We dig fossils

It was finally time for us to explore the West Coast fossil scene. Milja, Dan, Seija and Joona had to cancel at the last minute, but Sine (the 11 year old son of our maid, Joyce) came along. He's always keen to come on our varied trips with us.

Thanks to the ice age with several km of ice, Finland is now empty of fossils. I didn't see that many fossils as a child, except some when I lived in the USA at the end of the 70s. Heikki, Matias and I did our first fossil field trip to Walton-on-the-Naze, UK, on Christmas day, 1996. Matias was almost 2.

Now it was time to see the local African fossils. We headed out quite early, as the West Coast Fossil Park is 1.5 hours drive away and closes already at 1 PM.

The Park is built in an old quarry. The paleontologists excavated side by side with the miners for decades. The area was a working quarry until the beginning of 1990's and has been a purely paleontological site since the end of the 90s.

We had a look inside the small museum on site. We then heard two lectures on fossils and on the site itself. Both Sine and Matias answered a question during the lectures and got stickers saying "I dig fossils" (minä pidän fossiileista, minä kaivan fossiileita).

We then went to see one of the excavation sites. The site is rich in the fossils of an ancient cousin of the giraffe. There are close to 600 specimens on a small area of perhaps a couple of hundred square metres. The whole site is several square kilometres.

We were all impressed. While the older ones of us listened to Pippa, the manager of the site, India was busy finding fossil teeth.

The main dig was under a canvas roof, a bit like a giant tent. There were several large sieves outside the tent, all filled with small pieces of fossils. The task was to ignore the broken fossils of large animals and instead try to find fossils of tiny animals. We all found minute fossils. I found a jawbone of a frog with tiny teeth still attached.

Matias is not shy when it comes to talking to scientists and asking questions. He stayed behind to talk to both of the lecturers. While at the excavation site, he started talking to Pippa. He asked her questions, told her about his interest in paleontology, showed her he had a keen eye, and told her of his volunteering at the Saffron Walden museum. Soon he was enrolled as one of the few volunteers they have excavating alongside the professionals each year! Pippa said they haven't had children as volunteers before, but said Matias looks responsible. His smaller-than-adult size could also be an advantage.

Pippa recommended some books to Matias. He'll now start reading the books to get some background information on fossils and african animals. He'll also start learning anatomy to be able to identify bones. We should get some mouse and frog skeletons for him, to help him learn.