[meteorite-list] Meteoritewrongs and Fossil Footprintwrongs

From: Peter Davidson <P.Davidson_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 13:47:29 +0100
Message-ID: <D7171847AEFC6A4893D80C75E547E271100352_at_nmsmail02.nms2k.int>

Paul and everyone

If I had a Dollar, Pound or Euro for every meteorwrong I have had to deal over the years I could probably have comfortably retired by now. But they are actually useful, well sometimes. I was contacted by someone who thought they had found a meteorite in a stone wall on one of the Orkney Islands. Ever hopeful, I asked him to send me some photos to see if I could make some initial assessments. He very kindly did and, well you can probably guess the outcome, it clearly wasn't a meteorite but some kind of iron slag. However, I passed the images to our archaeologists who were very interested because it was perhaps evidence of early iron working from an area were none had been recorded from previously.

As they say as one door closes another one opens!

Cheers

Peter Davidson
Curator of Minerals
 
National Museums Collection Centre
National Museums Scotland
242 West Granton Road
Edinburgh
EH5 1JA
Phone: +44 131 247 4283
p.davidson at nms.ac.uk
www.nms.ac.uk
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Paul
Sent: 07 August 2009 13:25
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteoritewrongs and Fossil Footprintwrongs

Dear Friends,

Just as newspapers have a habit of reporting all sorts of fanciful and questionable
stories about meteoritewrongs, they also have a habit of reporting stories about
fossil ?footprintwrongs? without really taking the time and trouble to verify their
validity. The latest pseudofossil to make the news comes from British

Mysterious footprint found in Hudson's Hope, Energeticcity.ca - ?Aug 4, 2009?

http://www.energeticcity.ca/fortstjohn/news/08/04/09/mysterious-footprint-found-hudsons-hope

Forgotten footstep? Prince George Citizen, August 5, 2009?

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090805206197/local/news/forgotten-footstep.html

Did gardener find fossilized footprint? by Susan Lazaruk, The Province, August 7, 2009.

http://www.theprovince.com/technology/gardener+find+fossilized+footprint/1864762/story.html

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.theprovince.com/technology/gardener+find+fossilized+footprint/1864762/1865689.bin

Is Bigfoot's footprint preserved in stone? Calgary Herald, August 6, 2009

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Bigfoot+footprint+preserved+stone/1864077/story.html

The alleged footprint is just part of a rock that weathered and eroded faster than
the material surrounding it. This resulted in a depression that vaguely looks like a
footprint. It must have been a very slow news day.

Paleontologists and geologists are plagued with pseudofossils just as much as
people collecting and studying meteorites are plagued with meteorwrongs. Each
year, I get numerous ones. However, as they say, a person has kiss a lot of frogs
before they find either the prince or princess.

Best Regards,

Paul Heirnich


      
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Received on Fri 07 Aug 2009 08:47:29 AM PDT