual association of a Recent oyster and a slipper limpet
My young son and I both have a taste for oysters, and have a favourite restaurant in which we like to eat them. It is in the Spui district of Amsterdam, which is also an […]
A Ute arrow straightener made of Jurassic dinosaur bone
I am currently studying an arrow straightening tool left behind by the Ute Indians of the Northern Colorado Plateau long ago. The artefact is made of an unusual material – a Jurassic dinosaur bone. As […]
A short introduction to trilobites
Many people interested in palaeontology and collecting fossils have either found fragments of trilobites in the field or marvelled at fossil examples of these animals displayed in museums around the world. Although they are essential […]
