Brachiopods!

While this may not look very prepossessing to most. I find this lump of rock fascinating.

It's an iron rich, fine grained sandstone picked up in the Tilton Cutting yesterday on the way back from Launde.

It's chock full of brachiopods, a variety of shellfish that used to be more dominant than it is now.

Imagine a beach, and then a shell bank, which you do often find on beaches. This was once such a shell bank. It comes from a sequence in the Middle to Upper Lias deposited in the Jurassic period, 180-190 My ago.

Tilton, owned by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and is said to have inspired David Attenborough when he was a schoolboy, in his study of natural history. He used to bike out here from Leicester to rummage in the fossils.

A shale horizon at the top of the succession, and not easily reached, is said to be home to ammonites, one species of which was named after the locality (Tiltoniceras acutum).


I'm placing this on the map where I found it, ie, the cutting, not where I took the photo.


Five hours of my life were spent finishing and checking the Gothla website today. I just have to upload the bookings page now. Bookings open on Tuesday.