Urban paleontology: how do you find a fossil in a building façade?
March 1, 2018 10:54 AM Subscribe
If you can't make it to a beach or a desert to hunt for fossils, why not trek around your (closest) city? Check out the Twin Cities in Minnesota, wander throughout New York City, look closely at the Pentagon in Virginia, Buckingham Palace and much of the City of Bath, the British Museum and St Paul's Cathedral, and look around throughout the Netherlands. The coolest urban fossils might be right beneath your feet - you just need to know how to spot the fossils hiding in plain sight.
UK Fossils is focused on the out-of-town locations, as does Discovering Fossils (.co.uk), but London Pavement Geology looks at the cut stones that are visible from the ground, and Wayne Powell, an earth and environmental scientist at Brooklyn College, has identified common building stones of New York City. For a broader view, Paleourbana has a world-wide map of urban fossil locations.
If you want to find more like-minded fossil hunters, there's reddit's FossilHunting subreddit, and you can check out The Fossil Forum, which includes fossil sites around the world.
But before heading out, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has a guide for would-be rockhounds, starting with the good reminder questions to ask yourself:
- Who owns the land you intend to visit?
- What are the specific rules about collecting rocks or fossils on this land?
- May I collect vertebrate fossils, meteorites, or archeological artifacts?
Of course, if you're just trekking around a city, these issues are less of a concern, but keep in mind that while it's not illegal to take pictures of federal buildings (in the U.S., at least), lurking around and taking photos might arouse suspicions and you might get hassled, if not worse.
UK Fossils is focused on the out-of-town locations, as does Discovering Fossils (.co.uk), but London Pavement Geology looks at the cut stones that are visible from the ground, and Wayne Powell, an earth and environmental scientist at Brooklyn College, has identified common building stones of New York City. For a broader view, Paleourbana has a world-wide map of urban fossil locations.
If you want to find more like-minded fossil hunters, there's reddit's FossilHunting subreddit, and you can check out The Fossil Forum, which includes fossil sites around the world.
But before heading out, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has a guide for would-be rockhounds, starting with the good reminder questions to ask yourself:
- Who owns the land you intend to visit?
- What are the specific rules about collecting rocks or fossils on this land?
- May I collect vertebrate fossils, meteorites, or archeological artifacts?
Of course, if you're just trekking around a city, these issues are less of a concern, but keep in mind that while it's not illegal to take pictures of federal buildings (in the U.S., at least), lurking around and taking photos might arouse suspicions and you might get hassled, if not worse.
There's a mall near me where some of the floor tiles have fossils in them. Not accidentally, I don't think. I went there once with my kid and was told by a salesperson in a store to be on the look out for them and I was like thanks, just what I need right now is for my kid to shuffle slowly while staring at the ground. (They were neat, though.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:58 AM on March 1, 2018
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:58 AM on March 1, 2018
rugose corals
posted by supermedusa at 11:03 AM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by supermedusa at 11:03 AM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
The limestone facing of the house I grew up in was full of little clam shells. Always got a kick out of them.
posted by sfred at 11:12 AM on March 1, 2018
posted by sfred at 11:12 AM on March 1, 2018
I have fossils in my fireplace. We had one built a few years ago and my wife had some fossils she collected as a kid in upstate New York. She gave them to the stone mason and he added them in in a couple of places.
It's wicked cool.
If anyone can tell me what they are, that'd be swell. I think they came from Green Lake State Park in Syracuse.
posted by bondcliff at 11:37 AM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's wicked cool.
If anyone can tell me what they are, that'd be swell. I think they came from Green Lake State Park in Syracuse.
posted by bondcliff at 11:37 AM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Living in one of the cities mentioned I might leave the house to go to my local corner shop, on Oolite Road, but I can guarantee you that I'm not going to be looking at the ooliths in the stone my house is made of tonight. Snowy and windy and dark.
posted by ambrosen at 11:38 AM on March 1, 2018
posted by ambrosen at 11:38 AM on March 1, 2018
I can confirm that there are ammonites in rock panel walls of the northeast exit at Erin Mills Town Centre here in lovely Mississauga, Ontario (Town Motto: "You know Toronto? Next one over")
posted by Quindar Beep at 12:30 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by Quindar Beep at 12:30 PM on March 1, 2018
bondcliff, that part of the world is noted for its Devonian-era marine fossils. They're all over the place in the region's limestone quarries, and in the cut made for the Erie Canal.
posted by Quindar Beep at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Quindar Beep at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
bondcliff Branchiopods are the seashell looking things. The circular ones are most likely Crinoid stem impressions.
posted by Windopaene at 12:51 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 12:51 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I love you people.
posted by bondcliff at 1:01 PM on March 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 1:01 PM on March 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
The circular ones are most likely Crinoid stem impressions.
