Sep 16 2011
Emily Baldry is six years old. Emily has a little plastic shovel. Emily dug up a 160 million year old cephalopod.
I’m 54, I have a little plastic spoon, and I’m eyeing the backyard. There used to be cephalopods swimming around in this neighborhood…of course, there were also some annoying glaciers that scoured the landscape. But I can dream!
(Also on Sb)
Frequently Read Threads
Commenting Rules
The Desert Tortoises With Boltcutters Civility Pledge
[Introductions]: Meet the other commenters
The [Lounge]: a safe space; friendly chat; moderated
The [Thunderdome]: no-holds-barred unmoderated chaos
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
Chris Clarke is a science and natural history writer, editor, and
environmental protection activist in Joshua Tree, California.
• Coyote Crossing
• my writing
at KCET
• Desert Biodiversity
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google
Plus
• Walking
With Zeke
• Walking
With Zeke (iBookstore)
:)
40 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Kimberly Hosey (Arizona Writer)
16 September 2011 at 2:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My son’s shovel is identical to that. He did dig up an old sprinkler head last week. Eyeing backyard right now.
Glen Davidson
16 September 2011 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I dug up some cat shit. Not really something that makes me want to keep digging. I know what I can find here anyhow, a bunch of boring basalt (Washington flood basalts).
The photo caption says 140 million years, and just below it the article claims 16 million years.
Ammonites make nice pets, just sitting there on the shelf.
Glen Davidson
Glen Davidson
16 September 2011 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I dug up some cat shit. Not really something that makes me want to keep digging. I know what I can find here anyhow, a bunch of boring basalt (Washington flood basalts).
The photo caption says 140 million years, and just below it the article claims 160 million years.
Ammonites make nice pets, just sitting there on the shelf.
Glen Davidson
Interrobang
16 September 2011 at 3:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And she calls it “Spike,” which I think is a fine name for a fossilised cephalopod.
Glen Davidson
16 September 2011 at 3:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ack, one of those stupid cases where you hit “0″ and it doesn’t quite go down far enough to register. “160 million” of course.
Glen Davidson
Caine, Fleur du Mal
16 September 2011 at 3:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow! If I thought I’d find something like that, I’d start digging up the whole yard.
tushcloots
16 September 2011 at 3:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When I was three, I had a little plastic shovel, and it suddenly dawned on me that concrete was made out of sand. I decided that I would dig up the porch. I remember the mailman coming by about then and asked what I was doing.n I confidentally and matter of factly told him I was going to dig the porch up, and I was puzzled when he laughed.
'Tis Himself, OM
16 September 2011 at 3:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Think about what she’d dig up if she had one of these.
Glen Davidson
16 September 2011 at 3:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, I forgot to add, “Therefore Jeebus,” like a good little godbot.
Now I feel holy.
Glen Davidson
geral
16 September 2011 at 3:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I used to dream about digging holes in my Michigan backyard and finding mammoth skeletons
Vall
16 September 2011 at 3:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My daughter’s photo of an ammonite did pretty well over at the panda’s thumb photo contest. I wish we could have found one as big as the girl in England did. Wow.
Therrin
16 September 2011 at 3:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is one mutant bridge.
NelC
16 September 2011 at 3:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tsk, just down the road from me. With envy I am green. That could have been me, if I ever went to Cotswold Water Park. And dug the ground up at random. Shame I haven’t got a backyard.
TV200
16 September 2011 at 3:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This makes me happy, for some reason, I just think it’s cool.
The only thing I’ve ever excavated was a Vespa, that had been buried for about 30 years. Only a very familiar handlebar sticking out of the ground.
jimnorth
16 September 2011 at 3:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mmmmmmmm…..escargot………yum!
EvoMonkey
16 September 2011 at 3:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Very cool!!! I tried digging out an old tree stump when I was that age, but I essentially got no where and broke my plastic shovel. Even with all my pleading to Mom and Dad, chainsaws and dynamite were out of the question.
Some random guy
16 September 2011 at 3:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
lol
'Tis Himself, OM
16 September 2011 at 3:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You should have asked for a backhoe.
changeable moniker
16 September 2011 at 4:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A young Mary Anning. Tremendous!
ss123
16 September 2011 at 4:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve found a pretty big ammonite fossil laying right on top of the ground (mostly) while hunting on the western plains of South Dakota. They’re everywhere out there… The east side not so much as that’s where the glacier bulldozed through. I think the west side of SD missed most of the glaciers.
