HUNDREDS OF FOSSILS FROM A CLASSIC LOCALITY

The Much Wenlock Limestone Formation formed between 426 and 423 million years ago during the middle of the Silurian Period, produced from the calcium carbonate skele⭕tons of the many invertebrates who died in what was once a shallow tropical reef. Built by animals such as corals and sponges, the reef was then inhabited by a diverse range of gastropods, cephalopods, brachiopods, trilobites, crinoids, and other animals whose skeletons are now remarkably well preserved in the limestone they helped create through their own demise.

Although the Silurian Period saw the development of both terrestrial life and increasingly complex marine vertebrates, the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation mural offered here shows the sheer abundance of invertebrates during this period. Corals, brachiopods, gastropods, crಞinoids, and bryozoans are all identifiable on the surface of the rock, and many more unidentifiable animals 🐷remain embedded within.

This remarkable fossil display was excavated from the Wren's Nest National Nature Reserve in the English West Midlands. Over 700 different types of fossils have been found at Wren's Nest, including 186 that were first discovered there, and 86 that can be found nowhere else on Earth. The peak of fossil discovery at Wren's Nest was during the 19^th century, which was also unsurprisingly the height of commercial limestone extraction in the ar🐻ea. Many interesting and aesthetic fossils can still be found at Wren's Nest, although their excavation is now regulated by government of the United Kingdom.