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Hello to everybody This is my first post and I'm new here but I would like to kindly ask you about the object I've found in Poland. Is it a Cycad fossil or Bennettital fosil or maybe non of them are ? Diameter - 32mm Height 31 mm. Best regards Tomasz

Hi Folks, Posted for the first time last night. I’m already an addict. Considering the below specimen as well: What is the wider consensus on: (1) Plant fossils, and; (2) Repaired cracks. Grateful for any insights you can provide. Thanks,

I enjoy reading old books. My grandfather worked for some years as a type setter and book binder and so I've inherited a number of great old reads from him. I'm currently working my way through A Treasury of Science from 1943 which is a compendium of older writings of varying ages. Similar to the nostalgia of watching old movies (or more like curiosity of watching movies that pre-date me) I find it interesting to read about the current level knowledge that is captured in those pages when reading from a vantage point some distance in the future (hopefully with an expanded view on the subject material). What Darwin labored with in chapter after chapter of his On the Origin of Species can now be succinctly stated in a few paragraphs in a Wikipedia article. Reading older or even antiquarian books makes me feel like a time traveler from the future (which, in fact, is pretty much what I am--relatively speaking). In a chapter of the treasury I'm currently reading called Flowering Earth, the author (Donald Culross Peattie) wrote in 1939 about the history of plant life on the planet. From the first protozoans to gain energy from chlorophyll through the ages of stromatolites, the fern and lycopod forests that gave us our coal, the early conifers including the Sequoia that shared the planet with dinosaurs, the cycads, and finally angiosperms and the rise of the modern plants. Quite an enjoyable read with the more eloquent and flowery (no pun intended) writing style of the 1930s. Here is a page on cycads that I read last night: What caught my eye while reading this was, of course, the existence of the Cycad National Monument. Why hadn't I heard of this before? Sure, there are infinitely more things that I'm unaware of than what I can hold in my brain at one time but surely I would have come across this before. Last night I made note to formally put this place on my short list of places to visit in South Dakota (there are apparently a couple obscure modest size sculptures to see there as well ). This morning while researching the Fossil Cycad National Monument I was disheartened to read that I'd missed my chance at seeing it by over half a century. It turns out that without proper protection that Professor G. R. Wieland's efforts to protect this outcropping of important Cretaceous cycad fossils were in vain. Vandals slowly stripped all the remaining visible fossils from this location and the national monument status was withdrawn in 1957. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Cycad_National_Monument In an effort to use this sad state of affairs as an example it has become a cautionary tale to inspire existing notable places to better protect their precious treasures. https://www.npca.org/articles/1008-gone-but-not-forgotten http://nature.nps.gov/geology/nationalfossilday/fossil_cycad.cfm http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/08/pruning-parks-delisted-over-half-century-ago-fossil-cycad-national-monument-1922-1956-cautionary-tal2805 I believe our membership has more respect for fossils and would never have taken part in this national monument's decimation and dissolution so I post this here mainly because I found it interesting (and sad) and because this tale seems to have faded from popular memory through the years. It provides a good example as to why some places require management and protection--real protection (not just a proclamation by the President). Cheers. -Ken