DFS
16 September 2011 at 4:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is almost an overdose of cuteness and coolness. Nice.
JJ
16 September 2011 at 5:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I wish I would have found something like that as a kid! Although, it was pretty cool as 7-8yo and finding sharks teeth digging around the back yard. I still remember the sense of awe I had when I found one. The idea of sharks teeth inland really left me amazed and curious about geology\paleontology. But hey, it was just there ’cause of the global flood.
A3Kr0n
16 September 2011 at 5:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I wanted that rock pick in the gift shop at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for many years. Finally, my dad bought it for me. It was only then that I discovered wanting is sometimes better than having. Dad’s wood chisel and a hammer worked much better at separating the rock layers.
grumps
16 September 2011 at 5:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s cool, but it’s doubly cool because it may well be the event that sends Emily off to a life of science, wonder and just awesomeness. Keep digging Emily!
Sili
16 September 2011 at 5:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kids these days.
No respect for the departed.
In a civilised country she be charged with disturbing a gravesite
Little ghoul.
brazenlucidity
16 September 2011 at 6:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nice!
Rockatte
16 September 2011 at 6:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m skeptical of this story. The only 2 references I’ve found are from The Mirror and The Daily Mail – not exactly paragons of journalistic integrity. Thoughts anyone?
maureen.brian
16 September 2011 at 7:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Video from ITV News is here
http://www.itv.com/news/a-young-discovery26114/
William Papp
16 September 2011 at 7:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
At one time had a similar Ammonite that I had painstakingly extracted from some dang hard rock. My garage was broken into and all they took was my fossil! At least they had good taste.
chigau (...---...)
16 September 2011 at 7:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I agree with grumps.
Poor Emily is probably imprinted and doomed to become a palaeontologist!
nemothederv
16 September 2011 at 7:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
New standard of measurement,
Emily is 3 cephalopods tall
Mr. Fire
16 September 2011 at 7:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The burning question is: which six-year-old girl dug up PZ?
*runs*
Cuttlefish Country
16 September 2011 at 7:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well done, Emily! The cephalopods of the world thank you for unearthing our heritage and celebrating them! Thanks for sharing this story & pic, PZ!
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
16 September 2011 at 9:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I somehow picture her on a dig next to Dr. Marjanović some day, finding a missing link with her lucky shovel…
popeyemoon
16 September 2011 at 9:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am 56 years old ,I was digging foxholes at her age.
illdoittomorrow
16 September 2011 at 10:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
All I ever get to see are pyritized crinoid fragments, the odd sponge spicule, and (once) a nice brachiopod mold.
*cries*
Eric Paulsen
17 September 2011 at 1:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In the third grade I found a tiny bivalve no bigger than my thumbnail now (1/2 an inch more or less) and was devastated when one of the fifth grade teachers asked to borrow it and never gave it back. It was the coolest fossil I found in my young life. When I was about 16 though my family took our sailboat to the Charity islands and in waist deep water I found two, what I believe were, human molars encased in what looked like sandstone. I don’t know if those were fossils or maybe just remains encrusted from being in the water, but I lost them and my Dad sold the boat…
Never in my life did I dream of finding anything as cool as what Emily found. I blame the fact that I never had a tiny plastic shovel.
McCthulhu awaits the return of the 2000 foot Frank Zappa
17 September 2011 at 4:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The most recent stories about fossilized anything involved pre-adolescent children happening upon the fossil or digging it up. Voila! We can make a deduction. If we want to find all the fossils hidden in all the strata and make our evolutionary fossil history compleat (heh!) we just have to send out large contingents of kids with inappropriate digging apparatus (like spoons and little plastic hand shovels) and they will soon reveal the entire fauna history of the planet. (citation needed)
Oh, and Glen Davidson (#9, #9, #9, #9…):
For the amount it’s as the main ammo in the derision cannon, we almost need to keep ‘∴ Jebus!’ stored in our computer’s clipboard to paste at all times.
AlanMacandCheese
17 September 2011 at 8:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
40 cm across and needed spikes for defense… WHAT THE HELL WAS EATING THEM!! *shudder*
http://www.physorg.com/news123947703.html
Oh! Never mind.
leel
18 September 2011 at 6:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ A3Kr0n, #23:
Your Dad’s WOOD CHISEL??!?
How on earth did you survive childhood?