fossils and folklore

fossils and folklore The commonly symmetrical shapes and similarities of fossils to parts of living organisms have caught the eye of men throughout time and in most parts of the world. Many resemble other organic forms or structures. In some instances the fossils are associated with particular kinds of rock or with specific localities. Fossils have been found associated with the remains of early humans, some being present in burial furnishings or as adornments. Cultures throughout the world have ascribed special properties to particular types of fossil, and these objects are well known in European folklore that goes back at least to the Middle Ages.

In folklore many such fossils have been identified as supernatural or exotic objects and bear fanciful names. Some may be accorded talisman status, promoting good luck or boosting the possessor's virtues, etc. In Britain, some of the earliest systematic collecting of data on the topic is found in the work of Dr Robert Plot, the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in the University of Oxford.

Coiled shells, commonly of ammonoid cephalopods, nautiloids, or gastropods, have been given colloquial names such as rams' horns, snakestones, serpentstones, and conger eels. The bullet-shaped solid guards of belemnites have been referred to as thunderbolts, devil's fingers, or even St Peter's fingers. In Yorkshire they are known as scaur pencils, while in Scandinavia they are gnome's lights or candles. Screwstones are the casts of the interiors of spirally coiled gastropods from the Jurassic of southern England.

Very common in the Lower Lias (Jurassic) of Britain, the bivalve mollusc Gryphaea, with its characteristic layered curved shape, is known as the devil's toenail.

The columnal plates of crinoids, common in many Palaeozoic limestones, are locally weathered out of the matrix singly or in groups, and may be threaded together through the central hole. They have been called fairy money, St Cuthbert's beads, and, in Germany, St Boniface's pennies.

Columnals of the Mesozoic crinoid Pentacrinites have a star-like shape and are known as star-stones. Fossil echinoderms have been called shepherd's crowns, fairy loaves, and even thunderbolts. Others have been dubbed chalk eggs.

Many of the objects mentioned above have been credited with beneficial or medicinal properties, and prescribed in one form or another as curatives or aphrodisiacs. In China fossil bones (dragon bones) have been used for centuries, usually ground to powder, in various prescriptions and for similar purposes.

D. L. Dineley

Bibliography

Bassett, M. G. (1982) ‘Formed stones’, folklore and fossils. Geological Series No. 1, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Edwards, W. N. (1967) The early history of palaeontology. British Museum (Natural History), London.