Oliver’s Twist

Thomas F. McLoughlin is promoting science, specifically paleobotany, through accessible picture books covering plant fossils during the Pennsylvanian Age.

As a geologist, Thomas F. McLoughlin and his dedication to spreading scientific literacy are commendable. I read through his three books, A Guide to Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Age Plant Fossils of Southwest Virginia, Plant Fossil Atlas from (Pennsylvanian) Carboniferous Age Found in Central Appalachian Coalfields, and Atlas of Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Age Plant Fossils of the Central Appalachian Coalfields Volume 2. 

Apologies for the length of those titles, although in my defense, I did not write them, and these are the only flaws to these books as far as I could tell. 

Different from most scientific literature, Mr. McLoughlin’s books are quite accessible to the average reader, so much so that even I, who has no significant background in science (other than the classes I had to mandatorily sit through in elementary and secondary school), could get a grasp of the concepts he was trying to teach through the text.

This is how science should be propagated to the masses in a simple and easily digestible format. Of course, this is not to say that Mr. McLoughlin’s writing is so simple that it is dull, only that the way he conveys information is very beneficial to the average person.

Now, with all of that out of the way, I want to talk about what I really learned from Thomas F. McLoughlin’s books. And that is the scientific importance of fossils. It seems like every month, a brand new fossil is discovered somewhere, and while the subsequent renderings of what the animal might have looked like are very fun to look at and speculate, the average person doesn’t really get to understand the true weight of the discovery. 

So, let’s discuss fossils. What are they? Where are they found? How are they made? And what importance do they have?

First things first, fossils are the remains of living things that exist from ancient times, from before recorded history began. The thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fossil” might be a skeleton in a rock, a tooth, a shell, or an imprint of a leaf on a rock, but there are many ways a fossil can form. 

Fossils are usually found where there are sedimentary rocks, like on the beach, a desert, limestone cliffs, etc., although some fossils have been known to be found in fine-graned metamorphic rocks. This is because fossils are more easily made when the animal or plant is swiftly covered under the rock material. 

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, fossils are easily made when a creature is quickly enveloped under a material. This rapid burial isolates the body from natural processes that would have otherwise dissolved much of everything. This preserves much of the body for scientists to investigate.

This is why you are more likely to find fossils where there is water, e.g., the beach, river deltas, or where water used to be found, like deserts, canyons, and the like.

There are four primary ways a fossil can be preserved:

• Petrification. This is the most common way a fossil can be made. This is when a bone or a tooth or something else finds itself underneath sediment; the organic material becomes slowly replaced by minerals and transformed.
• Compression. This happens when the organic material is weighed down by pressure so much that it leaves a visible imprint on the land surface, which is typically made of sediment. Plant fossils are easily made through this process.
• Casting. This happens like in compression, where an animal or a plant is put under pressure that an imprint is made, but instead of only creating a mold, minerals or sediments fill the space left, forming a cast. This rarely happens above ground, and fossils of this type are usually of soft-bodied marine or riverine creatures like mollusks or gastropods.
• Preservation. This is the rarest form of fossil that can be found and also the most exciting because much of the organic material is kept intact. Preservation usually happens when creatures are trapped in amber (as with insects), or their carcasses are buried in snow or ice. 

Fossils are important to science and our general understanding of the world because they provide a look at the world that has long since passed. They give us valuable insight and information as to how certain animals and plants lived in the past and under which geologic and atmospheric conditions and more. 

Fossils also give us a reliable marker for determining how old our planet is and how much Earth had changed compared to when the fossil was formed.

If you’re looking to learn more about fossils and how they teach us about the world, I recommend Thomas F. McLoughlin.