Tag: teeth

england fossils palaeontology

Collecting sharks’ teeth at Herne Bay, Kent

Les Lanham (UK) Just to the east of Herne Bay in Kent, on the way to Reculver at Beltinge, there is a small area on the foreshore where fossils of shark and other fish remains can be found on a good low tide. As this is a beach location, success will depend on good, local conditions but, if favourable, a good number of fossil teeth can be found. In fact, Beltinge is one of the best areas in Britain to collect such teeth and it is not unusual to find 20 to 30 persons on the beach on very low tides. Even so, everybody there could end up with a good haul of material by the end of the day. Fig. 1. Four keen geological groups meet for the annual extreme low tide event. I have set out directions at the end of this article detailing where to start your day. From this starting point, go as far out as the tide will let you and shark teeth can be found. Indeed, the chances of finding teeth improve the further out the tide goes. Broadly speaking, the collecting area is in the section of beach between the groynes either side of the concrete steps. Here, when the tide has gone out quite a distance, there appears to be a “stream” running out to sea. This is the junction between the clay beds to the west and the shingle to the east. Fig. 2. Thanet Beds exposed east of Herne Bay. … Read More

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fossils museums, societies north america palaeontology

Important Green River Formation fossils come to New York

Stuart Wilensky and Douglas Miller (USA) In the early Eocene Epoch, drainage from the newly uplifted Rocky Mountains filled an inter-mountain basin to form what geologists call Fossil Lake. The climate of Fossil Lake was subtropical, similar to the climate of Florida today. The lake persisted for about two million years, and was home to palm trees, turtles, birds and an abundance of fish. On numerous occasions, unique conditions came together to result in some of the best-preserved fossils ever discovered. The sediments of Fossil Lake were first discovered in the 1860s, near the town of Green River Wyoming, and the area was named the “Green River Formation,” which is well-known in the scientific community and by amateur collectors. Palaeontologists have long theorised that the lake was deep enough to be anoxic (devoid of oxygen) at the bottom. This prevented scavengers from disturbing the plants and animals, and inhibited decomposition. Algae, and other plant and animal life, would die and fall to the bottom as in lakes and ponds today. Storms brought runoff from the mountains, covering the flora and fauna with mineral-rich material that would ensure their preservation. Recently, scientists have asserted that a kind of “red tide” may have been responsible for the many perfectly preserved fossils found. (“Red tide” is a common name for algal blooms, which are large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms, such as protozoans and unicellular algae. These can cause a severe decrease oxygen levels in the water column, leading to mass mortality events.) We … Read More

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dinosaurs england fossils palaeontology

Daily lives of fossil reptiles

Robert Coram (UK) The Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits of Southern England have long been a rich source of fossil reptiles. Past finds of great historical importance include some of the earliest known examples of dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs and pterosaurs. Fossil material, including new species, continues to be revealed, mainly at rapidly eroding coastal sites. All these reptiles would have been active participants in their local ecosystems, whether on land or in the sea. Much information about the roles they played and their interactions with other organisms can be gleaned from their skeletal anatomy and from comparison with living relatives such as crocodiles. What this article is concerned with, however, is evidence of specific incidents in the lives, and deaths, of individual reptiles; tiny snapshots of opportunities, mishaps and the daily drudge of staying alive. These add more detail and colour to our knowledge of the lifestyles of these long-vanished animals. This evidence will be provided by four selected terrestrial and marine deposits from southern England, spanning the last quarter of a billion years of Earth history (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Geological map showing locations of deposits discussed in the text. (1) Triassic Otter Sandstone of South Devon; (2) Jurassic Lower Lias of the Somerset (a) and Dorset (b) coasts; (3) Cretaceous Wealden beds of the Isle of Wight (IOW on map); and (4) Paleogene Hamstead beds of the Isle of Wight. Trace fossils in a desert world – the Triassic Otter Sandstone Rocks dating from the Triassic period, laid down between … Read More

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fossils geology minerals palaeontology

Trouble with pyrite

 Fred Clouter (UK) On Wednesday, 26 April 1882, the Queenborough Chemical and Copperas Works were auctioned off, heralding the demise of the copperas industry on the Isle of Sheppey. Green copperas was used to make sulphuric acid or vitriol, chemical manures and dye stuffs. Being in Queenborough Castle in the year 1579 I found there one Mathias Falconer, A Brabander, who did in a furnace that he had erected there, trie to drawe very goode brimstone and copperas oute of a certain stone that is gathered in great plenty upon the shoure near untoe Minster on the isle”. This extract is from ‘Lambard’s Perambulations of Kent’ and is probably the earliest known reference to a ‘chemical’ factory in Britain. Fig 1. Poster advertising the sale of Queenborough Chemical and Copperas Company. The first reference that I have that links copperas with the collection of fossils is found in the ‘Life and letters of Edward Lhwyd (second Keeper of the MUSEUM ASHMOLEANUM) Oxford March 28th. 1695’. Below is an excerpt from ‘A Museum of the Early seventeenth Century’ By Cyril Edward Nowill Bromhead, BA, FGS, FRGS. (Read 18Th. June, 1947) referring to the Lhwyd letter: If you could setle a correspondent in the Isle of Shepey to save us all the Crampstones the copras-women pick up for a month or two, I would now fall about a Lithologia Britannica: and so contrive it that the first tome shall consist of onely teeth and bones of fish.” (Sharks’ teeth were called ‘cramp … Read More

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fossils historical / biographies palaeontology urban, art, anthropology

Fossil folklore: Fish

Paul D Taylor and Mike Smith (UK) Fish are the most diverse animals with backbones – that is, vertebrates – living today. Bone and teeth of fishes abound in the fossil record, from the armour-plated, primitive fishes of the Devonian, through the cartilaginous sharks with their shiny dagger-like teeth, to the bones of advanced ray-finned teleosts related to modern carp and cod. Along with other marine fossils, fossil fishes were once used as ‘proof’ of the biblical deluge, for example, the fabulous Cretaceous fossil fish deposits of Lebanon. Gayet et al. (2012) recorded that, in the third century, the Bishop of Palestine wrote: That Noah’s Flood covered the highest mountains is for me the truth, and I say that the witness of my eyes confirms it: for I have seen certain fishes, which were found in my lifetime on the highest peaks in Lebanon. They took stones from there for construction, and discovered many kinds of sea fishes which were held together in the quarry with mud, and as if pickled in brine were preserved until our times, so that the mere sight of them should testify to the truth of Noah’s Flood”. Petrified nails Hugh Miller, in his book Foot-prints of the Creator (Miller, 1849), mentioned that amateur geologists of Caithness and Orkney would refer to one particular fossil in the Old Red Sandstone, presumably relatively common, as ‘petrified nails’ (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. A so-called ‘petrified nail’, about 150mm long, as depicted by Hugh Miller. These fossils represent … Read More

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