An acclaimed international collection of articles and book reviews on fossils, geology, minerals, palaeontology and earth science
The most visually arresting fossils from the West Cumberland Coalfield, indeed from almost any British Carboniferous site, are the great patterned slabs of lycopsid bark that, if you are lucky, can sometimes be found. Their surfaces carry unmistakable geometric signatures: the diamond-shaped leaf cushions of Lepidodendron or the vertical rows of elongated scars typical of Sigillaria.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fifteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the many extraordinary organisms preserved in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Pikaia gracilens stands out not for its strangeness but for its quiet familiarity. Living around 508 million years ago, this … Read More
“Never judge a fossil by its surface.” Although not stated quite so succinctly, this is the central message running through Beneath the Stone. Jean-Claude Le Van An demonstrates that a fossil’s outward appearance often tells only part of the story. Hidden beneath the surrounding rock may be exquisite anatomical detail, evidence of ancient life never visible to the naked eye – or, occasionally – proof that an apparently spectacular specimen is not what it seems.
Hans-Henrik Meyer (Denmark) This article was written in 2011. While some of it is clearly out of date, hopefully it is still relerant for those wishing to visit the museum. The Möns Klint GeoCenter continually strives to improve the understanding of life in the Chalk Sea of 70 million years … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fourteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Few Cambrian animals have captured the public imagination and baffled palaeontologists quite like Opabinia regalis, an extraordinary creature from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. With its five eyes, backwards-facing mouth, and a … Read More
A few slabs of black shale from a South Wales spoil tip may look unremarkable at first glance, but with the right approach, they can reveal the structure of a 310-million-year-old coal-swamp forest. By combining plant fossils with sedimentary clues, collectors can reconstruct the ecosystem that once grew above the coal seams.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the thirteenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Olenoides serratus is one of the most recognisable members of the Burgess Shale fauna – a trilobite that, unlike so many of its soft-bodied neighbours, still looks reassuringly like a trilobite. Yet … Read More
This article explores a single landscape – Aberdare – through three interlocking layers: the Carboniferous forests that formed the coal, the industrial system that extracted it, and the lives lived within that system. Each survives only in fragments: fossils weathering from shale, objects preserved in family memory, and traces embedded in the modern landscape. Taken together, these fragments allow the reconstruction of a place in which deep time, industry and lived experience are inseparable.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the twelfth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the many unusual organisms preserved in the Chengjiang and Burgess Shale-type faunas, Odontogriphus omalus stands out as one of the most revealing. A soft-bodied, oval creature from the early Cambrian seafloor, … Read More
The fossils described in this series formed during the Carboniferous Period, around 320 million years ago, when Britain lay close to the Equator. The above figure places the Carboniferous within Britain’s wider geological history. During this interval, extensive tropical wetlands covered much of the country, producing the peat deposits that would later become the coal seams of the West Cumberland Coalfield. This series explores one remarkable record of that vanished landscape.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the eleventh in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Nectocaris pteryx is one of the most perplexing and remarkable animals of the Cambrian, a soft-bodied swimmer from the Burgess Shale, whose anatomy has challenged, confounded and intrigued palaeontologists for decades. Living … Read More
Dennis C Nieweg (The Netherlands) and Dick Mol (The Netherlands) In April 2012, the exhibition Zeemonsters in Twente, opened its doors in Museum TwentseWelle in Enschede, The Netherlands (Fig. 2). The exhibition (held until the 28 October) told the story of the Triassic marine reptiles (Sauropterygians) found in the Dutch … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the tenth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the richly preserved fossils of the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota, Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa stands as one of the most revealing. Discovered alongside Haikouichthys, and dating to around 518 million years ago, this … Read More
A quiet valley at Grasmere holds clues to a landscape once buried beneath ice. By following those clues west to Langdale and then outward across the Lake District, a much larger story emerges – one of glaciers, ice sheets and landscape transformation.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the ninth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Microdictyon sinicum is one of the most distinctive and intriguing creatures of the Early Cambrian, known primarily from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. Dating to around 518 million years ago, it … Read More
Modern Britain lies far from active plate boundaries. It has no active volcanoes and experiences only minor earthquakes, and is often described as tectonically quiet. Yet its landscape is anything but passive. Hills and lowlands, coastlines and drainage patterns all reflect a deep structural inheritance established during earlier phases of continental collision, collapse and rifting.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the eighth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Marrella splendens is one of the most recognisable and abundant animals from the Burgess Shale, offering an invaluable window into the complexity of Cambrian ecosystems. Often nicknamed “the lace crab” by early … Read More
Matthew Myerscough’s In Search of Sea Dragons: A Fossil Hunter’s Odyssey begins not with fossils, but with survival. Early in the book, Myerscough recounts how he and his future wife narrowly escaped death in an avalanche on Snowdon. The experience casts a long shadow over everything that follows. What initially appears to be a book about fossil hunting, gradually reveals itself as something rather more personal: a memoir about recovery, obsession, friendship and the strange hold that collecting can exert over people.
