An acclaimed international collection of earth science articles and book reviews on palaeontology, geology, minerals and more
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fourth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Ordovician. Among the diverse and often bizarre echinoderms that flourished during this period, Echinosphaerites aurantium is one of the most distinctive. A rhombiferan cystoid with a rounded, grapefruit-like body, it embodies the experimental … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) A small museum with a remarkable geological story Tucked away behind the parish church in the centre of Cromer, Cromer Museum occupies a modest site that visitors could easily overlook. Entering through a modern reception building, the museum opens into a narrow courtyard surrounded by a terrace … Read More
Every coal seam in the West Cumberland Coalfield district records the accumulation of peat in a mature lycopsid swamp. But just as revealing as the coal itself is what lies immediately above it – the roof shales. These fine-grained sediments record the moment when the forest drowned, the swamp surface subsided or flooded, and a new ecological phase unfolded above the buried peat. In the West Cumberland Coalfield, roof shales are exceptionally well developed and preserve a full sequence of the events that followed each catastrophic rise in water level.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the third in my series of short articles on fossils of the Ordovician. Although the famous Pterygotus of Silurian and Devonian fame had not yet reached their iconic size in the Ordovician, their ancestors were already present in the marine ecosystems of the period. These … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) Rising above the hills near the town of Blaenavon is the distinctive headgear of Big Pit, one of the most recognisable symbols of the South Wales Coalfield (Fig. 1). Today, the site forms part of the National Coal Museum of Wales, but for nearly a century it … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the second in my series of short articles on fossils of the Ordovician. Among the many colonial organisms that chart the course of Ordovician seas, Didymograptus murchisoni remains one of the most recognisable. A key graptolite of the Middle Ordovician, it combines elegant morphology with … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the first in my series of short articles on fossils of the Ordovician. Among the many graptolites recovered from the classic Dob’s Linn section of the Southern Uplands, Climacograptus wilsoni is one of the most elegant. Its slim, saw-toothed profile captures a phase in graptolite … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) Keswick Museum is not a geology museum in any conventional sense. There are no long stratigraphic runs of specimens, no systematic mineral displays, and no attempt to present geology as a complete discipline. Instead, visitors encounter a typically Victorian mixture of natural history, literature, local industry and … 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
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the twentieth and last in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Yunnanozoon lividum, from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota of southwest China of about 518 million years old, is one of the most intriguing fossils in the long search for the … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) Beneath Dudley Castle lies a landscape that began as a tropical Silurian sea and ended as one of the most intensively worked limestone systems in Britain. Around 425 million years ago, this part of the Midlands lay beneath a warm, shallow sea, building the reef limestone now … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the eighteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Waptia fieldensis is one of the most beautifully preserved and behaviourally informative animals from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Living around 508 million years ago, it represents an early and unexpectedly sophisticated … 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) This is the seventeenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Vetulicola cuneata is one of the most enigmatic animals from the Early Cambrian, known from the celebrated Chengjiang biota of China. Living around 518 million years ago, it represents a body plan … Read More
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
The most visually arresting fossils from the West Cumberland Coalfield, indeed from almost any British Carboniferous site, are the great patterned slabs of lycopsid bark that, if you are lucky, can sometimes be found. Their surfaces carry unmistakable geometric signatures: the diamond-shaped leaf cushions of Lepidodendron or the vertical rows of elongated scars typical of Sigillaria.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fifteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the many extraordinary organisms preserved in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Pikaia gracilens stands out not for its strangeness but for its quiet familiarity. Living around 508 million years ago, this … 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.
Hans-Henrik Meyer (Denmark) This article was written in 2011. While some of it is clearly out of date, hopefully it is still relerant for those wishing to visit the museum. The Möns Klint GeoCenter continually strives to improve the understanding of life in the Chalk Sea of 70 million years … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fourteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Few Cambrian animals have captured the public imagination and baffled palaeontologists quite like Opabinia regalis, an extraordinary creature from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. With its five eyes, backwards-facing mouth, and a … Read More
A few slabs of black shale from a South Wales spoil tip may look unremarkable at first glance, but with the right approach, they can reveal the structure of a 310-million-year-old coal-swamp forest. By combining plant fossils with sedimentary clues, collectors can reconstruct the ecosystem that once grew above the coal seams.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the thirteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Olenoides serratus is one of the most recognisable members of the Burgess Shale fauna – a trilobite that, unlike so many of its soft-bodied neighbours, still looks reassuringly like a trilobite. Yet … Read More
This article explores a single landscape – Aberdare – through three interlocking layers: the Carboniferous forests that formed the coal, the industrial system that extracted it, and the lives lived within that system. Each survives only in fragments: fossils weathering from shale, objects preserved in family memory, and traces embedded in the modern landscape. Taken together, these fragments allow the reconstruction of a place in which deep time, industry and lived experience are inseparable.
The fossils described in this series formed during the Carboniferous Period, around 320 million years ago, when Britain lay close to the Equator. The above figure places the Carboniferous within Britain’s wider geological history. During this interval, extensive tropical wetlands covered much of the country, producing the peat deposits that would later become the coal seams of the West Cumberland Coalfield. This series explores one remarkable record of that vanished landscape.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the eleventh in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Nectocaris pteryx is one of the most perplexing and remarkable animals of the Cambrian, a soft-bodied swimmer from the Burgess Shale, whose anatomy has challenged, confounded and intrigued palaeontologists for decades. Living … Read More
Dennis C Nieweg (The Netherlands) and Dick Mol (The Netherlands) In April 2012, the exhibition Zeemonsters in Twente, opened its doors in Museum TwentseWelle in Enschede, The Netherlands (Fig. 2). The exhibition (held until the 28 October) told the story of the Triassic marine reptiles (Sauropterygians) found in the Dutch … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the tenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the richly preserved fossils of the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota, Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa stands as one of the most revealing. Discovered alongside Haikouichthys, and dating to around 518 million years ago, this … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the ninth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Microdictyon sinicum is one of the most distinctive and intriguing creatures of the Early Cambrian, known primarily from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. Dating to around 518 million years ago, it … Read More
Modern Britain lies far from active plate boundaries. It has no active volcanoes and experiences only minor earthquakes, and is often described as tectonically quiet. Yet its landscape is anything but passive. Hills and lowlands, coastlines and drainage patterns all reflect a deep structural inheritance established during earlier phases of continental collision, collapse and rifting.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the eighth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Marrella splendens is one of the most recognisable and abundant animals from the Burgess Shale, offering an invaluable window into the complexity of Cambrian ecosystems. Often nicknamed “the lace crab” by early … Read More
