Well, it's been a long winter but it looks like we may even have a spring. We've had some exciting news in our family. Our grandson, Dewey, submitted a photo to a national contest for National Geographic Kids and Won! He was chosen, along with 13 other kids and two teachers. They will all be going to Peru for 12 days accompanied by their photographers, a guide, a biologist, a naturalist, some real life explorers and others. He is 13 and is very excited about it. WE are incredibly proud of him. Here is the winning photo. Dewey had to write a story about the photo and the following is what he wrote:
National Geographic Hands-On Explorer Challenge
Dewey Sheehan
Fossil Discoveries
My name is Dewey Sheehan, I am thirteen years old, and am from Pembroke, Maine. Pembroke is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and has large beaches covered with rocks made from shale. The ocean is about 100 yards from my house and I explore it often! Approximately 3½ years, I made a very interesting discovery! I found 490 million year old fossils. I was overjoyed by the discovery because I had never seen fossils before. The fossils I had discovered were marine snails and bivalve shells. It was awesome to see their imprints in the shale. The shells were arranged in different ways. Some were upside down (I call these “impression shells”), and some were right side up (these I call “pop outs”).
Once my excitement was over from the first fossil, I wondered if there were any more. I searched in some more shale and sure enough I found more and then thousands more! Since then, my brother and I have found many different types of fossils, including: brachiopods (an appearance of an open shell), backbone of a fish, a sea worm, fossilized plants, and a coiled rock that appears to be some sort of animal feces. Most of the fossils we find are lying on the beach. We also extract large sheets of them (with chisels) from huge pieces of shale on the beach.
I have done lots of research on the Maine Geological Survey website to find out the names of the fossils. I also learned that they are from the Ordovician Period. During the Ordovician, most of the Earth’s land was submerged under water, which explains why most of the fossils are shells, and under water creatures. Hopefully with extended research I will find out how they became non-existent in our world.
