Author: More than a Dodo

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Presenting… the Gault Clay

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Our changing Presenting… display offers a look at highlights, themes and topical material drawn from the Museum’s collections. The current display presents a rich selection of fossils taken from a formation known as the Gault Clay. This will be on show until 21 September (Madagascar is up next), so it’s almost your last chance to see it.

The Gault Clay is known for its exceptional diversity of fossils. Deposited across northern Europe in the Lower Cretaceous, 100-112 million years ago, its abundance of ammonite fossils shows that it was laid down in a marine environment, at a time when sea levels were rising rapidly.

The Gault Clay in the Cliffs at Folkestone
The Gault Clay in the Cliffs at Folkestone

Best seen at Folkestone in Kent, the Gault is sandwiched between the Lower Greensand and Chalk formations. The Folkestone Warren landslip has provided ample opportunities for fossil collectors for centuries. The land is still on the move today, but 100 years ago, on 19 December 1915, a major slip occurred which shut down the local railway for five years.

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Ammonite (Hoplites dentatus)

William Smith (1769-1839), who published the first geological map of England and Wales 200 years ago this year, called the Gault ‘blue marl’. He used the fossils found in it to map the Gault across the South of England.

Along with ammonites, it is possible to find snails, clams, shark’s teeth, fish, crabs, and lobsters. Even dinosaur fossils have been found, including the ankylosaur Anoplosaurus.

Some of the Gault collections in the Museum date back to the 1800s; others were collected as recently as 2015.

The Presenting... display, near the entrance to the Museum
The Presenting… display, near the entrance to the Museum

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Striking gold

Nagyágite SEM

For the last six weeks, Oxford Earth Sciences undergraduate Charis Horn has been identifying mystery minerals in the Museum’s collections, and she’s struck gold! More precisely, she’s found rare gold-bearing crystals of nagyágite and sylvanite on a specimen which for centuries had been mis-labelled as the common lead mineral galena.

Nagyágite is composed of gold, lead, sulphur, antimony and tellurium and forms metallic grey crystals. Sylvanite is made up of gold and tellurium with a little silver, and is pale, silvery yellow. These minerals and their surrounding rock matrix indicate that the specimen is from the gold mines of Săcărâmb, in Romania, formerly known as Nagyág –  the place where nagyágite was first discovered.

Charis on SEM
Charis using the scanning electron microscope

Charis is one of a number of interns funded by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) through the University’s Internship Programme to learn more about academic research.

Rocks and minerals have always fascinated me, which is the reason I chose to study Earth Sciences at university. I find it amazing that the history of this planet can be read in the geology beneath our feet.

Many of Charis’s samples were put aside for a bit of extra work many years ago because the minerals on the specimen were potentially more interesting than the labels might suggest. Some can be identified by looking at physical characteristics such as colour and crystal shape, or by testing for properties like hardness and magnetism.

Others are much more challenging, and Charis has been using an analytical scanning electron microscope (SEM) to see close-up images of minute crystals to find out what chemical elements they are made of. There’s an SEM image of the nagyágite crystals, seen in white, at the top of the post.

Another of her discoveries has been a rare lead-bearing silicate mineral called hancockite, which was found on a specimen supposed to be from ‘Glen Coe, Argyllshire’. The orange-red crystals are less than a millimetre long, and hancockite is known from only one place in the world: Franklin mine, in New Jersey, USA.

It seems our specimen comes from Franklin mine too, and is the first sample of hancockite in the Museum’s collections. So both specimens must have had their labels muddled up in past centuries.

I have really enjoyed learning more about mineralogy during my time here at the Museum. Realising that something is far more exciting than it first seemed is definitely a great way to end this internship!

Monica Price – Head of Earth Collections

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Mad about minibeasts

 

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Minibeasts are everywhere, and there are millions of them! These little invertebrates can be found in every environment on the planet.

Woodlands are great places to look for minibeasts as they are home to a large number of specialist species. This is because a wood contains a diverse range of habitats including dead wood, open areas such as grassy glades, the tree canopy and understorey layers where the smaller woodland plants can be found, as well as leaf litter and rich soils.

If you fancy going on a hunt for some minibeasts yourself, here are a few things you could look for in different kinds of habitats.

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Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus)
Lesser Stag Beetles, like their larger relatives the Greater Stag Beetles, are dependent on decaying wood. The larvae can take two or more years to develop in the old wood and the adult lives for about two years. They are mainly active at night but can sometimes be seen by day or tempted out in the early evening by a sweet treat such as maple syrup.

Beautiful butterflies such as the Speckled Wood, Brimstone and Hairstreaks can be found flitting around in woodland glades, visiting flowers and looking for mates.

Speckled Wood
Speckled Wood Butterfly (Pararge aegeria)
Bumblebees are also frequent visitors. There are 24 species of bumblebee in the UK but there are only about eight that are commonly seen. When a bumblebee has visited a flower it leaves a chemical message to tell the other bumblebees that it has been there and not to bother investigating as the nectar has already been plundered.

There’s plenty more to discover too, from pseudoscorpions to the importance of aphids in the food chain of many ecosystems…

If you’d like to learn more then come along to Wytham Woods in Oxford at 10am on 22 July or 26 August and help us see what we can find in a 90-minute guided walk around the woods. The event is free, family friendly (ideal for children 7+) and an expert will be on hand to help with minibeast identification too. For more information and to book email ceri.watkins@oum.ox.ac.uk.

