Photography, rowing and the pursuit of data.....and Renee  

Fossil formation 

To be found, fossils must be buried in or very soon after death. Falling in water, buried under rock fall, volcanic debris, avalanche, falling in tar pit. 

​

This needs to be in some low lying location so the body can then be covered by rising  water and layers of sand or mud. 

​

The sandstone then must be exposed by either falling water levels, or uplift. The uplift cannot be preceded by subduction and metamorphosis of the rock. This rules out volcanic regions. 

​

Finally a new cycle of erosion byrivers or ocean is needed to expose the layers containing the fossils. 

​

Classic regions include;

Burgess Shale at 12,000 ft in Canadian rockies, under water during the Cambrian explosion, then exposed by massive  tilt uplift and glacial valley erosion.

​

Jurassic Coast in Dorset, local tilt uplift followed by glacial polish leaving edges of the layer forming rolling hills,  with cliffs exposed  by sea erosion.  

​

Dakota Badlands that were flooded during the ice free Jurassic period, sea receded, and then water erosion. 

​

La Brea Tar pits in LA, famous for mammal megafauna

​

Melting polar ice exposing wooly mammoths.

​

​