Crinoids … St Cuthbert Beads …

 

Stepping on eggshells … or walking on the beach with sharp, stony pebbles … both would make us jump around trying to find a more comfortable place from which to enjoy the seashore …

"So-called
St Cuthbert's beads"

I remember a holiday I had with my father years ago up on the Northumberland coast, when we visited the tidal Holy Island of Lindisfarne – an important centre of Celtic Christianity, including St Cuthbert (c 634 – 687AD), and later the Venerable Bede (c 672 - 735AD) …

Falsies from years ago!

I don't know how many have seen the fossilised false teeth set that hit the airwaves recently … actually some crinoids ossified as the planet evolved about half a billion years ago … entitled the 'smiling fossil' see link below …

Lindisfarne - Holy Island

Crinoids, marine invertebrates, can still appear … but these fossilised ones tend to be found from the Triassic era (c 250 million years ago to 200 million years ago) ...

Crinoid Stem

I realised the crinoid find … false teeth from the triassic era … rather quaint - which gave me, and continues to give me, a laugh …

Explanation of a Crinoid - via Lumen

Amazing what can be found millions of years later … protected in a layer of sediment the skeletal remains compacted, turn to rock …

One of the pinnules - before
the crinoids separate away

... the bones are dissolved by water seeping through the rock, while the minerals in the water replace the bone, leaving a rock replica of the original bone called a fossil …

As described within image

...then over geological time these replica bones become displaced leaving us with the so called “St Cuthbert's Beads' from the Jurassic era…

Triassic flora and fauna

Strange but true … false teeth idea and all?!

Happy Spring finally, though we're in for a few chilly days …

Smiling False Teeth fossil

Lumen - c/o Wiki

Crinoid - c/o Wiki

National History Museum - discover the triassic period

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories