Rock Stars

I live close to beaches along Lake Ontario, in eastern Toronto. They are a mixture of sands and small rocks, and I have a habit of collecting interesting-looking ones during my rambles along the shoreline. Here are some of the stars in my collection.

First, although I’m temped to call them “rock bands,” are a few banded rocks Some geological process left them with an “equator line” of a different colour.

The bottom one looks like a minor moon, from a different solar system.

Next are the fossil-bearing rocks. The fossils have distinct shapes — some look like they might be from a Miro painting — that are the final traces of plants and tiny marine life that expired long ago, perhaps when the shore of what is now Toronto was higher, so much of the downtown area was under water

This is apparently a sea lily, or crinoid… a marine invertebrate related to today’s starfish and sea urchins.

Bits and pieces from long-ago marine life… resembling a de-constructed alphabet.

And, finally, although not from Lake Ontario, I consider this the prize in my collection. Yes, it resembles a piece of poop (did you know that the scientific pursuit of coprology involves studying fossilized do-do?). But this is a sample of bark from a giant horsetail. These, “commonly known as Calamites in the fossil record, were towering, tree-sized relatives of modern horsetails. Thriving during the Carboniferous period (about 300 million years ago”), they lacked dense woody bark. Instead, their fossilized "bark" typically appears as ribbed, bamboo-like casts of their inner pith or distinct bark impressions.” (Google). I found this on a beach in Prince Edward Island. It dates back to the time when some of the Atlantic provinces were still attached to northern Africa, which has the same reddish-brown soil.

This last one has no special story to tell, that I know of, but I’m including it just because it’s beautiful.

Rock on.