Hugh Miller and the Fabulous Fossil Fish

On Friday we were able to go to workshop from Dynamic Earth about Hugh Miller and the Fabulous Fossil Fish.  We learned all about fossils, how they are formed and where we can actually find some fossil fish in Orkney!  We also learned about Hugh Miller and how he discovered the fossil fish.

First of all we had a bag of ‘things’ we had to look at and decided if they would fossilise. Then Emma told us that almost anything can fossilise as long as the conditions were right. 

 

Then we had to pretend to be a fish to find out what the conditions for fossilisation are.  First we were swimming around, then we ‘died’ and fell to the bottom of the lake.  Lots of mud fell on top of us and squashed us flat and then millions of years later we were discovered! 

 

 

 

 

Emma told us that at one time all the way from Caithness right up to Shetland was a big lake and had lots of fish swimming around in it.  To show us where the lake used to be we used a map with co-ordinates and drew on it to show where the lake used to be.  It was a great test of our mapping skills. 

 

 

Finally we got to be archaeologists and search for some fossils in sand.  We had to brush the sand away carefully using brushes and then find out what type of fish we had found!  It was great fun and we enjoyed this bit the most! 

 

 

 

It was a really interesting presentation and we thoroughly enjoyed it!