The tour guides in English for Taiwan are pretty thick paperbacks. But there are a lot museums, events, places that never make it into the English language guides. Even doing google searches don't show up some of these hidden treasures. Only in Chinese does the google search show something like the JiaSian Fossil Museum.
http://blog.xuite.net/masayasu/blog39/26227743-%E7%94%B2%E4%BB%99%E5%8C%96%E7%9F%B3%E9%A4%A8
http://www.jiashian.gov.tw/style/front001/bexfront.php?sid=1934495716
Taiwan, the island, emerged as volcanos from the ocean depths "only" about 23 million years ago. For comparison, the dinosaurs all died out 65-70 million years ago. So the fossil in the JiaSian Museum are relatively recent. And many of them still have living descendants around today. Like the jawbone of a horse?
Snails about 6 inches in diameter
A mollusk about 1 meter across
But being close to the ocean, most of the local fossils are from the shallow seas that surround Taiwan. I was particularly happy to see this time of fossil.
About twenty years ago I bought a teapot in Taiwan made from this type of rock. It was so beautiful, that at times I thought it might be fake. Now I know that it really was made from fossiliferous rock from Taiwan.
But just walking the streets of JiaSian, we see interesting rocked used as decorations.
Interesting fossils. I was surprised that they would make something like a teapot from "modern" fossils like the rock you had pictured. Do you still have the teapot? It must be quite heavy.
ReplyDeleteMary
I'm wondering about your teapot, too. What has happened to it? The little one in your photo is beautiful. You'd love the Gem Fossil, and Mineral Show in Tucson. There are an overwhelming number of fossils on display and for sale.
ReplyDeleteI still have the teapot in my display case in Seattle, it is quite small, maybe 2 cups worth. The one pictured in the blog entry is just a similar one from a Museum in HsinChu. It's a decorative teapot, clay teapots are the norm in Taiwan. But I think glass teapots are just as good.
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