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New Blog Advert

I've adapted an idea I saw online to make an advert for my blog - I will put it up at the symposium I am attending the week after next  - and will see if I get any more hits.

Here is another picture which amused me.

Awesome fridge advert

Their fridges are this good apparently; 
 

As seen at http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/bosch_refrigerator_dinosaur_leg

Or if you prefer something fresher how about a Sabertooth fillet 
 

From here http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/bosch_refrigerator_sabertooth_filet?size=_original

I find the leg photo the best especially with the claws! There are various stories of mammoth researchers working in Siberia eating slices of permafrost frozen mammoth - some say it was disgusting or tasteless others that it was as tasty as 'fresher' meat.

Kimmeridge Clay Ichthyosaur Paddle

Here (link) is an awesome picture of a fossil ichthyosaur paddle found in 2003 near Osmington Mills. The original story can be read on Ian West's website here;
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/kimfoss.htm
It's a great read and really makes me wish I was back in Dorset instead of being in Scotland.

Background image

I've been changing the background colour of this bolg frequently usually because new photos have clashed with the original colour. So I decided to create a background image with a ichthyosaur which is more related to the blog title. Here is the design I sketched last night. I cant get the blog description to move out of the way of the paddle so for the moment its difficult to read but no one reads this blog anyway!

The sketch is from an illustration of ichthyosauras communis in Dictionnaire Universel D'Histoire Naturelle published by Alcide d’Orbigny in 1849. It can be seen on google books here. There are some other good images and information in Ian West's Dorset website; http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/liasfos.htm

‘Fossil’ clothing

I’m a sucker for ‘branded’ clothing – anything with palaeontology logos. Here are a couple of my favourites;

http://www.threadless.com/submission/250874/know_your_dinosaurs - (I know a pterodactyl isn’t a dinosaur and so does the designer!)

A proper palaeontologist once told me they liked this – ego trip there for me.

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+fossil_dark_tshirt,195297220

The links are to the shop websites - I can't put pictures on here beacuse of copywrite.

More pinhole photography

Here are some pinhole camera photos I took at Wardie Shore – as you can see the wall I rested the camera on wasn’t horizontal. 

These last 2 are very dark - they were taken at the same time but 180 degrees in the opposite direction. It shows how much sunlight is needed fro good shots - or more shutter time. Lots of scope for practice here.

I wish I had thought to get a picture of the sunset to accompany this digital one.

Fish Ancestry

 

My goldfish Attenborough gets a bit lonely on his own so I decided to introduce him to some of his ancestors. I’m not sure how fish lineages work so I just showed him some of my fish fossils. 

 

The fish on the left I bought from a fossil fair and is Knightia eocaena a relative of a modern herring. It’s from the Green River formation, Wyoming, USA. The Green river formation is DEFINITELY on my ‘to visit’ list especially after reading this article in geo times . Here is the national monument website. The formation is Eocene inland lakes (it’s called green River after a modern river) here are some details of the fossil formation.

 

The fossil on the right looks less impressive but I was very excited when I found it. It’s from Monmouth beach, Lyme Regis I thought it was a bit of fossilised wood when I picked it up. I was on an OUGS (Open University Geological Society) trip so I could get it identified by the leader as a section of fish scales. I’m not sure which species so I will take it to the NMS when it reopens to get it identified.

 

Attenborough wasn’t very interested in the fossils so I gave him some bloodworms instead – he obviously prefers invertebrates.

Wardie shore fossil photographs

Here are the photographs of the fossils I bought back form Wardie shore last week. These are nodules containing coprolites in spiral form. According to the geological conservation review (link below) they are presumed to be chondrichthyan - a cartilaginous fish (see Wikipedia chondrichthyan and Chondrichthyes). Cm ruler for scale.

 

 

 

  

Also here is a plant fragment.

This is a very soft shale and I expect it will crumble away when it drys out. I'm told that you can spray these with hair lacquer for preservation but I have no money so the experiment will have to wait.

Here is a link to the geological conservation review for Wardie shore (in pdf)

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/grcdb/GCRsiteaccount1370.pdf

The limpet living in my bathroom sink.

I have a limpet living in my bathroom sink - it was an accident. He hitched a lift in some fossils I bought back from Wardie Shore this week. I thought the hot water I washed the fossils in had killed him but he still seems quite active.   

I went to Wardie Shore on an evening trip with the Edinburgh Geology Society we visited the East shore home of the excellent fish beds.  They are described best in ‘Lothian geology an excursion guide’ by McAdam and Clarkson (amazon link). The beds are formed of a lake or lagoon either brackish or freshwater with sea incursions – the interpretation is slightly different depending which interpretation I read. It is suggested that temperature differences created an oxygen free layer below the surface waters where organic remains sank and were preserved.  These beds are famous for their fossil fish but on pout trip we only found plan material, fish scales, and many coprolites (fossil fish scat).

Here are some of the fossils we saw in-situ;

2 important points about Granton / Wardie shore;

-the Forth estuary is badly polluted always wash always wash your hands and any finds form the beach well! A bottle of hand wash is always a good idea when out looking for fossils.

-the site is an SSSI hammering in the bed rock and collecting in-situ fossil is forbidden – stick to the loose material.  Any fossil removed from the bedrock immediately looses any stratigraphical information and becomes just a pretty rock. If you find anything interesting in-situ contact the NMS for advice.

Here are some pictures of our trip;

I will try and photograph some of the fossils I collected for another post.

