An acclaimed international collection of earth science articles and book reviews on palaeontology, geology, minerals and more
Jon Trevelyan (UK) A museum like no other This is the first part of a two-part article on the Natural History Museum in London. And there are few museums whose buildings announce their ambitions quite as emphatically as this museum does. Approaching from Cromwell Road, Alfred Waterhouse’s great Romanesque building … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) Maidstone Museum and an unexpectedly substantial geology gallery Maidstone Museum is not primarily a geological museum. Its collections range across archaeology, natural history, fine and decorative art, costume, ethnography, and local history, with more than 600,000 objects in its care. Yet, tucked away on the first floor … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) There can be few places in Britain better suited to a geological field guide than the Isle of Wight. Its relatively small area contains an extraordinary range of rocks and fossils, while its eroding cliffs and beaches have produced discoveries ranging from ammonites and molluscs to plants, … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) A geological museum in the heart of the Black Country Dudley is one of those places where geology is difficult to separate from almost everything that followed. The rocks beneath the town and the surrounding Black Country provided coal, ironstone, limestone and fireclay; their exploitation transformed the … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) A museum built on fossils Hastings is usually associated with history rather than prehistory. Its name is inseparable from 1066, while its fishing beach, old town and cliffs are familiar features of the modern resort. Yet the rocks beneath and around the town preserve evidence of a … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) A museum unlike any other Perched above Scarborough’s South Bay, the Rotunda Museum occupies a unique place in the history of geology (Fig. 1). Opened in 1829, it is one of the world’s earliest purpose-built geological museums and remains one of Britain’s most historically significant centres for … Read More
Jack Shimon (USA) I recently went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This was my first member’s night and I want to go to them every time now.My mom and I went to see Dr Scott Sampson talk about a dinosaur. He is the new chief curator and … Read More
With the restoration of the Crystal Palace prehistoric sculptures and their remarkable Geological Court now virtually complete, it is perhaps worth asking why this unique Victorian landscape continues to command such scientific and historical importance. Why should geologists, palaeontologists and members of the public still make the journey to south London to see reconstructions that are now more than 170 years old and, in many respects, scientifically outdated?
Jon Trevelyan (UK) The Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie Comparée, part of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, is located in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Established in 1898, the gallery showcases an extensive collection of fossils and anatomical specimens, offering insights into the evolution of life on Earth. The … Read More
“Never judge a fossil by its surface.” Although not stated quite so succinctly, this is the central message running through Beneath the Stone. Jean-Claude Le Van An demonstrates that a fossil’s outward appearance often tells only part of the story. Hidden beneath the surrounding rock may be exquisite anatomical detail, evidence of ancient life never visible to the naked eye – or, occasionally – proof that an apparently spectacular specimen is not what it seems.
At first glance, What Did Dinosaurs Think About? looks like a slightly mischievous title attached to a familiar subject. Dinosaurs, after all, have been thought about endlessly; whether they themselves did much thinking is another matter. Ronan Le Loeuff’s book makes no claim to settle that question definitively, but it does something arguably more interesting – it asks what sort of sensory world dinosaurs inhabited, and how that might have shaped their behaviour.
Kurt Lahmers (USA) A closer look at a dinosaur bone found in the Garden Park area of Cañon City, Colorado (USA) shows some interesting details on the end of the bone. The holes in the dinosaur bone shownin Fig. 1 used to be tube-like structures called Haversian canals. These are … Read More
There are few books (and indeed writers) that have managed to bring fossils, fieldwork anecdotes, scientific rigour and humour together as effortlessly as The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs, Dean R Lomax’s newest offering (with art word by Bob Nicholls). It is more than just a compendium of strange fossils – it’s an invitation to look behind the display cases, to the lives of creatures long vanished (and not just dinosaurs as the title suggests).
Zachary Sepulveda (USA) The subject matter of this short article is a rare, agatised snail fossil from the Jurassic Period, which was found in the Morrison Formation, and a dinosaur bone of an unknown species from the same layers. Both specimens are from Colorado. The Morrison Formation is a sequence … Read More
WAJ Rutter (UK) On 2 June 2011, a large slab of faunal tracks was found in Scalby Bay, north of Scarborough (Fig. 1). These footprints were immediately recognised as not being dinosaur footprints due to the size, shape and distribution of the tracks. They were in a fallen block, which … Read More
Vivi Vajda (Sweden) In a valley in the Andes, at 2,500m above sea level, is Bolivia’s third largest city – Cochabamba. The town is beautifully surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks of which the highest is Tunari at 5,088m. For a palaeontologist, the town is an excellent base camp, as it … Read More
I reviewed Paul Taylor’s book, A History of Life in 1000 Fossils, a while ago and really enjoyed it and its format. And I should note that Paul is a long-time contributor to Deposits, in part due to his ability to write great English to explain palaeontology to amateurs and experts alike.
Dean Lomax (UK) Dr Dean Lomax is now well known from his books, television appearances and especially for his work on marine reptiles. However, before all this, he wrote this article for Issue 21 of Deposits. After returning from a long summer working in the USA at the Wyoming Dinosaur … Read More
Neale Monks (UK) Not many palaeontologists would go on a field trip to the Houses of Parliament in London, but if you do something similar in the state of Nebraska, you will be surprised to find a whole variety of prehistoric life, including dinosaurs (Fig. 1), ammonites and trilobites. The … Read More
John A Cooper (UK) The legacy of Gideon Mantell’s fossil collection, sold to the British Museum in 1833, would have been so much more significant to Brighton had he been successful in establishing a permanent Sussex scientific institute to house it. In his article, Gideon Mantel and the dinosaur relic, … Read More
Rob Hope (France) A break from work, and also from reading about the history of palaeontology, enabled me to get away for a while. And a chance visit to the south of England found me driving through the lovely Sussex town of Lewes. Held up by a red light, I … Read More
Megan Jacobs (UK) The history of geosciencein the UK is heavily dominated by men, with eminent figures such as Sir Richard Owen, Charles Lyell, William Buckland and Gideon Mantell famed for making many big advances in the early days of the science. However, in the background were powerful and intelligent … Read More
Peter J Perkins (UK) This article is for those who like a geological excuse for visiting places. There may well be quaint villages, wonderful scenery and unusual wildlife but, if there is some special geology, so much the better. La Rioja is one of the small regions of northern Spain. … Read More
Rob Hope (France) Ahh, fossil footprints… simultaneously tantalising, evocative and enigmatic! Trace fossils of footprints are known throughout the world, including in the Jura Mountains of both France and Switzerland. Recently, near the tiny French village of Coisia, about 30km north of Geneva, a large slice of rock has revealed … Read More
Deborah Painter (USA) Dinosaur fossils in the United States are mainly associated with the Mesozoic era age sedimentary rocks of the western states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. East of the Mississippi River, their fossils are scarcer, although they definitely exist. There is Mesozoic age surficial bedrock … Read More
Alison Cruickshanks (UK) In the final part of my article, I will look at locations on the Isle of Wight. Anyone who has visited the Isle of Wight will know that the island is famous for dinosaurs. Indeed, popular visitor attractions include the museums at Dinosaur Isle, Blackgang Chine (which … Read More
