Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
EARLY NOTIONS ON FOSSILS
As noted in an earlier chapter , both da Vinci and Steno recognised that
the fossils that they had found in the mountainous regions in Italy
were organic in origin. But this understanding was not always evident.
Fossils have fascinated people for at least six millennia, and in order to
understand them, people came up with a host of explanations for their
origins and for their functions. Most of these could be described as
belonging to the realm of 'folklore'.
Fossils were noticed and collected by Neolithic man and placed
inside burial tombs. About eight years ago a diverse assemblage of
Lower Carboniferous fossils was located inside a 4,500-5,000-year-old
passage tomb in southwest Ireland, and this occurrence pre-dates
similar instances in Bronze Age burial chambers in Britain by 500 to
2,000 years. The fossils include brachiopods, gastropods and cephalo-
pods and were collected from the immediate area and placed within
the tomb by its builders, who regarded them as holding some ceremo-
nial or decorative significance.
Native Americans made pendants and necklaces of various fos-
sils for adorning themselves. It is unlikely that these groups of early
fossil users considered where the material had come from, and they
probably did not make the connection between fossils and living
organisms. The Greeks had worked this out by the sixth century BC ,
and it is probable that the Chinese had done likewise. When
Pythagoras (540-510 BC ) noticed shells in mountainous rocks he
deduced that the mountains must have been below sea level at some
time in the past. Pliny (the Elder), who lived between AD 23 and AD 79,
noted several fossils, including shells and sponges, in his writings,
and correctly attributed amber to pine trees. In his Natural History
Pliny described snake eggs that were reputed to be strong antidotes
against snake poison. These fossils were actually sea urchins. He also
described some fossils as tongue-stones (Glossopetrae), which were
correctly described some sixteen centuries later as sharks' teeth by the
Italian Fabio Colonna (1567-1650).
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