Ichthyosaur squamosal

There can’t be many people who get a dentists pick for their Easter present – but this year I joined their ranks. It’s rapidly proved indispensible. I’ve mostly used it on this;

I found it on Monmouth beach, Lyme Regis, UK. It was quite far down the beach at Severn Rock Point and I almost didn’t take it back to the car – it was a choice between that and a nautilus I found that day – they were both heavy. I knew it was bone but I didn’t think it could be identified and it spend some time sitting in my collection (i.e. on my desk).

This spring I spent the weekend volunteering at the Lyme fossil festival (see website here) and I took to along to ask some of the multitude of experts there. It was identified by Richard Edmounds of the Jurassic coast team (Seen here on the fossilfestival photo stream) and Scott Moore-Fay who had just spent a year preparing the Weymouth pliosaur (see here). Tthe newly prepared fossil will be unveiled to the public in July at the Dorset County Muesum. They identified it was an ichthyosaur squamosal bone – from the back of the skull – and suggested I removed some of the loose matrix with a pin (but I have my trusty pick!). This spurred me onto have a go at it myself. As you can see I have removed a bit of matrix;

 

It’s getting tough work now and is damaging my wrist (I have an RSI type injury). I’m trying to get some paraoid B72 solution as the bone is getting a bit crumbly on places and needs protection before I do anymore. 

Apologies for the poor shots – my camera is only a basic one and struggles with most things. 

Finally here are some pictures of ichthyosaur vertebrae (cm ruler for scale) I’ve found at different times on the beach at Lyme Regis and Charmouth – just because ichthyosaurs are cool.

For more information on the geology of Monmouth beach (or the rest of the Dorset coast) see Ian West’s excellent website http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/Lyme-Regis-Westward.htm

Monster quest and cryptozoology

I’ve always thought that if my geology career doesn’t go well I could always drop out and try to become a cryptozoologist.  I’m especially interested in lake monsters like Loch Ness – I don’t really believe in them but I find the level of sophistication that has gone into searching for evidence fascinating especially as it is done mostly by ammeters.  But sometimes I just find theories that are absolutely hilarious - my favourite is this episode of monster quest which makes me laugh out loud.

Monster Quest - The Last Dinosaur

I know a short documentary can never put across the whole story of the search but take note these points;

-a local with ‘virtually no contact with the outside word’ wearing manufactured western clothes – I think one of them had a play station shirt. 
-a burrowing sauropod with a Diplodocus type body shape that has dug into the river bank and buried itself. With sauropod toes.

-searching for a dinosaur that is hibernating and feeding at the same time.

-trying to use an underwater camera in that level of silt.

-tiptoeing sauropod footprints

I do find it disturbing that it is presented as factual television but imagine if there was a sauropod still alive in Africa, a sea serpent in Lake Okanagan, and plesiosaurs in Loch Ness and Lake Champlain– wouldn’t that be AMAZING!

Literature

I always get excited when I come across things that reference fossils- my favourite Margery Allingham book mentions an ichthyosaur excavation - only in passing a couple of times – but enough to endear it to me. John Fowles’ ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ is also a favourite of mine – its set in Lyme Regis which is near where I grew up and one of my favourite fossil hunting haunts. Charles Dickens also mentions a Megalosaurus in the opening paragraph of Bleak House – this I’ve yet to read.

Recently I have come across songs featuring geology - the first 2 from They might be giants;

I Am a Palaeontologist - They Might Be Giants w/Danny Weinkauf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7zo2zY1Zqg

TMBG ~ Nine Bowls Of Soup - Puppet Johns Older

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKH8lBu_00E

 

And this which I think I saw linked on Mountain beltway – be warned I cant get this song out of my head now!

Tiktaalik (Your Inner Fish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9h1tR42QYA

Finally some fossils.

Today I went to the royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to get some fresh air away from the city. I, of course, visited the fossil tree; Here it is in close up - Pitus withami a Carboniferous swamp forrest tree. I was found locally at Craigleith Quarry which is now a shopping centre - but I may visit the site and see if any of the outcrop is still exposed. Here it is in pride of place in front of the glasshouses.

Beside it is some less spectacular root. This is Lepidodendron. I didn't see any note of where it was found but the colour suggests it was a different locality. This remind me of my plan to visit the fossil grove in Glasgow. Its never been very highly advertised - in fact when I lived an hours dive form Glasgow I didn't know about it (I wasn't so heavily interested in fossils at the time). Here is the only official website I can find. If I can find the train fare this is defiantly on the list for this summer!

There are also some ‘living fossils’ on display with a great collection of monkey puzzle trees on the other side of the greenhouses.

Here's a view I was delighted to find - you can see across to Cartlon Hill and Arthur's seat.

As I was leaving I saw the most fantastic but in this Delphinium I had to photograph it.

 

 

David Attenborough's Life Stories

I'm really enjoying the repeat of David Attenborough's Life Stories on radio 4. Its a long series and I keep missing them but the stories of his fossiling past are fascinating. This weeks is about an excentric naturalist (among other things) Squire Waterton. It's also available as a podcast.

Using religion to solve stability problems with pinhole camera

I have a new toy - a pinhole camera. Here is a selection from my first attempt at pictures;



This is a model of orthoclase structure seen at an exhibition of 'objects of education'.
It's made of cardboard and its difficult to keep still while opening and closing the shutter it needs something to keep it stable.

Solution? I have a new film and will soon find out.