A Cracking Find For A Young Fossil Hunter
Written by Phil Brown, Badger Bushcraft Blog Saturday, 14 April 2012 11:20
During a recent excursion to a Kent beach one of the young men, who searched amongst the rocks with great patience and dogged determination, collected the find of the day – a fossilised gastropod!
Gastropod or “Stomach-foot”, the translation of the Ancient Greek γαστήρ (gastér, stem: gastr-) meaning stomach and πούς (poús, stem: pod-) meaning foot, include both slugs and snails both of which have always amazed me since childhood. I would spend many hours just watching them move as they effortlessly glide over a myriad of what appear to be an impossible surfaces.
Over the years I have had many close encounters with slugs whilst out bivvying often waking up with them crawling across my face. Not the most pleasant way of waking up but this always leads to a good many laughs round the campfire!
On a recent visit to a Kent beach to explore rock pools and the shore line for life and the high tide line for fossils and flotsam, a friend of my son who searched with great diligence discovered the find of the day this beautiful fossilized gastropod or snail shell.
It always surprises me what can be found at the coastline when we take the time to look, search or just open our eyes. In Kent we are blessed with a large area of coast to explore and enjoy and we will be making more time during the lighter and warmer evenings of the coming months to visit, explore and enjoy more of our local shoreline.
