Folklore of fossil fish

Fish are essentially the most various animals with backbones – that’s, vertebrates – residing immediately. Bone and tooth of fishes abound within the fossil report, from the armour-plated, primitive fishes of the Devonian, via the cartilaginous sharks with their shiny dagger-like tooth, to the bones of superior ray-finned teleosts associated to trendy carp and cod.
Together with different marine fossils, fossil fishes have been as soon as used as ‘proof’ of the biblical deluge, for instance, the fabulous Cretaceous fossil fish deposits of Lebanon. Gayet et al. (2012) recorded that, within the third century, the Bishop of Palestine wrote:

“That Noah’s Flood lined the very best mountains is for me the reality, and I say that the witness of my eyes confirms it: for I’ve seen sure fishes, which have been present in my lifetime on the very best peaks in Lebanon. They took stones from there for building, and found many sorts of sea fishes which have been held collectively within the quarry with mud, and as if pickled in brine have been preserved till our occasions, in order that the mere sight of them ought to testify to the reality of Noah’s Flood”.

Petrified nails

Hugh Miller, in his e-book Foot-prints of the Creator (Miller, 1849), talked about that novice geologists of Caithness and Orkney would refer to at least one explicit fossil within the Outdated Crimson Sandstone, presumably comparatively widespread, as ‘petrified nails’ (Fig. 1). These are, in actual fact, the central processes of the median dorsal plate of the big placoderm fish, Homosteus milleri. Word that Miller erroneously referred to them as part of the hyoid plate of one other fish, Asterolepis (Fig. 2). It’s not recognized whether or not the identify ‘petrified nail’ was a easy allusion to the nail-like form of the fossil or signified a perception that they have been historical nails entombed in rock.

Toadstones

Toadstones are the button-shaped fossil tooth of the Jurassic–Cretaceous fish, Lepidotes (Figs. three and four). In folklore, they have been as soon as thought to have come from the heads of residing toads. Toads have been of explicit curiosity to medical practitioners through the seventeenth century (Baldwin, 1993), when it was believed that concoctions constituted of pulverised toads might present safety in opposition to bubonic plague if positioned in an amulet and worn across the neck or wrists. This was justified on a number of grounds, notably that the toad’s warty pores and skin resembled the carbuncles and spots developed by plague victims.

A lot has been written about toadstones. They’re talked about in literature way back to the Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder, who died within the well-known AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii. Actually, it has been instructed that the legends about toadstones originated with the identify ‘Batrachites’ (frogstone) given to them by Pliny (Lankester, 1920). Lankester said that they have been so-named as a result of their drab color resembled that of a toad. Subsequently, the vivid imaginations of medieval physicians could have been accountable for myths concerning the origin and mystical powers of toadstones.

The naturalist, Robert Brookes (1763, p. 162), described the color and form of toadstones, remarking that:
“… some suppose it to be the tooth of a fish; however this doesn’t appear to agree with its form”.

Toadstones have been even alluded to by William Shakespeare in As You Like It, Duke Senior saying in Act 2, Scene 1:
“Candy the makes use of of adversity. Which, just like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears but a valuable jewel in his head”.

However how might toadstones be obtained? Topsell (1608) gave directions on the extraction of the stone from the toad, which needed to be alive on the time for the stone to retain its powers. The toad must be positioned on a purple fabric to behave as a distraction and, whereas it ‘performed’, the stone would fall from its head. Lupton (1627) instructed an equally imaginative means of extracting toadstones, which concerned placing the toad into an earthen pot on an ant hill and masking it with earth. The ants would finally eat the toad, leaving its bones and the toadstone within the pot to be collected.

Toadstones have been as soon as extensively employed in jewelry. A number of toadstones shaped a part of the well-known Cheapside Hoard, a mass of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry found in 1912 by workmen within the Metropolis of London. Their use was not just for aesthetic causes, but additionally as a result of they have been believed to counteract poison and be efficacious in opposition to epilepsy. It was thought toadstone set in an open ring would give off warmth to the finger on which it was worn when poison was detected (Kunz, 1917). Kennedy (1976) instructed that toadstones have been believed to alter color if a poison was current. Using toadstones in opposition to all types of poisons was talked about by Lupton (1627), who famous that:

“A Tode stone (known as Crapaudina) touching any half be venomed, hurte or stung with Ratte, Spider, Waspe or some other venomous Beasts, ceases the paine or swelling thereof”.
The early literature additionally information medicinal makes use of for toadstones as cures for sores, fever, bowel issues and labour pains (Fig. 5).

