Snow Hill Island, Antarctica
Once upon a time....in a sea far, far away, there lived a creature called “ammonite.” It lived in a coiled shell, but did not occupy the entire shell at once. As it grew, it maintained its residence in just the outermost portion of the spiral, the rest being walled off but presumably not useless. Perhaps the older chambers helped “ammonite” float in the ancient seas for it was a cephalopod, much like the nautilus of today’s warmish oceans. One day “ammonite” quit floating and fell to the bottom of the sea where it was buried by fine sands and mud that rained down upon it as mountains bordering the sea eroded away. Over much time, the mud and sand that accumulated around “ammonite” became stone hard and embraced the exact shape of its shell. Over much more time, some scientists tell us as much as eighty million years, the ancestral sea of “ammonite” changed and the layers of sand and mud that once lay beneath the waves rose to stand tall above the waves. In 1902 when scientists from Sweden, on a great and epic journey far from their home, arrived at the home of “ammonite” they named these layers of sand and mud Snow Hill Island. Today, on our own epic journey far from home, we walked the comparatively dry but still very muddy ancient seabed that is now Snow Hill Island and we found, next to a gurgling stream, the very mud and sand that embraced “ammonite” so long, long ago.
Once upon a time....in a sea far, far away, there lived a creature called “ammonite.” It lived in a coiled shell, but did not occupy the entire shell at once. As it grew, it maintained its residence in just the outermost portion of the spiral, the rest being walled off but presumably not useless. Perhaps the older chambers helped “ammonite” float in the ancient seas for it was a cephalopod, much like the nautilus of today’s warmish oceans. One day “ammonite” quit floating and fell to the bottom of the sea where it was buried by fine sands and mud that rained down upon it as mountains bordering the sea eroded away. Over much time, the mud and sand that accumulated around “ammonite” became stone hard and embraced the exact shape of its shell. Over much more time, some scientists tell us as much as eighty million years, the ancestral sea of “ammonite” changed and the layers of sand and mud that once lay beneath the waves rose to stand tall above the waves. In 1902 when scientists from Sweden, on a great and epic journey far from their home, arrived at the home of “ammonite” they named these layers of sand and mud Snow Hill Island. Today, on our own epic journey far from home, we walked the comparatively dry but still very muddy ancient seabed that is now Snow Hill Island and we found, next to a gurgling stream, the very mud and sand that embraced “ammonite” so long, long ago.
