Galway Geological Association

ROCKS HIDDEN SECRETS:
THE EMERALD ISLE AND ITS JEWELS

TUESDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2020

DETAILS BELOW

This is the specimen of Phanerotinus cristatus discovered in Tuam, Co. Galway by GGA member Brendan Arrigan. The drawing was made by the Chair of the association, Jonathon Skelhorn. A copy of the drawing was presented to Brendan at our annual Christmas dinner, December 11, 2019.

GGA member Brendan Arrigan made the discovery of his life when he chanced upon a splendid specimen of our emblem, Phanerotinus cristatus, embedded in a wall near Tuam. He found both the fossil and the counterplate, a rare occurence. After consultations with NUI Galway geologists and the National Museum it has been recovered for safe keeping and study.

Worldwide, only 15 of these unusually large fossils have ever been discovered to date, and they are only to be found in a band of limestone stretching between Ireland and Britain. Phanerotinus cristatus was a gigantic snail with spiny flanges around the outside. It lived on the sea floor at a time when Ireland was situated close to the equator and covered by a warm tropical sea.

An unveiling will take place at Tuam Library on Monday 30th September at 2pm by Cllr. Jimmy McClearn, Cathaoirleach of the county of Galway and Seán Canny TD, Minister of State Community Development, Natural Resources & Digital Development. The ceremony will be open to the public and will include a welcome from Koen Verbruggen, Director of Geological Survey Ireland, short talks by Brendan Arrigan about finding and rescuing the fossil, and by Matthew Parkes, geological curator in the Natural History Museum, putting the find into the context of a Geological Heritage Audit of County Galway. The fossil will be placed at Galway County Council Office, High Street, Tuam on public display in Tuam for a period of time and also at a branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

The GGA field trip to South County Clare, 27th April, 2019
Photos courtesy of Prof. Michael O'Connell.

There is a paper from the journal Sedimentology describing the features to be seen at the Ross site that we visited. Thanks to Martin for this. If you would like to get a PDF of it, send an email request to galwaygeology@gmail.com. (use the 'contact us' form)
There is also a page on the web site of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) devoted to the Gull Island Formation with many captioned photos including some of the things we were unable to see due to the tide and weather conditions.
http://www.sepmstrata.org/page.aspx?&pageid=472&6