Category: Nature

Well Preserved Brachiopod Fossil 0

Well Preserved Brachiopod Fossil

We all walked up the hill from Grams and Gramps’ house and looked around at the rocks in the field there. LD found an amazingly well preserved, complete brachiopod fossil! It’s about two inches across. From what I can tell, this fossil and the others we found are well over 300 million years old.  I find that simply astounding.

Fossil Hunting 0

Fossil Hunting

A few days later while we were walking around Grams and Gramps’ neighborhood we saw an outcropping of rocks. Upon closer inspection, we saw that the ENTIRE rock section was covered with fossils. Most of the fossils and fossil bits are crinoids (ancient sea lilies). Many of them were loose on the ground, thousands are embedded in the rocks and they vary in size from just barely visible to as...

And more fossil hunting! 0

And more fossil hunting!

Above you can see a brachiopod embedded in the rock along with lots of crinoid pieces. Look how long this crinoid stem is! We brought a fossil book out with us and LD spent along time reading through the book and comparing our finds to the illustrations and photos in the book. That’s learning at its best, right?!

Ancient Sea Life 0

Ancient Sea Life

When we were at the La Brea Tar Pits in California last month, I took this photo of a painting depicting ancient sea life. In the painting you can see crinoids (sea lilies) in the background, trilobites (towards the bottom of the painting), ammonites (which look like snail shells) and more.

Wildflowers: Chickory 0

Wildflowers: Chickory

More or less as long as I can remember, I’ve loved being outdoors and exploring nature. As a youngster, I used to take my miniature poodle and go for long walks along the trails of the local park (there was a pond, a stream and rumors that an “electric eel” lived in the water hole!!). Later I became a camp counselor, hiked sections of the Appalachian trail with friends, did...

Wildflowers: Yellow Coneflower and Black-Eyed Susan 4

Wildflowers: Yellow Coneflower and Black-Eyed Susan

I’m not a flower expert, but I think the yellow wildflowers that we’ve seen abundantly all around at the sides of the roads (the top two pictures below) are not Black-Eyed Susans, but Yellow Coneflowers. I think the third picture below is a Black-Eyed Susan (it’s growing in Grams’ garden). If you know a lot about wildflowers, I’d love to hear what you think!!