Things you thought you knew.

[di]

At the weekend we went to the beach and spent a considerable length of time chatting to a couple about fossils.....apparently Hag stones(with the hole throuh)are fossilised sponge from several million years ago...I always thought they were just stones that smaller stones had worked away a hole through....as I thought I knew,I'd never bothered investigating.

Then just now,I read a thread where TS' says that ants protect blackfly...I'd just assumed they ate them

Anything you thought you knew but later found out how wrong you were?

[Flummery]

In fact - (I have a geology degree which I don't usually wag around but I still have it!) stones with a hole in are usually the work of a boring bivalve (oh how we laughed at that expression - undergraduate prats that we were!) called Pholas dactylus, also known as the Piddock - yeah, we laughed at that too. It secretes an acid which etches into the rock and dissolves it and the bivalve makes itself a little protective home there.

Fossil sponges aren't actually holey. They may have a pattern on the surface in a honeycomb effect but they are most usually found on our beaches as 'mushroom' shaped lumps.

So you weren't any the wiser when you were told what you were told on the beach! Sorry!

[piskieinboots]

Anything you thought you knew but later found out how wrong you were?

I knew we were to have a lovely summer last year - I was wrong

[di]

In fact - (I have a geology degree which I don't usually wag around but I still have it!) stones with a hole in are usually the work of a boring bivalve (oh how we laughed at that expression - undergraduate prats that we were!) called Pholas dactylus, also known as the Piddock - yeah, we laughed at that too. It secretes an acid which etches into the rock and dissolves it and the bivalve makes itself a little protective home there.

Fossil sponges aren't actually holey. They may have a pattern on the surface in a honeycomb effect but they are most usually found on our beaches as 'mushroom' shaped lumps.

So you weren't any the wiser when you were told what you were told on the beach! Sorry!

Well there you go...another theory proved wrong....I did wonder why they all have different properties
Thankyou

I knew we were to have a lovely summer last year - I was wrong

This year My Dear......

[rustylady]

At the weekend we went to the beach and spent a considerable length of time chatting to a couple about fossils.....apparently Hag stones(with the hole throuh)

We've always known them as lucky stones, and the children (and now grandchildren) spend ages looking for them.

[Glutton4...]

I knew we were to have a lovely summer last year - I was wrong

Yer - but it was the forecast for Essex that you woz eavesdroppin' on!!! LOL

We had a fab summer. We will this year, too!


Sorry, I digress....

[lizzylemon]

we call them fairy stones (although some how I did know it was a creature of some sort that made the whole) and have 2 of them cos I cant help collect stones. One the hubs has a lucky charm in his car and the other is has 2 holes and is currently waiting for me to turn it into a wind-chime clanger thingy.

Gravel drive ways are a good place to look.

[lizzylemon]

Yer - but it was the forecast for Essex that you woz eavesdroppin' on!!! LOL

We had a fab summer. We will this year, too!

We got it too being Neighbours to Essex - baking hot summer. Nut brown by the end of it

[di]

Yep...Suffolk had it pretty good too but was going to keep my mouth shut so as not to upset the non East Anglians

I think they're lucky too RL...I have them hanging at every window and around the chicken run.Thorpeness is a good place to find them