We have couple of round pieces of sand stone with leaf images in them. But I understand that they would be common in sand stone.

If I don't remember wrong somewhere in North America they've found in coal mines remains of the dinosaurs. But I can't now remember where it was.

Thanks for providing it. As an old fossil myself I find myself increasingly interested in earlier life forms.

Like Joe's comment!

I especially like the third, fan with fish, and the blown tangle of the fourth.

Ripsa, how nice that you've found some stones with fossils, I'm envious. There are many coal mining areas in North America where dinosaurs have been found. A huge number have been found in Alberta, Canada and many are in the Royal Tyrrell Museum there. And their fossil collection is superb.

Joe, that's funny!

Marly, aren't they great? Nature's own art forms...

The last time I contributed you acccused me of obscurity. So let me be very very plain. Trilobites have a useful function long, long after their death and ossification. They can act as a retrospective form of calendar. Each day my face looks more and more like the blackish one (I'm doing this from memory not daring to switch from the comment box back to your pix). Proof that I'm ageing and I take comfort in that. Ageing's good, the alternative is less good.

BB, come now, I don't think I accused you of anything, instead the fault was mine iif I did not undertand your brand of humour. Sadly I lack your wit. Now you make fun of yourself - as I recall, your face looked pretty good to me two years ago. Aren't we all ageing from the day we're born? Indeed, the alternative isn't as good. I like this idea of a retrospective form of calendar, though I have a hard time imagining myself being one some day!

This started me thinking more about fossils, realizing how little I really understand them. Are human traces ever found in rock as fossils? Same thing about dinosaurs, that is to say, do big bones whether human or large animal turn into fossils under certain conditions? It seems to me that fossils are usually small creatures or plants, except for petrified trees, correct me if I'm way off base here.

Hmm, to answer my own question, according to this site, fossils "include our prehistoric human ancestry and the ice age fauna (e.g. mammoths) as well as more ancient fossil groups such as the dinosaurs, ammonites and trilobites." So that means, thousands of years from now, you or I could be a fossil!

There's a store in the city where one can purchase fossils and chunks of sandstone with fish and plant snapshots. The owner smiles when I come in to look at the collection. One of these days, I might surprise him and actually buy something. The smallest pieces are quite expensive though. I really should have gotten into the field when I was young.

R, you've just made me remember an expensive gift shop in an expensive hotel in Lake Louise, Alberta which is popular with international tourists - it had the most gorgeous big specimens for sale at high prices. Yet I was suspicious whether these were real or copies.

These images look as if they were arranged through the skills of a truly gifted artist. In a sense, I suppose they were.

I used to own a magnificent sandstone trilobite but gave it to someone long ago.

Susan, yes, Nature is an amazing artist! Did you photograph that trilobite for keepsaking?

I just remembered! I do have a fossil, a tiny ammonite which I bought in the gift shop of Prague's Museum in 2002. Does that say something about my taste in souvenirs?