SURVEYOR MAKES EXTRAORDINARY FIND
AMAZING FIND Pictured at the launch were (from left): Minister of State Seán Canney TD MSCSI; Brendan Arrigan FSCSI, who found the fossil; Councillor Jimmy McClearn, Mayor of Co. Galway; and, Dr Matthew Parkes, National Museum of Ireland – Natural History.
RARE AND SPECIAL The rare example of Phanerotinus Cristatus was found in a stone wall outside Tuam in Co. Galway, and is approximately 400 million years old.
When Chartered Surveyor Brendan Arrigan stopped for a cuppa while
in geology had given me some insight into fossils, so I knew that it was
carrying out a survey outside Tuam in Co. Galway last autumn, he made
something special once I had a closer look”.
an extraordinary find – a large fossil embedded in a limestone wall. Says
The fossil, known as a Phanerotinus Cristatus, is approximately 400
Brendan: “My studies at NUIG Adult Learning and Continuing Education
million years old, dating from the Carboniferous Period, and is very rare. Worldwide, only 15 of these unusually large fossils have been discovered to date (10 in Ireland), and they are only to be found in a band of limestone stretching between Ireland and Britain. Phanerotinus Cristatus was a gigantic snail with spiny flanges around the outside. It lived on the sea floor at a time when Ireland was situated close to the equator and covered by a warm tropical sea. Brendan’s find is also special because it comprises both pieces of the rock, which was originally split by a stonemason to expose both the fossil itself and also the counterpart impression. The fossil was placed in the Galway County Council Office, High Street, Tuam, in an exhibition that was officially launched by Councillor Jimmy McClearn, Mayor of Co. Galway, and Seán Canney TD, Minister of State for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development. Minister Canney is also a Chartered Surveyor. The fossil will be on public display in Tuam for a period of time, and also at a branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
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SURVEYORS JOURNAL Volume 10, Issue 1, Spring 2020
