Jon66 Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 I found this pebble in the roots of a fallen tree in Foots Cray Meadow, near Sidcup. The imprint/fossil is only 5mm across and was difficult to see. On closer inspection there appears to be a scale-like pattern or perhaps the marks of a seed pod? Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taogan Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 It looks like pyrite crystals, the pebbles are iron rich in that area. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon66 Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Thank you, Taogan. I may not have found a rare fossil but at least I found this wonderful site and I shall endeavour to find something more interesting next time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 This is interesting, more so due to your terrific photography "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Yep that's neat...good eyes and photos! Regards, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon66 Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Thanks Auspex. Yes, even knowing that these curious formations are probably pyrite is interesting to me. I daresay they are well known to most fossil collectors though. Off to Dorset for a holiday soon so I will be looking at rocks on the beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Wow... I would've said that was a fossil. Are were sure it isn't a bryozoan? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taogan Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Yes it's probably from the Blackheath Pebble bed, no bryozoans there, plenty of small shark teeth if you get the right level, but that is about five miles nearer the river Thames and only really accessible once a year. The geology of the area goes straight from Eocene sands and pebbles to a Pleistocene brick earth with occasional mammoth bits. Good luck down in Dorset, watch out for the plesiosaurs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon66 Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 ..... only really accessible once a year. Why is that, Taogan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taogan Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 The best exposure is Abbey Wood and you need heavy equipment and a permit to get to it. Once a year the Tertiary Research Group has a field trip there and you get to collect under supervision. The actual site is just up the hill from Lesnes Abbey, in the woods. It's good fun and there's a bus stop at the bottom of the hill so it's easy to get to. You have to hand in any reptile, bird or mammal fossils but you keep all of the fish and other bits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon66 Posted April 18, 2015 Author Share Posted April 18, 2015 Thanks for that info, Taogan. I know the area vaguely, and it's a nice place to walk. I didn't know about the fossils. (Such a novice!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diceros Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Pyrite framboids (tiny balls of pyrite which form in oxygen-poor environments), really aren't crystals. You sometimes even get them in the rear (unused) chambers of forams that can live in anoxic habitats (not that many can). From the close-up, it almost looks like the little hollow ball of pyrite framboids served as the nucleus of a concretion, as the ghost shrimp burrow-filling Ophiomorpha nodosa sometimes does. There must still have been some organic material present when it was buried, as the concretion mineral -ions are drawn by oxygen-depleted (reducing) micro-habitats (as siderite ions are drawn by the regional reducing environments of decaying leaves at Mazon Creek, forming those concretions). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diceros Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Jon66 - By the way, I like your English tuppence (2-penny - did I get it right?) coin. I usually prefer a ruler, but not in this case. Don't you (or did you) also have a thruppence (3-penny), and hapenny (half penny) coin too? America used to have 3-penny and half-dime (now called a nickel, as it's made from nickel; but then a sm. silver coin) coins, even a 20-cent piece. We even had fractional currency - small paper bills used instead of change. I think your coin was involved in a Mary Poppins movie song, where an old lady sold bags of bird seed for "tuppence a bag". That's some really cheap bird seed. I buy big bags of little finch bird seed for about nine dollars a bag. Anyway, cool scale-coin! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diceros Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Sorry for going-all-numismatic on your scale-coin, but I just figured out what the odd design (3 ostrich feathers going through a crown, and a banner reading "Ich Dien" [i serve]) on your tuppence coin was - it's the heraldic badge of your Prince of Wales ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers ). Sorry, we gave up all that cool stuff when your King George the 3rd was mean to us (you guys have been very nice to us since you burned our White House in 1812), and we sort-of miss it now. I went to a paleo meeting in England once, and thought it really cool before a meal that the guys all stood up, raised their glasses, and said, "Gentlemen, the Queen!" (the food, incl. steak-and-kidney-pie, was gastly). Anglophile vertebrate paleontologist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 May I ask what camera you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon66 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Diceros , Thanks for that information about pyrite framboids. I am sorry to take so long to reply. I was in Havana. I think the only fossils there are ....no I don't want to get political. I am pleased that the little pebble was of interest. As for the 2 pence piece (we don't call it 'tuppence' any more, sadly) - I did not realise what an international site this is and I think in future I shall use a ruler for scale reference. Before decimalisation in 1971 we did not have a tuppence coin but anything costing 2 pence was tuppence and 3 pence was pronounced 'thruppence', paid for with a thruppenny bit. For further information (TN Collector) the camera I used was a small relatively inexpensive Lumix Panasonic DMC-TZ30 which has an excellent Leica lens. Diceros, in my entire life I have never been required to stand up and toast the Queen. Perhaps I move in the wrong circles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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