Ichthyosaurs are Cool: 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;