Word: fossils
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...November 1924 a blast was fired in a limestone quarry near Taungs in Bechuanaland, South Africa. In the material that tumbled to the foot of the cliff were fossil fragments from a cave which the blast had exposed. The manager gathered the fossil-bearing chunks together, handed them to a Johannesburg geologist named Young who was stopping by on business. Dr. Young took them to Dr. Raymond Arthur Dart, professor of anatomy at the University of Johannesburg. Laboriously scraping away the rocky mineral, Professor Dart uncovered a small, fragmentary skull with the face almost intact. The scientist quickly realized that...
...Wyoming's Big Horn Basin one day last year a young laborer attached to a paleontological expedition from Princeton University dug out a chunk of fine-grained, greenish-grey sandstone. He could see hat this hard matrix contained fossil fragments, but the bones were so small that he tossed it aside. On second thought he picked it up again, handed it to Expedition Leader Glenn Lowell Jepsen. Red-laired, laconic Paleontologist Jepsen recognized at a glance that the fossil might be important. He cut the sandstone into three pieces, sent them to a skilled preparator named Albert Thomson...
...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...