Word: fossilized
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...prehistory. Ireland was not inhabited in Pleistocene times, as Britain and Europe were. Settlers arrived from Britain about 7000 B. C., bringing Stone Age implements some 10,000 of which the Harvardmen found. In geological strata of this period pollen grains of elm, alder, beech and oak and fossil shellfish reveal a warm climate. The Bronze Age began about 1800 B. C., the Iron Age not until 100 A. D. From then until the Anglo-Norman conquests (12th Century) the Irish lived in wicker huts, wooden houses or crannogs-lake dwellings. Still being explored is a royal crannog where Irish...
...most important fields opened up by the new technique is the detailed study of the plant life involved in the formation of anthracite coal and petrified woods. Never before have botanists been able to secure satisfactory microscopic specimens from these hard rocks. Mr. Darrah has succeeded in making fossil peals of both coal and petrified woods, among them specimens containing the remains of pollen grains more than 200,000,000 years old from a coal deposit in Illinois...
...process is a simple one. First the fossil area in the rock is polished with an abrasive wheel. The area is then treated with acid, and coated with a special nitro-cellulose solution. When this has dried, forming a tough film, it is 'peeled' off and retains a carbonized impression of every detail. It is estimated that 500 specimens can be made from a fossil an inch thick. The specimens can be made very cheaply and are indestructible under ordinary handling...
Support has been given to the theory by the discovery of similar rock formations and fossil animals and plants in the two continents...
Like birds, mammals are revealed in the fossil records as descendants of reptiles. As long as 200,000,000 years ago some clumsy reptiles like Cynognathus ("Dog-Jaw") were already showing mammalian quirks around the mouth. By 100,000,000 years ago a few small creatures had probably crossed the mammalian line. Waiting for the gaudy Age of Reptiles to ring down its curtain, the little mammals had promising new equipment-hair for warmth, hot blood for cold weather, milk to feed their young on the move. Their brains grew bigger. When the mighty lizards died out, they were ready...