As you walk along Main St in Kirkby Lonsdale, there is plenty to see. Now the buildings that you see, are constructed from local limestone or sandstone. However we are not here to discuss limestone or sandstone - there are plenty of EarthCaches which do that. We are here to look at a fossil, or rather series of fossils.
THE LOCATION
A fossil is trace or remains of a plant, animal or other organisms. However, there is more to fossilization than just bones, or remains of a T Rex. There are many EarthCaches which can teach you about the whole process of fossilization, what we are concerned with are ichnofossils. The simpler way to understand an ichnofossil are that there are traces of a biological activity, in the form of a geological record. They are also known as trace fossils, and thus show a trace of an impression made on the substrate, and can be root cavities, feeding marks, footprints, and remains of excretia, such as fossilized droppings.
Geology can be difficult to understand, so below are some easy ways to describe types of trace fossils.
1. Cochlichnus. These are caused by locomotion (i.e movement), and can be a curving or a meandering smooth horizontal trace.
2. Scolicia. These are caused by the locomotion (i.e movement) or feeding traces made by animals on or under the seadbed. They appear as horizontal bilateral, symetrical meandering trails. Imagine the imprint a bike tyre makes, you have two symetrical borders.
3. Lockeia. These have the shape similar to an almond, and in technical terms could be described as ovoid. These are the trace of a bivalve resting place. A bivalve is a type of mollusc, such as a mussel.
This being an EarthCache, in order to log it, I ask that you answer some questions. Please send them to me, and do not include them in your log. You can send them to me by using the message facility or email, both of which can be found by looking at my profile. It is not meant to be difficult to do.
1. Please identify the type of ichnofossil that you can find here.
2. In your own words please describe what the ichnofossil looks like, its size (length, width and depth).
3. Please describe the ichnofossil in the top left corner of the block.