After a month, fieldwork is nearly over. After the two weeks in Hell's Mouth, we went fossilologising near Bala for another week. This trip has definitely been a success, although of course we have to keep quiet about our finds until they're published, so we can't tell you about the preserved intestine of a hyolith, or the nicely segmented worms, or the beautifully preserved sponges.
I can tell you that I injured my thumb on a sharp rock while hammering (nothing bad, but it did bleed alarmingly). Everyone else, while being sympathetic, then kept referring to fossils sticking out like a sore thumb, asking about rules of thumb for distinguishing sponges from random blobs, and whistling the Thumbelina song.
Tomorrow is for sorting the rocks out, putting some of them in the post to China, and sending the rest to various collaborators. After that one more day of fieldwork, and then a short holiday. We're going to Cornwall, which is mostly granite, so we won't get distracted by finding more fossils. After that, we're visiting the NHM to look at various fossils, and possibly visit some other museums/libraries as well if time allows.
In case anyone has been trying to email me: I haven't been able to access my email for a month, and I'm hoping it's just a peculiarity of the internet in this hotel, and my account isn't permanently broken. Anyway, if you've been trying to contact me, I'm not ignoring you.
Lucy
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