Trace Fossils

Often when collecting, you are liable to find strange marks in the rock which were the traces of an animal passing or the result of some natural event.

The animal that made these marks must have passed over the fine mud, sifting for edible particles and leaving the trail behind. I have no idea which creature left these marks and will probably never find out. It is from the Carboniferous and was found near Edinburgh.

I found this bit of rock near the English end of the Severn bridge. I picked it up for the pyrites crystals on it but allways wondered what had caused the strange oval markings on the rock. It was much later, when I was watching a TV documentary and they showed a slow motion film of rain falling on a muddy beach that I realised what they were. The marks made in the mud by the rain were identical. I have, in essence, fossilised Triassic raindrops!

This piece of Devonian sandstone, found near Rhynie in Scotland, shows a pattern of ripple marks made as water passed over the still wet sand.

This is a section of a burrow created by a something. The burrow was later filled with sand and preserved. It is from the Jurassic and was found near Brora.

This piece was found in Cretaceous clay near St Andrews, Scotland. It is the cast of a worm and modern versions can be seen on beaches everywhere.