Elders 22 Fossils with Howard Mottram

A pleasure to welcome Horward Mottram to Kaliwoods. He came specifically to see Greg and his collection of fossils that he’d found on the land. Greg and all of us enjoyed his easy company and his reminder of that life millions of years ago.

Homework: Tannins.

Around our circle we spoke of seeds, catching up on homework set 2 weeks ago.

Fig seed dispersal by birds eating the figs and seeds
The seed of the strawberry tree, which we tried to eat, and then planted
Kally bought in a beautiful book of seeds
In which was the seed of Coco de Mer, a seed from the Seychelles
Caroline also bought in a book of seeds which described a top and bottom of seed architecture.

Here’s a shock – a coco de mer being sold for over 1,000

Meanwhile Greg had put on a table his display of fossils, which were examined by Howard, named and described. We learned that chalk (which is a sedimentary rock) is composed of calcium carbonate from the millions of fossilized skeletons of marine organisms, like platlets.

Among the collection a few belemnite fossils, an amonite, and a crab. Howard presented Greg with a map showing the geology and geological time. For example:

Belemnites lived during the periods of Earth history known as the Jurassic and Cretaceous; together, these represent a time interval of about 135 million years. The Jurassic Period began about 201 million years ago and the Cretaceous Period ended about 66 million years ago.

Here’s the movie of Howard describing the,:

After showing Howard where Greg had found most of the treasures around the pond, we walked across the land down to the Geological SSSI of Holton Pits. We read the interpretation board at the base, which Harrold had advised us on the text.