BLACK DRAGON POOL: LIJIANG

GINKO BILOBA

Each year, I grow Ginko and Metasequoia to plant on Earth Day. They serve as an homage to the environment and a offering to Gaia for a cleaner, kinder world.

RAIN SHOWERS BRING...

DALI, YUNNAN

BONE TO STONE

Calcium carbonate reacts with water saturated with carbon dioxide to form the soluble calcium bicarbonate. Bone already contains calcium carbonate, as well as calcium phosphate, Ca2, but it is also made of protein, cells and living tissue.

Decaying bone acts as a sort of natural sponge that wicks in the calcium carbonate displaced from the shells. As protein decays inside the bone, it is replaced by the incoming calcium carbonate, making the bone harder and more durable.

PEACEFUL AFTERNOON ON EMERALD LAKE

MISTY MORNING

HIKING YOHO NATIONAL PARK

AMMONITE BEAUTY

Varying in size from millimeters to meters across, ammonites are prized as both works of art and index fossils helping us date rock. The ammonites were cousins in the Class Cephalopoda, meaning "head-footed," closely related to modern squid, cuttlefish and octopus. Cephalopods have a complex eye structure and swim rapidly. The ones shown here are from a Sinemurian site I visited a few years back high up in the Canadian Rockies.

Ammonites used these evolutionary benefits to their advantage, making them successful marine predators. I shared some ammonites with my wee paleontologist cousins this weekend, Madison and Melaina. They were impressed with the amazing range of species and body styles. Their favorites were the ones from Alberta and England with their original mother of pearl still intact.

AMMONITE FOSSIL PLATE