‘True’ toadstones comprising Lepidotes tooth have been generally substituted in Scotland by brown-coloured pebbles, which, like Lepidotes tooth, have been usually set in rings.
What sort of fish was Lepidotes? Typically written Lepidotus, Lepidotes was a primitive bony fish associated to trendy gars. Inhabiting each freshwater lakes and shallow seas, species of Lepidotes might develop to over two metres in size (Fig. 6). The physique was lined with thick, enamel scales. Batteries of peg-like tooth (Fig. 7) – the toadstones – enabled Lepidotes to crush the shells of its molluscan prey. Curiously, the stays of Lepidotes have been found alongside these of the Early Cretaceous dinosaur, Baryonyx, suggesting that it, in flip, was preyed on by this fish-eating big.

Serpents’ eyes

Fossil palatal tooth of one other bony fish – the white sea bream Sargus – have been often known as serpents’ eyes in Maltese fossil folklore (Fig. eight). Sharing an analogous crushing perform to the tooth of Lepidotes, serpents’ eyes have a robust resemblance to toadstones. They could have a pale yellow or orange-coloured centre known as the acrodin cap, surrounded by a darker brown ring, giving them an eye-like look. Together with tongue stones (sharks’ tooth; see under), serpents’ eyes got as items in Malta throughout medieval occasions (Zammit-Maempel, 1989). As an example, papal delegates to Malta have been introduced with gold-mounted serpents’ eyes and tongue stones for use as protecting amulets. Their significance and worth prolonged to British royalty: serpents’ eyes have been listed among the many jewels owned by King Henry V of England (Thompson, 1932).

The concept Sargus tooth from the Miocene of Malta have been the petrified eyes of serpents is related with the story of the shipwrecking of St Paul described under. Because the supposed petrified eyes of serpents, they have been employed as a sympathetic drugs (‘like cures like’) in opposition to snakebites, both by boiling the fossil tooth in water or including them in powdered type to water or wine.

Swallow Stones and Fairy Saltcellars

Pycnodonts are an extinct order of bony fish. Their tooth have been one of many sources of Lapis chelonius or Swallow Stones utilized in medieval medicines (Duffin, 2015).
Fossil vertebrae of bony fishes (‘ichthyospondyli’) have been reported by Edward Lhuyd (1660–1709) to have been known as Fairy Saltcellars by some rustic folks (Duffin and Davidson, 2011).

Tongue stones

Sharks have cartilaginous skeletons, however their tooth encompass resistant calcium phosphate (Fig. 9). Consequently, the fossil report of sharks largely includes tooth, which may be present in nice selection and abundance everywhere in the world, particularly in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks. On condition that a person nice white shark has greater than 300 tooth in its jaws at anyone time, and that tooth are shed often through the lifetime of the shark, it’s hardly stunning that sharks’ tooth may be very considerable fossils.

Fossil sharks’ tooth have been popularly often known as tongue stones – Glossopetrae (Latin) – in folklore earlier than their origin grew to become extra extensively understood. In Europe, tongue stones have been additionally recognized by varied different names, together with Linguae Melitenis (Maltese tongues), Linguae S. Pauli or Ilsien San Pawl (tongues of St Paul; see Zammit-Maempel, 1975), Lingui di Serpi, and in Germany Natternzungen (adders’ tongues) or Schlangenzungen (serpents’ tongues). There was additionally a perception within the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that they have been the tongues of witches with a style for the blood of younger youngsters (see Duffin and Davidson, 2011).

Tongue stones have been usually thought-about in historical occasions to have ‘grown’ naturally inside the rock. This course of, known as vis-plastica, was as soon as a preferred clarification for the origin of fossils on the whole. It was thought that tongue stones might spontaneously generate themselves, as some fossils had smaller lateral projections (Fig. 10), which have been thought-about to be offspring nonetheless connected to their mother and father.

