The shop surround of Rymans Stationary on Temple St is made
of a real nice polished limestone which is jam-packed full of crinoid fossils.
These fossils are the fragmented remains of stems of
echinoderms, called crinoids. These looked like sea lilies, and their stems
resemble a roll of polo mints. This location has fossils in both horizontal and
longitudinal cross section. As it is full of broken pieces of crinoid, we can
tell that the environment was high energy – the waves were strong enough to
break the crinoids into pieces.
This rock is called Derbydene Marble and I haven’t found it
anywhere else in central Birmingham. It is from Derbyshire.
 |
| A section with my fingers for scale. |
