Zippy fossil finds
by Tas Walker
Wool Bay and the area where fossils are found.
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Long-age thinking is so prevalent in our culture that most people just take it for
granted. They assume that rocks and fossils took millions of years to form, even
though we can’t begin to imagine what a million years would be like. But vast
time is not necessary—the main requirement is a suitable mix of ingredients.
Concrete is an obvious example.
Rocks on a beach at Wool Bay, South Australia, vividly demonstrate this fact. Visitors
could spend the day unearthing fascinating modern fossils. John Roberts and his
family did exactly that.
One of their fascinating finds was a rock, enclosing part of the differential casing
of an old automobile. It is obviously not millions of years old, even though it
looks natural. Technically, we could call it a fossil because a fossil is any evidence
of past life found in a rock.
Of historic interest at Wool Bay is an old lime burner built into the cliffs. It
is no longer used, but calcium carbonate is quarried nearby for cement production.
It seems that mineralized water, running out of the limestone cliffs and across
the beach, cemented the rocks.
The fossil hunters dug up another rock containing glass, shells, pieces of pottery
and a bullet cartridge.
These exciting rock formations show that rocks and fossils form naturally much faster
than we are conditioned to believe. All it takes is suitable conditions, not millions
of years.
Additional photos
(All photos provided by Marlene Roberts)
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Gearwheel encased in rock. The wheel is man-made but the rock is not.
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Naturally formed rock containing shells and part of a differential casing. Fossilization
does not need vast time periods.
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A conglomerate of a bullet cartridge, shells, pieces of pottery and glass cemented
naturally on the beach.
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The old lime factory on the beach.
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Dianne Pearson and Jonathan Fitzner show off their rock-encased fossil finds.
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John Roberts with family and friends fossil hunting among the rocks on the beach
at Wool Bay, South Australia.
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