Thursday, 19 May 2016

Urban Geology: Rymans on Temple St

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.