Ceri Watkins – TCV Natural Talent Trainee

 

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Dodo Roadshow – #ILoveMuseums

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So, it’s been one hell of a trip man. In a bid to shake off the cobwebs and ‘find myself’ I set out on an epic Roadshow from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The Dodo Roadshow, no less: all mine, but also everyone else’s…

I found so much more than I could have bargained for: monuments to nature, relics of industrial might, extinctions recent and past, and a whole load of philosophical perspective. I am a changed Dodo.

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And this is what I have learnt – museums are powerful, important and brilliant. They are full of wonder, learning, curiosity, surprising viewpoints and fun discoveries. To find out why, read my full story in the cartoons below (thanks to Chris Jarvis for capturing the essence).

And then I need your help. I need you to head on over to ilovemuseums.com and put your name to the campaign. I may be an old bird-brain, but I know that we should stand up for our museums – I’ve seen ’em man and they’re really something special. Squawk!

The Dodo.

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Dodo Roadshow: RSPB Loch Garten

Richard Crossley
Capercaillie from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland – Creative Commons

To mark our selection as a Finalist in the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2015 we’re embarking on a unique and ambitious tour of the country – the Dodo Roadshow.

Beginning at Land’s End on 8 June and concluding in John O’Groats one week later, the famous Oxford Dodo will visit more than 20 museums and galleries along the way. At each stop the Dodo will ‘interview’ one of the venue’s star objects.

RSPB Loch Garten: Capercaillie

RSPB Loch Garten 850pxSo, tell me about yourself – who are you and where do you come from?
I am a capercaillie and my home is the magnificent National Nature Reserve, Abernethy Forest. I am very lucky to live here, as it is the largest remnant of the Caledonian pine forest, which is full of tasty blaeberry for me and my chicks to feed on. My name means ‘horse of the woods’ in Gaelic: some humans think that when I do my impressive display call it sounds like the hooves of horses on cobbles.

What is it that makes you so special?
I’m special for many reasons! Where do I start? I’m very rare here in Scotland. There are only around 1,000 of me left but back in the 1970s there were as many as 20,000 of capercaillies like me! I’m also very good at a special dance called lekking. I strut around, with my beautiful tail fanned up and I make a sequence of click and pop sounds, showing off to the ladies and trying to outdo the other male capercaillies at the lek. I’m very beautiful too, with a striking red eye marking, and glorious iridescent feathers on my front. I’m also the largest grouse in Scotland.

Who looks after you in this place?
Here at Abernethy Forest I’m looked after by the RSPB. They know how special my dance is and they know how upset I get if my lek is disturbed by curious humans who want to take a peek at my fancy moves. Therefore, they ask people to watch me lek at a safe distance, hidden from my view by a hide at a special event called Caper-Watch. The RSPB also know that I fly into deer fences which can kill me, so they make sure there are no deer fences here at Abernethy. Something else the RSPB is doing to look after me is making my home bigger and better, by expanding the forest and opening up the canopy in parts of the forest where it is too dense.

Do you remember life before RSPB Loch Garten?
I don’t remember but my ancestors tell me lots of stories about before Abernethy was a nature reserve. They tell me about how people used to shoot capercaillies!  And that there was less blaeberry around for them to eat.

What does the future hold for you?
The future looks uncertain for me; there aren’t many of us capercaillies left now…and we have gone extinct in Scotland before! But the RSPB is doing lots to help me here at Abernethy, and visitors too are helping by keeping their dogs on leads during the breeding season, coming to Caper-Watch to see me without disturbing me and joining as RSPB members. So hopefully things will get better for capercaillies.

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Dodo Roadshow: Perth Museum and Art Gallery

Perth Museum and Gallery

To mark our selection as a Finalist in the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2015 we’re embarking on a unique and ambitious tour of the country – the Dodo Roadshow.

Beginning at Land’s End on 8 June and concluding in John O’Groats one week later, the famous Oxford Dodo will visit more than 20 museums and galleries along the way. At each stop the Dodo will ‘interview’ one of the venue’s star objects.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery: St Madoes Stone

So, tell me about yourself – who are you and where do you come from?
I am a Pictish cross slab in very good condition, considering my age. For centuries I took pride of place in the kirkyard of St Madoes Parish Church, six miles east of Perth in the Tay Valley.

What is it that makes you so special?
I am so special because my embellishments are of both Pictish and Celtic origin reflecting my place in the region, which was ‘the cradle of Scotland’. My front face shows a Celtic cross with interlace and knot work patterns similar to those seen in the Book of Kells or Lindisfarne gospels. Above the beautiful cross I have leaping lions and on each side the cross is guarded by Pictish hunting dogs. On my reverse side there are three cloaked and hooded Pictish horse riders above three of the enigmatic Pictish symbols known today as crescent and v rod, a double disc and a z rod. Don’t ask me what they mean, I knew once but I have now forgotten.

Who looks after you in this place?
In Perth Museum and Art Gallery I come under the curatorship of Mark Hall along with all the other archaeological objects in the museum. On a day to day basis my surroundings are preened and pimped by the wonderful front of house team who polish the large mirror which shows off my Pictish side to make sure I look my best in photographs, and they tell my story as a star object to the visitors to the museum.

Do you remember life before the museum?
Before I came to the museum I stood in the churchyard of St Madoes Church. After many centuries I fell over but remained in the same place. In the 19th century I was raised again and didn’t come to the museum until the 1990s when I was given pride of place in the entrance hall.

What does the future hold for you?
I cannot see far into the future but I know that my place is secure (literally) within the entrance hall. I’m too big and too popular to move easily but it could be that the display around me may change.

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