If you’ve ever spent time at the beach on the Gulf Coast of the United States, it isn’t hard to picture the scene I saw recently. Put on your imagination goggles, and follow me.
My friends and I were hiking in the hills of North Alabama the other day, yet at the same time we were submerged in warm ocean waters that rose a hundred or so feet above us as we stood on the shelf extending hundreds of miles to the south and west.
Things appeared relatively peaceful here in the waters of north Alabama. The gentle currents caused the animal life to sway from side to side, aiding their feeding efforts. These animals, crinoids, Archimedes, and blastoids, were mostly immobile, anchored to the ocean floor much like coral.
Their appearance was unlike coral, though, as the structures they used for capturing food looked almost like ferns or fronds, held away from their bases by long, narrow stalks. They ate plankton, detritus, and microscopic creatures that drifted into the pinnules of their mesh-like feeding structures.
Breaking the calm, sharks and fish swam the waters, the hunters and the hunted. Squid-like animals–cephalopods–were plentiful as well, moving through and around the creatures anchored in place. Time passed slowly in the Alabama waters. Animals were born, reproduced, and died there, their bones and other calcium-rich structures falling to the ocean floor.
Falling to the ocean floor, in layer after layer as the years, centuries, and millennia came and went. Compressing under the pressure of the higher layers and the ocean water above, eventually forming the limestone we walked upon early in the twenty-first century, anno domini.
As we walked among the creeks and hills, we were able to find a record of those days some 300 million years ago. Fossils were plentiful: pieces of crinoids, blastoids, Archimedes, and various cephalopods. With a bit of imagination, it was just a day at the beach, well, I should say “off the beach,” Pennsylvanian period style.
Yet There is Method 
A very different and almost sci-fi feeling post today! I love the beginning line: “Put on your imagination goggles, and follow me.” It gives a hint of the creativity to come! Thanks for this unusual piece. I admire your creativity and imagination.
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Thanks, Carol. Fossils are a weird thing in that they’re evidence of a past time and they get my imagination working. Alabama is simply rich with them, and they never cease to amaze me.
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Fossils are cool. I used to hunt for them when was a little girl. We lived on land that used to be part of the floor of Lake Ontario!
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They are cool. It’s strange, but the geology of North Alabama where I live now is very similar to that of the part of Ohio where I grew up. It’s neat to go back and see that place with new eyes!
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YES! A reminder that life is a beach in a whole LOT of places, if we let our imaginations (or our inner evolutionary geologists) have their say…
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True!
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Imagination, indeed! And you take us there, with the waving plant life and the sounds of a hike mixed with the ocean. Wonderful descriptions really make this piece work.
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Thanks, Tim–I appreciate your comments.
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I loved the creativity and imagination of the piece — I felt like we were exploring and the past and present kept blurring together. It was beautiful. What a fun find!
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Thanks, Erica. This was a fun piece to write, and the bit of research I did was interesting!
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Tim, you definitely took readers on a imagination-ride. You, sir, are deep and a true scientist. Thanks for the ride.
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Thanks, Donnetta! 🙂
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I enjoyed this piece so much, and it reminded me of how whenever I hiked in Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, I would be thinking about how the land was the floorbed of an ancient ocean–and I swear it looked like it! So interesting to contemplate geological change over time.
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Elisabeth, so much about geological change is difficult for me to wrap my head around, but I I love learning about it. Someday I’d like to see South Dakota and the surrounding states. I’ve driven through them, but that’s not the same as getting to know the land. It’s a goal!
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Science in such an engaging format! I love the storytelling aspect of this piece, the way the imagination can run wild and yet there are a lot of facts to pique my interest.
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Thanks, Jackie!
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