h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Finding Fossils in Your Town - A707898
Author: Frogbit - U175610

Finding fossils in your town, believe it or not.

All such fossils should be left where found.

There's a nice big ammonite in a garden wall in Robin Hood's Bay ...

Nice entry by the way. And it adds a whole new dimension to Cathedral visiting.

...but how would you know a Stone Age flint tool was a Stone Age flint tool? Fascinating stuff must get overlooked everyday because people don't know they're looking at. Suppose if you've done your homework on wherever it is you're hunting you'll be a bit more attentive.

Good entry.

Hi Waz! Yes, all fossils should be left in place. Although I am now entertaining ideas of hooded urban palaeontologists sneaking around property with hammers in hand and sacks labelled 'swag'.

DogManStar - the difference is sometimes difficult to detect. With the knapping tool it was easier, because we were in an area that hadn't been inhabited for, well, maybe forever. So when you find somethng that looks as though it's been knocked about in an un-natural way, it bears closer inspection. We knew there was something odd about them, and confirmed their use at a local museum who gave us the date (or an approximation). For fossils, it's easier - look for something designed. Look for curves and swirls, or pieces of rock which are a different colour or composition from the common rock around you.
And yes, a tremendous amount of stuff is missed, or worse still, crushed into gravel for road-laying. A quarryman of my aquaintance who likes to collect the larger ammonites told me tales of things going through the crusher that made him weep!
Some stuff is easier to spot though. If you go to my website www.fieldwalker.com and have a look at the axe head in the logo, well, anyone could have seen that (although it was my grandfather that found it).

PS It's also handy to have a search image - if you know which strata you're looking in, have a flick through a book of what fossils might lie there. I've spent all day drawing a blank, and then when I've found something, and know what to look for, I've found stuff on ground I've covered all morning.
Frogbit.

A bit of re-phrasing, a couple of typos sorted out, and a new link.

Nice link . There's an unimportant typo left, "Crinoids still exists" has an 's' too many, if you're bothered.

Where do you find guides to quarries?

Hey Waz - typo fixed. Where do you find guides to quarries?
Nowhere unfortunately. Truth is, they don't like 'civilians'. Regardless of how many disclaimers you sign 'I promise not to sue, even if an employee of the company kidnaps me and feeds me helium before forcing me to sing 'love me do' in the style of pinky and perky, recording it and then witholding all copies for blackmailing purposes in the future.*' they still get jumpy. And fair do's. They are bloody dangerous places.
Your best bet is to get in touch with your local Geological Soc. and see what they get up to. Once you have gained permission to enter a site and behaved responsibly, they *may* have you back again. Most Geog Socs have a website, and they are usually friendly to newcomers.





*this actually happened to me.

My condolences.
My father actually bought me a Pinky & Perky record.

Nice entry: takes me back to my childhood. When I was a kid, they blasted the rock at the back of our house (in Swansea) to make a cutting for the M4 motorway. We went up there armed with carrier bags and hammers every evening to see what the spoil heaps contained. Mostly, it was what we called 'lizard skin': a sort of honeycombing on the red shale, which may have been plant material. My pride of place went to a giant horsetail stem, about 2"" across.

FM

Cheers FM - http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/geology.htm
Has quite a bit on the geology of Swansea. The horsetail sounds good. The 'skin' is mysterious though...
Do you know if it was carboniferous or Jurassic?
It could be horsetails and plant matter, or it could be crinoids fans and stems (both around during the carboniferous, but one on land and one in the sea)?

Updated to include the carboniferous forest floor in the centre of Glasgow.
Felonious - have you still got that stem? Any chance of a pic?

Put in a link to the forst site in Glasgow.

And one more link - another shot of the forest floor, and a lot of info about how it might have been preserved. Other than that I think I'm done. Unless you know different.

I like this and I need a pick sending it up the river to TPTB

H.A.

Hiram -
ps Felonious - saw a 2" across horsetail fossil on thursday, oddly enough. It was called *Calamites* apparently. Stick that in google and see if it comes up with any pictures.

you're enrty has been accepted

keep up the good work

H.A.