FANTASTIC FOSSILS!

Macduff Marine Aquarium is well known for showcasing local marine life, but this autumn we're going back in time with a display of fossil creatures – some of which lived in the Moray Firth area millions and millions of years ago.

Over the course of the Earth's history, the positions of the oceans and continents have moved and, around 200 million years ago the continents of Europe and North America were actually joined together forming one huge land mass.

At that time, a great lake spread over what is now the Moray Firth, Orkney, Shetland and the northern North Sea.

Strange creatures inhabited the world in those days and many of their remains were buried in muddy sediments, eventually becoming fossils. We are lucky enough to have a selection of fossil fish and other creatures on loan from Aberdeenshire Heritage, Elgin Museum, Archaeolink and Aberdeen University.

Some of the fossils are ancestors of familiar sea creatures such as fish, corals, sponges, molluscs and sea urchins – it's fascinating to see that these animals have not changed much over all that time. However, some fossils are the remains of extinct animals called trilobites and ammonites. Trilobites lived on the planet even before the dinosaurs and they thrived for over 250 million years. Related to crabs, trilobites looked like weird aquatic woodlice, but there were thousands of different species living as scavengers, predators or even vegetarians! Ammonites are also extinct nowadays but resembled squid with shells – a bit like the modern day nautilus.

Also on show is a tooth from an ancient shark – the Megalodon – like a great white shark only three times its size!! It was the greatest predator ever to have swum in the world's oceans – over 1.5 million years ago.

The fossils will be on show until the end of November 2008.

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