Nah, wouldn't be that quick, which is why I did not ID it for our dear bondcliff. The ridges around the rim extending towards the center is a characteristic morphology of both crinoids and corals - even a few sponges have that morphology, all the way from the paleoproterozoic, like the Gabon fossils, to into the Cretaceous, and bryozoans can also create circular impressions which can mimic other fills do their internal structure and how it becomes mineralized - making it much harder to do a positive ID without a close-up or physical examination. Even a few cephalopods in plane view have been known to fool people from time to time.
posted by barchan at 1:21 PM on March 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
Nah, wouldn't be that quick, which is why I did not ID it for our dear bondcliff. The ridges around the rim extending towards the center is a characteristic morphology of both crinoids and corals - even a few sponges have that morphology, all the way from the paleoproterozoic, like the Gabon fossils, to into the Cretaceous, and bryozoans can also create circular impressions which can mimic other fills do their internal structure and how it becomes mineralized - making it much harder to do a positive ID without a close-up or physical examination. Even a few cephalopods in plane view have been known to fool people from time to time.
posted by barchan at 1:21 PM on March 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
making it much harder to do a positive ID without a close-up or physical examination.
Any and all paleontologists of Metafilter are invited over to have a close look at my fireplace.
posted by bondcliff at 1:28 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Any and all paleontologists of Metafilter are invited over to have a close look at my fireplace.
posted by bondcliff at 1:28 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Growing up in limestone country gave me my first real feel of deep time as a thing. When you can walk around the outside of a building fronted with rustic- or standard-grade limestone, and feel the bones of sea creatures quarried within a hundred miles of your home, deep time becomes a tactile sense as real as the family photos on the wall of your childhood home.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:40 PM on March 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:40 PM on March 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Gosh, this reminds me: flt! (and anyone else) The annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is in Albuquerque this year (Oct.) if your youngsters might be interested - registration opens in May but the abstract book and program will be published in August if you want to think about going to the poster session or one of the symposiums and registering for a day. Info here.
posted by barchan at 2:06 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by barchan at 2:06 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
bondcliff Branchiopods are the seashell looking things.
No that's something different.
posted by agentofselection at 2:32 PM on March 1, 2018
No that's something different.
posted by agentofselection at 2:32 PM on March 1, 2018
Australia's Parliament House has a foyer with lots of marble, and heaps of fossils. This one is apparently called Sean the Prawn.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 2:42 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by the duck by the oboe at 2:42 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
ondcliff, that part of the world is noted for its Devonian-era marine fossils
Ahem.
My secondary school - high school, in cousinspracht - was in Devon, and built out of Devonian Devonian limestone. The walls were packed with marine fossils. I was delighted to find this when I got there, and surprised when I mentioned it to my first-year geography teacher and he'd never noticed. (Later, I would learn not to be surprised by things like that. It wasn't just the walls that were almost entirely composed of fossils.)
If you're ever in South Devon, check this stuff out. Bonus points if you go to both Hope's Nose and Daddyhole.
posted by Devonian at 2:52 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Ahem.
My secondary school - high school, in cousinspracht - was in Devon, and built out of Devonian Devonian limestone. The walls were packed with marine fossils. I was delighted to find this when I got there, and surprised when I mentioned it to my first-year geography teacher and he'd never noticed. (Later, I would learn not to be surprised by things like that. It wasn't just the walls that were almost entirely composed of fossils.)
If you're ever in South Devon, check this stuff out. Bonus points if you go to both Hope's Nose and Daddyhole.
posted by Devonian at 2:52 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
I have entertained my children with the fossils in the walls of Sacred Heart Muenster TX (not local stone, though) the architectural yoni shape above the alter prompts giggling during funerals.
posted by childofTethys at 3:37 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by childofTethys at 3:37 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
If anyone can tell me what they are, that'd be swell. I think they came from Green Lake State Park in Syracuse.
My old place in Ithaca, NY had a bunch of shellfish fossils in the fireplace too! No idea if they were put there intentionally or not; the fireplace dated to 1885.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
My old place in Ithaca, NY had a bunch of shellfish fossils in the fireplace too! No idea if they were put there intentionally or not; the fireplace dated to 1885.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Devonian, I've stayed in the National Trust cottages at St. Gabriel's, south of Morcombelake. The fossils were littering the beach there and falling out of the cliffs. As a geography professor, I apologize for your experience with an ossified teacher, and I hope it hasn't influenced your impression of the discipline.
posted by mollweide at 6:11 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by mollweide at 6:11 PM on March 1, 2018
My grandfather was a quarryman in Langton Matravers, in Dorset. People who worked in the stone trade would often find "interesting" bits of stone and incorporate them into walls or buildings - my grandmother's house had crazy paving outside some of which showed mud cracks (link is to a picture of a Scottish example), and this house just down the road has dinosaur footprints and ammonites from local quarries set into the wall and a fine ammonite over the garage door.
posted by nja at 6:01 AM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by nja at 6:01 AM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Great articles thanks!
To continue with the Devonian theme - very important fossil fish in paving stones in Edinburgh
posted by sedimentary_deer at 3:12 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
To continue with the Devonian theme - very important fossil fish in paving stones in Edinburgh
posted by sedimentary_deer at 3:12 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
The 2 story brick house (built circa 1904) I lived in as a kid had a 3' base of rough textured white rock (limestone?) that had about 1 fossil / square inch. I spent hours looking at those critters.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 11:13 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Enron Hubbard at 11:13 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
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