Our Little Trash Collector

Jason is constantly getting onto Aidan about picking things up off the ground. Aidan will say, "Look what I found, Daddy!" And Jason will follow with, "Yes, trash!" It's a constant battle between them on that front. On the other hand, although I'll get onto Aidan for picking up candy or gross stuff (he once picked up bird poo), I have seen how he marvels at the things that he finds whether it be a broken toy or a ribbon that he wants to use for an imaginary art project.

So the other day Aidan was tooling around in the backyard and picked up a small rock that looked a lot like a snail shell. We have snail shells all over around here, but this one was hard as rock so when he said it might be very old, we agreed that it might be. But we were, of course, very skeptical. I had thought that it could be a fossil but that it was probably a snail shell that had somehow caught up with some concrete at some point.

On Saturday Aidan and I went to the museum at Texas Tech to kill some time. When we got there Aidan revealed that he had brought his "fossil" to ask someone what it was. So we asked at the front desk and the guards agreed that it could be a fossil, although we'd have to come back on Monday to talk with "Bill the fossil guy" to be sure.

So, of course, today was Monday and Aidan did not forget that he wanted to go down to the museum to find Bill. I called ahead because the guys had suggested that. Bill called back enthusiastically and I explained that I'm on faculty at Tech and that my small son had found what looks like it could be a fossil in our backyard. Would he be willing to take a look? He said yes, that we should bring Aidan in and that he would come to the front desk to look at the fossil.

Jason took Aidan by there and the nice man came out just like he said he would. Lo and behold, the darn thing is called Exogyra Arietina and comes from the cretaceous period, 110-120 MILLION YEARS AGO! And to think he found it in the backyard!

So now we have a sea clam fossil and Jason will never be able to get Aidan to stop picking things up off the ground.