Diamond Supporter
Platinum Supporter
Gold Lifetime
Silver Lifetime
Bronze Lifetime
- Messages
- 3,980
- Reactions
- 9,954
Summer after first grade. Family moved to Colorado, and started taking family weekend trips to surroundings. I found an ammonite, a fossil of a mollusk that lived from about 400 million years ago through a number of mass extinctions to die out about the same time as the dinosaurs. My ammonite was about 4" across and looked a lot like this one:
I immediately realized that this represented the shell of a snail-like creature. And that the whole area must have been under water, presumably covered with an ocean. So lands that were now raised mountain areas must have been under the ocean at some point. So lands and seas weren't stable but shifted around with time. Furthermore, I had already lived in Florida and collected shells and seen many glorious shell collections. My ammonite didn't look like anything I had seen. Based upon this admittedly insufficient data I leaped to the conclusion that types of creatures weren't stable either. They changed. All that before plate tectonics was known. And before we knew that the entire center of North America had indeed been a vast shallow sea. And while we knew about evolution, I didnt. I was just six. But it was clear evolution happened, though I didn't yet know that word. I suspect many thousands of people realized these basics long before those we credit with the realizations started writing about them. Probably including thousands of other curious kids. To me it all came as an instant flash while standing in a field holding a freshly discovered fossil.
How did a living critter turn into a fossil? So what was going on with lands and oceans shifting around? What exactly had happened? And how and why? And why did the creatures change?? And why did some vanish? So the first book I ever bought for myself was a guide to rocks and minerals. Within a year I discovered the public library, fought my way into the adult section, and started reading all the books on geology, archeology, biology, etc. By the end of second grade I had read everything in the 500s, all the sciences. Family moved to Massachusetts, giving me a new public library and a different kind of local geology. Started over reading everything in the 500s in that library. We moved every year or two, giving me new libraries with each move. I of course had a rock collection. Each new place gave me a different kind of geology and repertoire of rocks. My mother actually picked up her interest in rock collecting from me. I ultimately ended up with a PhD in Biology/Genetics from Harvard. And I earn my living as a plant breeder, a guider of expedited plant evolution. But I still love geology, and fossils and evolution and most areas of science, and still read broadly in many areas of science for recreation. And now there are lots of YouTube videos on all areas of science. What fun!. Its been fascinating to watch us actually getting definitive answers to all those questions I had as a 6-year-old kid 71 years ago as I stood in a field with a fossil ammonite in my hand and excitement in my heart.
I immediately realized that this represented the shell of a snail-like creature. And that the whole area must have been under water, presumably covered with an ocean. So lands that were now raised mountain areas must have been under the ocean at some point. So lands and seas weren't stable but shifted around with time. Furthermore, I had already lived in Florida and collected shells and seen many glorious shell collections. My ammonite didn't look like anything I had seen. Based upon this admittedly insufficient data I leaped to the conclusion that types of creatures weren't stable either. They changed. All that before plate tectonics was known. And before we knew that the entire center of North America had indeed been a vast shallow sea. And while we knew about evolution, I didnt. I was just six. But it was clear evolution happened, though I didn't yet know that word. I suspect many thousands of people realized these basics long before those we credit with the realizations started writing about them. Probably including thousands of other curious kids. To me it all came as an instant flash while standing in a field holding a freshly discovered fossil.
How did a living critter turn into a fossil? So what was going on with lands and oceans shifting around? What exactly had happened? And how and why? And why did the creatures change?? And why did some vanish? So the first book I ever bought for myself was a guide to rocks and minerals. Within a year I discovered the public library, fought my way into the adult section, and started reading all the books on geology, archeology, biology, etc. By the end of second grade I had read everything in the 500s, all the sciences. Family moved to Massachusetts, giving me a new public library and a different kind of local geology. Started over reading everything in the 500s in that library. We moved every year or two, giving me new libraries with each move. I of course had a rock collection. Each new place gave me a different kind of geology and repertoire of rocks. My mother actually picked up her interest in rock collecting from me. I ultimately ended up with a PhD in Biology/Genetics from Harvard. And I earn my living as a plant breeder, a guider of expedited plant evolution. But I still love geology, and fossils and evolution and most areas of science, and still read broadly in many areas of science for recreation. And now there are lots of YouTube videos on all areas of science. What fun!. Its been fascinating to watch us actually getting definitive answers to all those questions I had as a 6-year-old kid 71 years ago as I stood in a field with a fossil ammonite in my hand and excitement in my heart.