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

I took a walk up to Galteemore yesterday, one of Ireland's highest peaks, situated in South Tipperary. It was a fairly miserable day, but the bad weather did not distract from what was a fine and rather easy walk. From Galteemore it is possible to take in one of the best aerial views Ireland can offer. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much this time, but I'll be back there again soon. I also came across remnants of "bog bursts" - areas where the peat layers have given way dramatically revealing the rock beds underneath. It seems to me, that given the amount of sheep grazing and the wetness of the weather in this country, further "bursts" are likely.

http://woodpigeon01.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/a-walk-up-galteemore/

Hi WP!

Any dinosaur bones down there?

Hi Fords, no - this is all Devonian, Silurian and Carboniferous rock. Most of Ireland is a "dino-free zone"..

Ah, pity. The whole 'bog' idea got me excited. Not exactly Isle of Wight stuff, eh?

Well, bog sediment is very new, really. It's only a couple of thousand years old at most and would have developed only since the end of the last Ice Age. Dinosaur remains are often a hundred million years old, if not older, and are found in the bedrock itself.

Still though, you never know - bogs can preserve animal remains very well because of their low oxygen content. Well preserved 2000 year old human bodies have been found in Ireland a few times, as well as books and all sorts of stuff. There have also been bog finds of of Great Irish Deer skeletons and other large animals.

And here I'd always thought that those 2000 year old human bodies had just been preserved well. like my Uncle James. He was constantly preserving himself for 45 years.

That wouldn't do much to explain the animal skeletons though, would it?

I've heard that there are people on most every continent digging up old farms and forest areas looking for dinosaur bones. Whatever lies near former finds has the chance of providing a better income than the farming. And, the discoverer of a new species gets to name it!

That would be so fantastic, naming a new species a towelasaurus!!

I know, although most areas on the planet are dino-free zones though. You could dig forever and still be guaranteed never to find a dinosaur or anything like it! That, unfortunately, is most of Ireland in a nutshell. The north east part of the island though is fascinating. It's covered in a thick shell of hard basalt and underneath that, well, there might well be dinosaurs.

Gee, nothing at all in the Bens, then.

My second choice for a name was a Benametradon.

I know that many islands are built up slowly by lava flows or clay & sand deposits rich in organic matter. But, I don't think that Ireland is among them (although the actual geological formation of Ireland seems in dispute).

It is a fascinatingly strange pattern of rock types.