Fossil sharks’ tooth are particularly related to the small Mediterranean island of Malta, the place they have been as soon as collected in nice numbers. Certainly, throughout medieval occasions, Malta was the centre of a flourishing commerce supplying fossil sharks’ tooth to many different European nations. A well-liked Maltese legend considerations St Paul the Apostle, who was shipwrecked on the island in AD 60 alongside together with his fellow sailors. As written within the Acts of the Apostles, St Paul was bitten by a snake, which rose out of a fireplace constructed to heat the shipwrecked sailors. St Paul flung the snake again into the fireplace. The heathen islanders famous that he was unhurt, convincing them that he was a god. As a punishment to the snakes of the island, he seemingly took away their means to supply poison (Zammit-Maempel, 1989). The cursed Maltese snakes additionally misplaced their eyes and tongues. Completely different fossils discovered within the Miocene rocks of Malta are believed to be serpents’ eyes (as described above) and serpents’ tongues (sharks’ tooth).

On account of their reference to St Paul, all tongue stones from Malta have been thought-about to own supernatural powers, particularly in opposition to poison. Using tongue stones for medical functions was as soon as widespread in Malta. Certainly, in 1768, they’re listed among the many medicines obtainable from the pharmacy of Santo Spirito Hospital in Rabat, Malta. Their commonest medicinal use was as a treatment for, or a safeguard in opposition to, poison (Zammit-Maempel, 1989). This use endured till at the very least 1940: Zammit-Maempel (1990) advised how members of the Maltese group residing in North Africa requested their kin to ship them tongue stones to be held on the backs of their doorways for defense in opposition to vipers and scorpions. Tongue stones may very well be mounted as pendants worn as necklaces or bracelets for his or her anti-poison powers. Others have been mounted in base or valuable metals and connected to silver or gold watch chains (Zammit-Maempel, 1989). Tongue stones have been additionally previously positioned by the bedsides of Maltese ladies to assist throughout childbirth (Zammit-Maempel, 1989).

Zammit-Maempel (1966) recounted the story of a mom who got here to a physician’s surgical procedure in Malta. Seeing a shark’s tooth on the physician’s desk, she advised him that her younger son had been sluggish in speaking and solely uttered his first phrases on the age of 4 after she had held a tongue stone in opposition to his tongue, closed his mouth and prayed to St Paul.
Through the fifteenth century in Malta, tongue stones have been suspended from the branches of Mediterranean corals to type so-called languiers. Languiers and different ornately mounted tongue stones have been positioned on facet tables (Kredenzen) throughout banquets. Friends would choose a tongue stone from the languier, immerse it of their wine and will relaxation assured that they’d not succumb to poisoning.

A completely completely different legend about fossil sharks’ tooth developed in Japan. Right here, tooth of the enormous shark, Carcharocles megalodon, are in folklore considered the thumbnails of Tengu Man, a legendary mountain goblin with an extended, Pinnochio-like nostril.
A juvenile Carcharocles megalodon (Agassiz)) tooth, discovered by Mark Renz in a freshwater stream in DeSoto County, Florida and featured in his e-book Megalodon: Looking the Hunter (Renz, 2002), has a gap drilled via the basis and a few apparent modifications to the unique form of the tooth (Fig. 11). This modified tooth may be in contrast with an analogous tooth from South Carolina (Fig. 12). Renz speculated that the serrations had been sanded off and that scratch marks on the floor have been the results of rubbing in opposition to clothes when a Native American wore the tooth as a pendant. Native Individuals would have been effectively conscious of megalodon tooth as they’re comparatively considerable within the coastal areas of Florida and North and South Carolina.

Tongue stones and fixing the thriller of fossils

Tongue stones have been very acquainted to seventeenth century naturalists and performed a pivotal function within the early historical past of palaeontology and the understanding of the true origin of fossils. They have been among the many first fossils examined within the context of getting an natural origin and never merely as supernatural objects. Steno (1638–1686), initially known as by his Danish identify Niels Stensen, was a famous doctor within the pure sciences. He labored in Florence underneath the patronage of the Medici household. In October 1666, a big shark was introduced ashore by fishermen close to Livorno in Tuscany. Grand Duke Ferdinand II ordered that it’s taken to Florence for Steno to dissect. Steno’s examination of the shark’s head satisfied him that tongue stones needed to be the tooth of historical sharks.

Nevertheless, Steno realised that there have been some variations between tongue stones and the tooth of latest sharks, surmising that tongue stones got here from sharks that should not exist, thereby acknowledging the just about heretical notion of species extinction. Moreover, as a result of tongue stones are collected on land, he instructed that the ocean should previously have lined the land for the sharks to dwell there.

