Thursday, May 3, 2012

Fossils

Chinese revere the old so of course fossils are everywhere. But I don't think most know the story of fossils, just that they are old(and expensive) is enough. Taiwan, geologically speaking, is relatively young. It only emerged from the ocean as a collision of the Philippines plate and the Asia Mainland about 10 million years ago. So most of the fossils in Taiwan are not from Taiwan.

These dinosaur eggs are probably from Mainland China(the dinosaurs died out 65-70 million years ago).
I recognize these ammonites as being from Morocco.
These pertified tree trunks used as stools in a bank are probably not from Taiwan.

At the National Taiwan University Geosciences Department they have cases of fossils from Taiwan and from global locations. They had 2 that I really appreciated. One was of raindrops.
The other was of tide ripples.

Usually fossils are the left overs of an animal with a shell or bone, but these two were of just a moment in time.

2 comments:

  1. We saw dinosaur eggs at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. They looked just like the ones in your picture. They were pricey! I touched them, just like I touched a moon rock. I can say I touched a dinosaur and the moon.

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  2. Because they are "pricey" someone in China is will to smuggle them out. Law mean less when the money means more.

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