Fossils set in stone

as promised. my first sight of fossils drove me wild and i was scrambling all over employee's rock looking for more. each trek i go i stop at each rock formation to look for any nice, exposed ones. wooot!

intro/geology
GC rock happens to be composed mostly of red sandstone, shale, and in some parts igneous and recent volcanic rock. it is the sedimentary sandstone we are interested in. donkey million years ago the GC region was a region of shallow seas, abundant with life. should be the tethys sea if i can recall from memory. correct me if im wrong. in any case, this region of the sea dried up and was uplifted by plate tetonic faults. all the critters that lived here were hence brought up by 8154feet above sea level. now that is alot.

specimens
a wide variety of fossils can be found here. most common are crinoids and bivalves. these are more or less sedentary creatures who got smothered by the mud and were preserved in good detail; they can be found nearly everywhere.

crinoids:
most common of the lot. these fossil fragments are usually found as sectioned plates or tubes embedded in the rock. these fragments come from the stem of the crinoid. these crinoids are distant progenitors of the present day feather stars, related to the sluggish sea cucumber, asteroidiac sea stars and the prickly sea-urchins. they look like lilies in the sea, where the head(and mouthparts, along with feathery tentacles) sway in the water column, anchored down by a long pliable stem connected to a rock or sea bed which a set of 'feet' attach themselves to. so far i have found only plate fragments; i have yet to find any head-parts of the crinoid.

bivalves:
bivalves, or clams, are aplenty here. most can be seen half-exposed from the sandstone, and i have managed to pry/chip out a few good specimens. so far i have managed to identify two disctinct species, with a third that looks like a gastropod, but im not really sure if it is.

imprints:
there are also alot of imprints left around. i have a few good samples of net-like simprints, i suspect them to be either from a flat shell or even better, a sea fan. i dont know. there are alot of worm-casts around. these are tubes in the mud made by worms whose bodies did not manage to survive fossilization, but their homes did. i cant pry out any samples; it would be too big a piece to carry around. i do have quite a number of good pictures though. it is said that one can find dinosaur footprints as well. it would be extremely lucky for me to be able to find a set, or even recognise them.

trilobites:
yet to see them. these guys died out rather early in geological history, and would most probably be in the lower layers of rock. so far ive been up high in the rim areas, so when i get an opportunity to go down lower into the canyons ill be sure to watch out for these guys.

fishes:
i think them fishes will be rare, really rare, so id really cry for joy if i manage to find one.

so far thats about it for fossils. once again i apologise for not being able to get pics up; the connection here is still killing me, so you'll need to google out or use your imagination.

oh, theres lots of crystal formations too, managed to find so many good ones just lying around. once again, pics akan datang. any requests for crystals or fossils?


made this up while i was doing drudgery in the cabins. sung to a (kinda-mutated) led zep tune:
Set In Stone

i missed the train
i missed the train
i saw on the platfom
how the girls were wavin
their hankies
like daisys in the wind
bidding farewell to time
each minute passed
each infinite minute lost
each flew off, each fell
as their tears glittering were set in stone
left behind
glitters like diamonds
their tears were set in stone
im set in stone
the world has moved on
the world has passed on
that part of your life is over now
that part of your life is over
that part of your life is over now
over now, over now, over now,
its over now.
im a fossil, im a fossil
im set in stone, im set in stone
and the end times are coming
the end times are coming now
the end times are here
the end times are coming
the end times are coming now
the end times are here
the end times are here, here, here
the end times are here, here, here, here, here,
here.