On this photograph ...
... you can see two similar shapes, two snails standing near each other ... with millions of years between them ... one is alive, waiting for the high tide, the other one is a fossil, a memory or a little monument to itself, written in stone.
This post will lead you through a living open-air museum on the stretch of beautiful rocky coast, a few kilometers from my home.
Fossils will be the central part and the main stars of this post.
And because of my fascination with these little sculptures and carvings from eath's distant past ...
... I will surely exaggerate with images showing mostly the same type of fossilized shells ...
... but I'm still convinced ...
... that this abundance of similar, petrified shapes ...
... will not end ...
... in a boring ...
... and repetitive episode...
... because ...
... there is a great variety of details here ...
... every petrified remain is a bit different ...
... and the look and structures of the rocks in which are imprinted ...
... are varied ...
... and colorful ...
... and then ...
... there are some living things here ... like this lovely lizard, basking in the sun, like one of the old, expert tourists that know about this wild part of the coastline spared from the galloping Hotelization and Appartmanization.
And there are ...
... many ...
... beautiful little gardens ...
... on the rocks ...
... filled ...
... with small resilient plant ...
... that can grow in these hard and salty conditions ...
... and on these plants ...
... especially when they are in bloom ...
... you can occasionally find ...
... some insect ...
... or even little land snails ...
... very near to the sea ones.
Some creatures though, are not connected much with the plant.
This minuscule jumping spider is patroling very large ( from his point of view ) stretches of barren rocks.
And so is this, also minuscule cicada relative, that is mimicking his postures and movement.
These little moths are also very common here, camouflaged on the rocks ...
... while this one came here caught by the wind and looked lost and not on favorable terrain ... and while we talking about the wind ... I think is a good moment to break a bit this macro view and take a look at the larger picture ...
... introducing the forces that continue to shape these rocks ...
... the wind and the sea.
Some of the greatest masterpieces ...
... of this wind&sea modeling...
... can be found here, at the edge of the sea ... among the shiny pebbles ...
... when the tide is low.
And here they are ...
... Elegant little fossils that look like tattoos on the stones ...
... for me ... these are like real precious stones.
But some of the bigger stones ...
... also have their jewels ...
... and wonderful details ...
... like this yellow spider hanging from the ceiling of a little red cavern ...
... decorative ...
... lichens ...
... and even the moss carpets in some places.
And of course ...
... the main attraction ...
... the great number ...
... of similar ...
... but at the same time ...
... different enough ...
... fossils ...
... you can ...
... always ...
... find ...
... something new ...
... and a bit different ...
... in ...
... this ...
... big collection.
Occasionally ...
... after the rain, you can find pools of stagnant, mildly salted water ...
... ideal habitat ...
... for some larvae ...
... including ...
... those of the mosquitoes. But the most interesting thing here ...
... at least for me ...
... are these minuscule Coleoptera under the surface that moves in a peculiar way... look's like they are walking on the surface, but on the opposite side of the surface and are enveloped in air bubbles.
And I always must stop to admire the elegance of the simple bubble :D
And with a few photographs of this little larvae ...
...we'll end this little story inside the story ...
... about the small pools of stagnant water.
But the main post ...
... continues ...
... with ...
... its ...
... various ...
... details ...
... of ...
... rocks ...
... with ...
... all those ...
... pretty peculiar ...
... resilient ...
... plants ...