In 1667, Steno revealed a e-book describing his research of the shark’s tooth and in addition proposing a principle for the formation of stratified rocks, which is near what we now know to be appropriate. This work, entitled Elementorum Myologiae Specimen, seu, Musculidescripto Geometrica cui accedunt Canis Carchariae Dissectum Caput, et Dissectus Piscis ex Canum Genere, is a seminal quantity for palaeontologists and geologists alike (Cutler, 2003).

Folklore and the early historical past of the science that grew to become often known as palaeontology are intertwined. Folkloric interpretations of fossils have been usually based on similarities in look between fossils and residing animals, and these interpretations got severe consideration by naturalists engaged within the research of fossils. Though many folklore beliefs about fossils appear absurd in a contemporary context, they often have a rational origin revealing how mysterious objects, akin to fossils, have been recognized by comparability with gadgets from on a regular basis life, for instance, masonry nails and animal’s tongues.

References

Baldwin, M.R. 1993. Toads and plague: amulet remedy in seventeenth-century drugs. Bulletin of the Historical past of Drugs 67: 227–247.
Brookes, R. 1763. A New and Correct System of Pure Historical past. Quantity 5: The Pure Historical past of Waters, Earths, Stones, Fossils and Minerals, with their Virtues, Properties, and Medicinal Makes use of, to which is added, the Technique during which Linnaeus has handled these topics. London: J. Newbery.
Cutler, A. 2003. The Seashell on the Mountain prime. New York: Dutton.
Duffin, C. J. 2015 Historic survey of the inner use of unprocessed amber. Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica 13(1): 41–74.
Duffin, C. J. & Davidson, J. P. 2011. Geology and the darkish facet. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Affiliation 122: 7–15.
Gayet, M., Abi Saad, P. & Gaudant, O. 2012. The Fossils of Lebanon. Reminiscence of Time. Méolans-Revel: Éditions DésIris.
Kennedy, C. B. 1976. A fossil for what ails you. The exceptional historical past of fossil drugs. Fossil Journal 1: 42–57.
Kunz, G. F. 1917. Rings for the Finger. From the earliest recognized occasions to the current, with full descriptions of the origin, early making, supplies, the Archaeology, historical past, for affection, for love, for engagement, for wedding ceremony, commemorative, mourning, and many others. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott.
Lankester, E. R. 1920. Extra Science from an Simple Chair. London: Methuen & Co.
Lupton, T. 1627. A thousand Notable issues of sundrie sortes: Whereof some are wonderfull, some unusual, some nice, divers obligatory, an incredible kind worthwhile, and plenty of very valuable. London: Wright and Chicken.
Miller, H. 1849. Footprints of the Creator: or, the Asterolepis of Stromness. London: Johnstone & Hunter.
Renz, M. 2002. Megalodon – Looking the Hunter. Lehigh Acres: PaleoPress.
Thompson, C. J. S. 1932. A Mediaeval poison cup constituted of the Terra Sigillata. British Medical Journal 1: 73–74.
Topsell, E. 1608. The Historie of Serpents. London: Jaggard.
Zammit-Maempel, G. 1975. Fossil sharks’ tooth: a medieval safeguard in opposition to poisoning. Melita Historica 6: 391–406.
Zammit-Maempel, G. 1989. The Folklore of Maltese fossils. Papers in Mediterranean Social Research 1: 1–29.
Zammit-Maempel, G. 1990. Rock from St. Paul’s Grotto (Malta) in Drugs and Folklore. Rabat: Progress Press.

Buy Fossils, Crystals, Tools
Subscribe to Deposits
Join Fossil Hunts
UK Fossil Locations

Filed underneath: fossils Tagged: bone, Bones, cartilaginous sharks, Cretaceous, Devonian, Fish, fishes, foot prints of the creator, Fossil, Fossil Fish, fossils, jurassic fish, lebanon, Lepidotes, maltese fossil, marine fossils, Old Red Sandstone, petrified nails, Red Sandstone, Sandstone, serpents’ eyes, Shark, Sharks, Sharks Teeth, sharks’ tooth, teeth, toadstones, vertebrates, white sea bream sargus
Deposits Magazine