Internet version [Naruhodo no Mori] Vol.31

by Yumiko Mori

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Vol. 31     July 15th, 1997

Searching fossils in town

Home science experiments for mothers of elementary school children

Tae's mom explains to Ken's mom they could find fossils in marble stones which are often used as parts in various buildings.

Ken's mom: "I've never thought about we can find fossils around buildings."
Mom: "We found many Ammonites (fossils of extinct mollusk), for example."
Mom: "But I was even more surprised at another finding."
Ken's mom: "What did you find?"
Mom: "When we came back home, we realized we have a fossil in our house. Look right here!"

Mom pointed at a small spiral shell fossil buried in a marble table.
Ken's mom: "Yes, that's right!"
Mom: "We bought this table 2 years ago. We never noticed the fossil before. You are missing something if you don't know it."
Ken's mom: " Do you have any idea how old this fossil is?"
Mom: "I checked in my book. Possibly 100 million years old."
Ken's mom: "I bet this table will last very long."
Mom: "What do you mean?"
Ken's mom: "Because this is 100 million years old already. There shouldn't be any problem for the next 100 years."

 * Marble is often used for accessories, ash trays, and ornaments, as well.

Materials

Particularly nothing required!

Useful if available

• A Camera
• A Magnifying glass
• Reference books
• A Notebook and pens/pencils

How to find fossils

1. Go to publicly accessible large-scale buildings, such as department stores or hotels.

2. Search buildings for marble.
   Often you find marble around the foyer (the front lobby area), wall around elevators, and staircases.

3. Find fossils in marble.

   The following fossils may be found.
      The second row shows time period each fossil is found.
      The next row shows typical size for each fossil

   Coral	Spiral shells	Ammonites
   (Paleozoic)	(Paleozoic~)	(Mesozoic)
   1cm ~ 5cm	3cm ~ 20cm	2cm ~ 28cm

   

4. Take photographs of fossils and/or study the size, color, and shape of each fossil.

* Do not mark any scratch on the marble wall.

* When you take photographs, write down where you did. By doing this, you can make your own fossil map later.

*If you have to meet up with somebody, it would be 'cool' to say, "let's meet up in the front of that 200 million years old ammonite."

  One of my friends, a paleontologist, told me "Fossils speak to me." I didn't understand what he meant. Since then I have found marble rocks are used for all sorts of places. I am not sure we can dig so much marble out from the earth. We already dug out a lot of coal and oil. I feel we are making mess not only on the earth also under the ground. 100 million years later from now, I wonder how much fossils are still left under the ground.

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