Tag: brachiopod

The Beech Farm Brachiopods

fossil shells

The oolitic limestone of the North York Moors was laid down in a warm tropical sea about 160 million years ago in the Jurassic Period. In close-up, oolite resembles tiny round white fish eggs, hence the name.

The spiral shells are, as you might suspect, molluscs, but the thick mussel-shaped shells are brachiopods, also known as lamp shells because of their resemblance to Roman oil lamps.

View from Beech Farm Cottages
View from Beech Farm Cottages

I spotted them in the walls of Beech Farm Cottages, Wrelton.

shells in oolite
Calcite crystals have replaced the original material in this fossil mollusc shell.
Shelly limestone: these brachiopod shells are mostly aligned concave side upwards, probably because of a current sorting the sediment and depositing them on this part of the seabed. Because this block has been built into a wall, we can’t tell which way up it was when the shells were deposited.
Entrance to Beech Farm Cottages. These corners stones or quoins are traditionally made from sandstone in the North York Moors because limestone isn’t as suitable for cutting to a sharp edge. In the absence of suitable slate or flagstones, pantiles became the preferred material for roofs. The stone bracket at the corner of the roof is a kneeler.

Blackthorn Blossom

Coxley Wood

It’s been a good year for blossom. The splash of blackthorn at the edge of the wood has lasted well and is still looking at its best.

Most daffodils are looking seedy, crocuses have vanished and as I write this I’m looking out over weedy veg beds that are crying out to be planted.

It’s National Gardening Week here and we’ve got a long Easter weekend ahead so I better get started.

Parking Lot Fossils

fossilsI decided to go for pencil and wash for this illustration for a forthcoming Dalesman article. HB pencil seemed more appropriate for grey forms and I thought that pen and ink might flatten the forms.

I picked these up at Nethergill Farm, Langstrathdale, last summer amongst the crushed limestone of the parking area. There are three fragments of sea-lily stem, a darker fragment run through with the fossil coral Lithostrotion and, at the back, a fragment of one of the valves of a fossil brachiopod.

They date from the Lower Carboniferous period, some 350 million years ago when a tropical sea covered the Yorkshire Dales.