Download Just grey rocks in an old quarry?

Just grey rocks in an old quarry?
“You can't get blood out of a stone” - geologists can!
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Stones - that's what geologists work with. But how do we get from bits of stone (fossils) - to
flesh-and-blood animals for a picture of this area millions of years ago?
Here are 2 fossils - parts
of a long dead animal.
Sometimes we find similar fossils
joined together. Sometimes even
more complete ones are found.
But not here at Brown End.
We also know that modern sea lilies are their living relatives. ‘Sea lilies’ are animals
related to starfish and sea-urchins.
So we can add the ‘flesh and blood’ - the soft parts - to the hard parts we find
in fossils.
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We then look at the colours of the modern sea lilies to re-create a ‘living’ sea lily.
So although geologists can't really get blood out of a stone, we can do remarkable
things with grey rocks, a fair amount of science, and a little imagination!
Over time rain is slowly dissolving the rocks, but it dissolves the fossils more slowly.
That's why many of the fossils stick out from the weathered rock.
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Sea lily
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“The present
is the key to
the past”
Geologists use the assumption that
‘the present is the key to the past’
to understand rocks. You can find out
more about the past in this area:
just follow the trail and each board
will tell you a little more! You can even
pick up a free leaflet later. And look
for fossils in a pile near the last board.
But please don't collect anything from
the rocks near the safety barrier they are there for everyone to enjoy.
See if you can match up these fossils with any of the animals in the picture:
It took millions of years for
these rocks to be laid down as
sediments on the sea floor ...
There's a £1 coin for scale. You'll find the answers on another board.
NO Hammering
NO Collecting except from the dedicated pile
... but why are the rocks
on edge?
You'll see lots of sea lily bits in the rocks so that's why the artist has painted
a ‘sea lily garden’.