FOSSIL WOOD CONTAINING 'SHIPWORM' BORINGS - 50 million years old.- Isle of Sheppey, Kent
« backFOSSILISED WOOD CONTAINING 'SHIPWORM' BORINGS
Partly polished
50 million years old
London Clay. Isle of Sheppey, Kent
During the Eocene period, South-East England was submerged beneath a warm sea and the coastline was subtropical rainforest dominated by palms and mangroves. Logs of rainforest timber floated out to sea from the coast eventually to become saturated and sink, and be preserved in the mud on the sea floor.
This mud became the London Clay which underlies London, Essex and parts of north Kent and is spectacularly exposed in the cliffs of the Isle of Sheppey on the Thames Estuary.
The holes in the wood were made by the 'shipworm' (a wood-boring bivalve) during the time the logs were floating in this tropical sea. The tubes are lined with calcite.
This specimen has a cut face which has been partly polished.
Size: approx. 10 x 6 x 5 centimetres
Weight: 471 grams
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