PaleoPoetry - Notes from a Rock Nut!
I've been a rockhound and fossil collector for much of my life. Nova Scotia lends itself well to these activities, since our shorelines are rich in mineral specimens and there are numerous fossil sites readily accessible merely by walking along a beach. The constant tides erode the sea cliff and expose ledges beneath the shoreline, often uncovering fossils in the process. Higher on the Fundy cliffs, the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary, with its record of dramatic faunal changes resulting from a major extinction event, has provided a wealth of material. It can be studied in areas around the upper Bay of Fundy and inner Minas Basin, such as at Blomidon and Wasson's Bluff (near Parrsboro). My personal favorite site is on and near Rossway Beach, Digby County. It is little-visited and material is less common than at the better-known locations. But I do get my exercise, because it's a long walk around Red Head bluff, watched only by groups of seals out on the rocks. One must always be vigilant here, as elsewhere, for the Fundy tides are the highest in the world and can trap the unwary against the vertical cliff faces.
Coastal sites including Joggins, Brule, Point Aconi, Arisaig and Blue Beach are especially productive and have achieved worldwide fame among paleontologists. Many small and rare early reptiles, fish and amphibians have been found in these places. These span periods ranging from Jurassic through Triassic to Carboniferous and back to Silurian (the latter is especially true of Arisaig). Associated with the coal fields in Cape Breton and the northern mainland are many Carbonferous fossils, particularly plants. Many renowned scientists have come to these various locales to pursue their investigations.
Parrsboro hosts a significant rock and mineral show every August and also has its own geological museum. A visit is highly recommended. Follow this link for more information.
View my Slideshow at the bottom of this page! Link to Webshots to see the images full-size, since they've been cropped to fit the slideshow format. It will be updated as I add more fossils to my collection. Many of the older images are already posted here on my site but others will be new.
The Triassic Muck at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia
Specimen Hunters
We slop through Triassic muck,
print separate trackways.
Some now-unborn paleontologist
may chisel these parallel steps,
never knowing the barefoot swing
along tidal suck and pull. Never
hearing the dialogue of our eyes.
A crimson saltbroth crawls,
rises, drowns our ankles.
We bring back no rewards except soles red as henna: pharaoh and his sister-wife.
At sundown we challenge
rockfalls from the morning,
scramble for evidence God
may have come here first.
His nameless garden of dust
awakens, but its coal ferns shatter at the wind’s kiss.
I stoop and study a fragment
before offering it to the sea.
Veins fan into branches
like throat-to-lung highways,
though without any meat song.
All flesh is cellulose and carbon.
Yes, even you -- my favorite carnivore,
must accept this holy ash that makes us
one with each other and the dead .
Shepherd of the Stone Fold
I have herded here
since sky first rose
over me
and a murder of dark wings
fell without music.
entire
an mountain
I once banished range
because I did not care for its arrogance.
Renegades grumble in the distance, still fanged --
a circling pack around
two near-dead
glaciers.
I tossed rocks into brine and grew
the next temporary continent
into a sideways skull, long-jawed,
bulge-brained. The reptilian beasts
displeased me, so I slashed them like
a knife through elephant grass and
pressed them quiet under red sand.
I hung a few teeth on my staff.
Now a wandering band
strays outside my
bounds, bends
at cliff's edge,
becomes prey
for tides or
winds. I
can only
fend off
one
threat at a time and I grow tired
more often these days;
it greatly pains me
when my last sheep abandon the field.
I guard them because I have no choice
yet -- but soon I will wander again,
raze other hills, carve fresh wounds
between peaks and sea.
The newest watcher waits to take my place.
I pray she will be more vigilant.
Rutiodon tooth - species of phytosaur, an alligator-looking reptile from the Triassic period.
Bull Canyon formation, Arizona (can also be found in NS)
Darwin in a Jar
When Norris said that I should put some tail
hairs from my grey horse in a Mason jar,
cover with water and then let them stand,
I asked him, “What’s the point of that?” He said,
“You leave ‘em there, they’ll turn to little snakes
with spines and scales; with pinhead dots for eyes.”
I couldn’t comprehend how this might be,
yet badly wanted it to happen, so
I pulled some strands, then filled up my bottle
from Norris’s cistern and sealed them in.
A week went by, and eagerly each day
I lifted up my strange experiment.
The light played round and round; the silver swatch
rippled and spun. I saw it undulate
and dreamed of serpents rising from the sea.
But only with my shaking would they move.
No heads emerged, no pupils stared, no tongues
flicked at the fluid in their amnion.
Life came, though not for them: a coat of green
covered the follicles. Their algal wrap
denied my vision as it grew and spread
across the failing genesis. For no
god-finger sparked those passive molecules.
Then Norris mocked my gullibility.
“Just what were you expecting, silly girl?
You really think that something dead as hair
can change itself?” I shook my pride away
by climbing to the roof, and raised my arm
to throw that rotten and impotent thing.
It made a lovely arch, then fell and smashed
against the heliotrope like ash on suns.
Rhyncosaurides Brunswickii - late Triassic, Gettysburg Formation, Maryland
Click to Start Slideshow!
