The Magic of Fossils

Sir David Attenborough: "Kids like their fossils. I've taken my godson fossil-hunting and there's nothing more magical than finding a shiny shell and knowing you're the first person to have seen it for 150 million years."

Tracy Chevalier: "That's how fossil hunting is: It takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find. And even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting."

Leonardo da Vinci:"Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?"

Above is one of the many fossils I found recently among the limestone rocks on the beach between Bamburgh and Seahouses in Northumberland. I'm not exactly sure what this is - maybe a crinoid or brachiopod - but  it's probably between 330 to 350 million years old, at a time when Northumberland sat near the equator under a warm, shallow tropical sea. I find that a mind-blowing fact. Click here find our more about fossil hunting in Northumberland. Click here to find out about the largest-ever fossil of a giant millipede found on nearby Howick Beach.

Writing prompts:

•  As Tracy Chevalier says, searching for fossils can take you over and become an obsession. Write about something that you became obsessed with at some point in your life.  How did it affect you and those around you?
•  What is the most interesting thing you have found on a beach? Write about it?
• If you became a fossil who would you like to find you and where?