RE: NANFA-- Raining fish and fossil preservation

Hoover, Jan J WES (HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil)
Wed, 12 Jan 2000 09:15:04 -0600

>>>It's understandable how insect and birds could get caught.
They fly around, and could easily get swept in. But what
about the cases of fish and frogs being found in hailstones?
What are the scenarios that could cause this? Waterspouts?<<<

Fishes and frogs are believed to get caught in updrafts. Specimens reported
are usually pretty small, although I recall one case of a larger fish
encased in ice striking an automobile. The phenomenon was reported in the
journal Science sometime around the turn of the century (had the citation a
few months ago but mislaid it) and was a column topic for Ann Landers
sometime during the 70's. In one of his earlier books (probably "Stranger
than Science" or "Strangest of All"), Frank Edwards reports some well-known
cases.

Re fossil and hard-bodied invertebrate preservation: a friend of mine uses a
mixture of Krylon and melted styrofoam as a protective coating for his
fossils and bivalves. He says that a lot of museum palaeontologists and
malacologists use the same thing.




/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org