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Book review: Cave Biodiversity: Speciation and Diversity of Subterranean Fauna, by J Judson Wynne (author and editor)

Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is something of a departure for me, as this book is really about biodiversity rather than geology. However, you won’t be surprised to learn that this book certainly does involve geology, as its context is locations from large caves to small gaps in ground. And given that, for example, bio-stratigraphy involves evolution and extinction, this book really covers both in the…

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Mull’s famous leaf beds

Rosalind Jones On the Hebridean island of Mull, on a day just before 1850, when potato famine and clearances brought misery to the Highlands and Islands, a man (perhaps collecting shellfish to stave off starvation) ventured down into a wind-swept gully on the Ross of Mull. Known as Slochd an Uruisge, on the headland of Ardtun near Bunessan, the gully opened onto a rocky cove at the mouth of Loch…

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More on the dinosaurs of the Booth Museum, Brighton

John A Cooper (UK) The legacy of Gideon Mantell’s fossil collection, sold to the British Museum in 1833, would have been so much more significant to Brighton had he been successful in establishing a permanent Sussex scientific institute to house it. In his article, Gideon Mantel and the dinosaur relic, Rob Hope referred to his visit to the Booth Museum of Natural History during which he came…

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Biochar - what is it and why is it generating so much interest?

Fiona Henderson and Evelyn Krull (Australia) Biochar has the potential to sequester carbon, improve soil health and increase crop yield. Even its production can be classed as beneficial, as it is a by-product of a process that burns waste materials to produce bio-fuel. However, questions remain. Although biochar offers an effective way of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, while helping to…

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Shining white ammonites: remarkably preserved ammonites from the Posidonia Shales of Southern Germany

Stephen Lautenschlager (Germany) The Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale Formation of Southern Germany belongs to one of the most famous fossil lagerstätten in the world. Its sediments – finely laminated marly claystones – were deposited in a shallow, inland (epicontinental) sea, the Tethys Ocean, under tropical conditions. The dark grey colour of these bituminous shales is a result of the high…

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Gideon Mantel and the dinosaur relic

Rob Hope (France) A break from work, and also from reading about the history of palaeontology, enabled me to get away for a while. And a chance visit to the south of England found me driving through the lovely Sussex town of Lewes. Held up by a red light, I suddenly realised – didn’t Gideon Algernon Mantell once live here? I parked the car and set off to visit this charming town. In particular,…

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Climate events let ice age mammoths go far below 40°N

Dick Mol (Netherlands) and Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke (Germany) The remains of four mammoth bulls have been discovered in southern Spain. They lived about 30 to 40 thousand years ago near Padul, a small city in today’s Granada. These are Europe’s most southerly skeletal remains of Mammuthus primigenius (Fig. 1) and were unearthed in a moor on the 37°N latitude. This is considerably further south of…

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A tiny waterfront town’s Big Fossil Festival

Deborah Painter (USA) The breezes from the estuarine Pamlico Sound, which reach the tiny coastal town of Aurora, North Carolina in the USA along a meandering tributary, sometimes carry the evocative and not unpleasant ambiance of salt, mixed with decomposed estuarine life, such as fish, clams, crabs and other “shellfish”. According to the 2020 United States Census, this town is home to 455…

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Krakatau – Part 2

Dr G Trevor Watts In the fisrt part of this article (Kratatau – Part 1), I started to describe the geology of this famous volcano and also my visit to it. I now continue and you find me on fresh scoria and sulphurous steaming rock, standing on the rim of Anak Krakatau. There is a drop – it is steep, but not vertical – down into the depths. The crater is perhaps 100m deep, with reddish slopes,…

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Krakatau – Part 1

Dr G Trevor Watts (UK) Some researchers credit a major eruption of Krakatau (or Krakatoa, if you prefer) in the middle of the sixth century with the triggering the Dark Ages (Figs. 1 and 2). Whether or not this is true, the volcano was certainly responsible for about 36,000 deaths on the coasts of Java and Sumatra on 27 August 1883. The blasts probably didn’t kill many, if any, people, directly.…

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Diversity of trace fossils from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Winterswijk, the Netherlands

Henk Oosterink (the Netherlands) Ichnofossils are the non-body remains of organisms. This group of fossils includes burrows, borings, tracks and any other trace formed by the life activity of organisms. They are very important in determining the ecology of extinct organism – although it is not always possible to link a single ichnofossil to the organism that made it. They are also useful in…

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Fossil sea urchins as hard substrates

Stephen K Donovan (the Netherlands) and John WM Jagt (the Netherlands) A fossil is a mine of information about just one specimen of one species and many such specimens represent extinct species. Consequently, no observations of the living organism are possible – everything we know about that species will have to be gleaned from fossils. Morphology (the form or shape of an organism or part of…

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Geology of south Dorset and south-east Devon

This memoir provides a complete account of the geology and structure of the ‘Jurassic Coast’ of south Dorset and south-east Devon. It is packed with essential and comprehensive information for any geology or palaeontologist including several plates of common fossils. Detailing beds, horizons and geology for a wide range of locations.  

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Aluminium oxide 5kg refill grit blasting, f320 (29 microns) ideal for fossil preparation

Used for grit blasting and ideal for fossil preparation 5kg REFILL bags Great for fast cutting and used for preparing fossils using Air Grit Blasting. F320 (29 microns), which are ideal for fast cutting. We sell this product in bags which are perfect to refill your red tubes of our original AO grits.

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UK North Bedrock Geology Map (Folded)

Essential for anyone wishing to gain an understanding into the overall geological composition of the UK.  Available in a flat, poster style rolled in a tube, or folded for field use. 1:625,000 – North Folded Edition

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UK Geology Map and Explanation Book Pack (UK South)

Essential for anyone wishing to gain an understanding into the overall geological composition of the UK. The North and South ‘Special Packs’, contain a special book covering a summary of UK Geology, packed with full colour photographs, and are extremely good value. 1:625,000

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Carboniferous Coal Measures, Somerset (rock sample)

All our rocks are carefully selected for educational study. They come in labelled trays. The trays are normally 3″ x 2″ size depending on the rarity of the specimen. Average specimen size is shown below. These are ideal for classroom teaching and are a size that can be easily passed round the classroom for students to get a feel for each type.   The Coal Measures, noted for the great amounts of…

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