Outside of the Castillo de San Marcos along the beach. It’s quite an impressive and old structure!I was recently one of fifteen participants in a workshop. Most participants in this workshop are graduate students or recent graduates studying paleontology or biology. The workshop is a month long with very few days off. We had one two day weekend and decided it would be fun to be tourists and go to St. Augustine! St. Augustine is a very old city that is on the eastern coast of Florida and is home to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.
a close up of my hand next to the coquina that was molded into a pillar. Abby next to that same pillar for a better scale! Most of the rock used for the buildings was coquina!We were incredibly excited to realize that much of the local stone work was sourced from local rock. This rock is called coquina. Coquina is a sedimentary rock that is made up of shell fragments! The coquina is from the Anastasia Formation that was deposited in the Late Pleistocene (around 2.5 to 0.012 million years ago). We spent a lot of time with our faces pressed into walls looking at what shelly creatures were preserved in the wall. The National Park Service has a nice write up explaining how creating the fort out of coquina was incredibly beneficial, click here to read more. Essentially, the rock did not break when the opposing forces began firing weapons and at the fort. Instead, the rock absorbed the shock and compressed when hit with cannon fire!
A group of scientists examining one of the coquina walls. This one was absolutely filled with nice sized oysters.We spent time exploring the fort, which had an amazing amount of rooms with some extraordinary details preserved. When I say the entire fort was made of coquina, I mean the entire thing. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen! There were rooms with barrel vaulted ceilings, tall arch like ceilings, some with carvings in the walls, and much more.
Underneath the boardwalk at the St. Augustine beach. These pillars were filled with organisms that stick on other things for most of their lives.After visiting the fort we spent time around the city exploring and being tourists. Then we decided to venture out to the beach. Remember, paleontologists study ancient life. This means many of us have training in biological sciences and get really excited about animal life! We got to the beach and some people hopped right into the water while others sat on the beach and read or took a walk along the beach. May and I decided to walk along the beach and we eventually came to these large pillars supporting a boardwalk.
A close up of some of the barnacles with my finger for scale! Some of them were quite large!These pillars were completely covered in sea creatures! Mostly oysters, other small clams, snails, and barnacles! Most notably were the large barnacles that were a beautiful pink/purple color! Barnacles are related to crabs and lobsters but look so very different. It is absolutely astounding that these creatures can be cemented to the pillars and live for periods during high tide. Not all of the animals were still alive that were on the pillars, especially those that were quite high up.
This is a great example of how we can better explore the world around us through the lens of different sciences! Geology that contain biological remains and lots of living organisms on the beach!