Michael C Mackiewicz (USA) Minerals have shaped human societies for thousands of years and will do so well into the future. Today, a newer category of materials has moved to the forefront of global attention: critical minerals. These are the elements and minerals that are fundamental components in modern technologies, … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the seventh in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Leanchoilia illecebrosa is one of the most striking and memorable arthropods from the early Cambrian, known from the Chengjiang biota of China and represented by exquisitely preserved soft tissues. Living around 518 … Read More
Heather Middleton, Mike Harvey and Steve Snowball (UK) This article describes a series of pliosaur remains recovered from the Lower Kimmeridge Clay Formation at Smallmouth Sands, Weymouth (Dorset). The material, collected as isolated elements from a single locality within the Rasenia cymodoce Biozone, includes cervical and caudal vertebrae, ribs and … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the sixth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Few Cambrian fossils have caused more confusion – and more delight – than Hallucigenia sparsa, a tiny, spike-covered creature from the Burgess Shale, whose anatomy was so baffling that early reconstructions were … Read More
By the end of the Carboniferous, Britain had already passed through more than one major phase of mountain building, each followed by long periods of erosion and structural collapse. The Caledonian mountains were long eroded, and the Variscan belt of southern Britain was entering its final stages of decay. Yet tectonic influence did not fade away. Instead, the dominant regime changed. Britain was no longer being compressed – it was being stretched.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fifth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Among the remarkable organisms preserved in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota, Haikouichthys ercaicunensis occupies a special place. Living around 518 million years ago, this small, fish-like animal is widely regarded as one … Read More
Michael C Mackiewicz (USA) Manganese (Mn) is one of the most widely used metals in modern civilisation, but despite this, Mn has for decades received only passing attention, often overshadowed by headline elements such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and the rare earths. As the twelfth most abundant element in Earth’s … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the fourth in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. Fuxianhuia protensa is one of the most informative animals from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota, dating to roughly 518 million years ago. Often described as a “problematic” or “transitional” arthropod, it occupies … Read More
The collision that assembled Britain at the end of the Silurian (see A history of the plate tectonics of Britain (part 1): Britain assembled – oceans, collisions and the making of a geological patchwork) did not mark the end of tectonic influence on the landscape. Instead, it marked the beginning of a new phase – one that is often less intuitively grasped, but just as important. Mountain belts are temporary features. Once continental collision ceases, thickened crust becomes gravitationally unstable. Erosion strips material from the surface, while extension and faulting affect the deep roots of the orogen. The geological record that follows is not one of rising peaks, but of collapse, subsidence and redistribution.
Jon Trevelyan (UK) This is the third in my series of short articles on fossils of the Cambrian. When the Burgess Shale was first uncovered in the early twentieth century, few creatures caused as much confusion, misinterpretation and eventual astonishment as Anomalocaris. Today, it stands as one of the most … Read More
At first glance, Geology: an illustrated history appears to be another entry in the now familiar genre of large-format, image-rich popular science books. In practice, however, David Bainbridge has produced something rather more distinctive: a visually driven history of geology in which images – maps, diagrams and artefacts – take a leading role, with the text providing interpretation and context.
Steve Snowball (UK) This article is a response to a request by the editor of Deposits to write about my inspiration and reasons for writing a series of fossil collecting guides, the latest of which is A Field Guide to Collecting British Cenozoic Fossils, by myself and Alister Cruickshanks, and … Read More
