Location :
You are standing in the front of Auckland Art Gallery.
Auckland Art Gallery is an exhibition located on four levels of award-winning building, is the largest and most inspiring visual arts experience in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Admission is free, This Earthcache doesn`t require you to enter Art Gallery ...
Earthcache :
At the entrance to the gallery , on the floor and at the walls you will see a large amount of fossils.
The wall and the floor at Auckland's Art Gallery is made from a natural stone with fossils and it is a limestone (Jura Grey). Jura Grey limestone with embedded fossil remnants was imported from Germany.
What are the fossils ?
Fossils are the remains of ancient animals and plants preserved to this day, as well as traces of their activities. The process of a living organism turning into a fossil, called fossilisation, takes millions of years and is extremely random.
There are lots of different types of fossils ....
When most people think of fossils they think of dinosaur skeletons and large bones, but there are many different types of fossils.
Palaeontologists, people who study fossils, recognize them into two major types: body fossils and trace fossils.
1) Body fossils are the fossilised remains of an animal or plant, like bones, shells and leaves ...
2) Trace fossils - this type of fossils records the activity of an animal. These include footprints, trackways, etc ....
The most favourable conditions for starting the fossilisation process are in the aquatic environment. Organisms with a hard external or internal skeleton have the greatest chance of fossilisation. The basic condition for fossilisation is the quick covering of the remains of dead organisms with sediment, which cuts off the access of oxygen (oxygen causes the rapid decomposition of the organism), protects against scavengers and mechanical damage, and also enables chemical or mineralogical transformations of the remains.
How to log this EarthCache:
A) At the posted coordinates you`ll be standing near the entrance to the Art Gallery. Find a large sign above : AUCKLAND ART GALLERY TOI O TAMAKI - sign is located to the left of the entrance. And near the bottom of the stairs. Then just under the word TAMAKI on the horizontal wall locate the bottom tile (marked on the picture) The tile is not square ...
Q1) Find a fossil at the bottom tile , what kind of plant or animal do you think it is ?
Q2) Is this a body or trace fossil , why?
B) Look around on the wall and on the floor.
Q3) Can you see any other types of fossils here apart from the one you have described?
Q4) Do you think it is mainly fossils of things that lived in water or on land , why?
Q5 PHOTO) Please take a photo of yourself or your GPS, your caching name , etc , near entrance to the Auckland Art Gallery - Attach this picture to Your LOG! This photo only need to be proof you visited,
Logging:
Do not post the answer in your log. You can go ahead and log your find (ie. you don't need to wait for permission) if you answered the questions above and uploaded the correct picture. There is no need to email me your picture. If there are any questions about your answers CO will contact you. Logs without answers to CO , with pending questions from CO or without the picture will be deleted without further notice.
If you are part of a group, the person submitting the answers must mention all group members by their Geocaching usernames. Each group member must include their own photo to log this EarthCache.
Happy Earthcaching!!!
