British Geological Survey Press Releases Having recently taken over some responsibility for contributing to a geology blog on the “Geology Matters” website, I think I should offer a brief introduction, and give some idea of my intentions in relation to the blog. I retired from full-time teaching in 2010, after 30+ years of teaching geology, [...]

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 [...]