Fossil Tales

Fossil tales and stories are as diverse as the civilisations that created them, legends grew up around these unexplained objects as a way to make sense of their origin and identity.

Palaeontology, the study of fossils, is a relatively new science. Fossils, the remains of once living plants or animals, can help us understand how some forms of live evolved and others became extinct. Some ancient scholars had realised the true nature of fossils, but it was not not until the 1700s that Europeans began to collect and classify fossils in a scientific manner. Before then fossils had been used and interpreted in many different ways by many different cultures.

Header image: Fossil ammonite, Hildoceras bifrons from the Jurassic of Whitby, Yorkshire, England