An excellent publication from New York State Museums*, summarising 300 years of research work on trilobite fossils, from Edward Lhuyd’s “flat-fish”, through Linneaus’ “puzzling stone insect” (Entomolithus paradoxus), right up to the modern day. An entire chapter is devoted to The Dudley Fossil, Locust, or Bug that we know today as Calymene blumenbachii. Even better, [...]

An opportunity this weekend to examine the geology of the Lickey Hills, just outside Birmingham this weekend. Guided walk following the Champions trail along the Lickey ridge and examine the contorted strata more closely in a disused quarry. More information is available from the website. Meet 11.00 on Sunday 28th October at Lickey Hills Visitor [...]

This image shows another small art installation at Wren’s Nest, in “Snake Pit quarry”. Like so many of these names, we will never know why or how it got this name! The fossil sculpture depicts Poleumita, a gastropod (sea snail) which is sometimes found in these rocks. Dudley Museum has several examples, for example here, and [...]

Often the work of a geologist is like that of a detective – you need to work out the full story using only a few bits of available evidence. However, for geologists, the evidence is often millions of years old! So it is with these layers of rock at Wren’s Nest, near Dudley. On close [...]

The Wren’s Nest is not just a place for geologists – it is also an inspiring place for the many thousands of people who live nearby. This mosaic artwork was created in 2006 by local schoolchildren to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of it’s designation as a National Nature Reserve.

A quick heads-up to let you know about the Magic Minerals and Fossil Fair next month. 10am-4pm. Aimed at collectors, a chance to meet some of the countries leading fossil dealers and purchase from the amazing array of mineral specimens. Event Date: 22 September 2012 Venue: Dudley Museum & Art Gallery, St. James’s Road, Dudley, [...]

Although most of the news this week centred on the Olympics in London, keen eyed geologists will have been watching the progress of the Mars Curiosity Rover as it touched down onto the surface of the red planet. Although it is early days yet, the first colour photos are starting to come back, and by [...]

Have you been watching Volcano Live! on the television the past few nights? If you have then you might be interested to know that Dudley has it’s own volcano, although it stopped erupting 300 million years ago! Nevertheless, it left behind traces of activity which we would recognise from modern eruptions, such as ash deposits [...]