And there were fossils. Sulewayo's form was bent over a spot on the cliff face, examining minutely; but Lampert could see others from where he stood. None seemed remarkable. Most were rather evidently shellfish. He carefully refrained from giving them names according to the genera they resembled in Earth's rocks; Sulewayo and his colleagues frowned on the practice, which could be most misleading. He could not, however, resist the temptation to think of them as scallops.
"What do you have there, Ndomi?" He knew the other would not have spent so long on any shellfish.
"Not sure, precisely. Maybe vertebrate, maybe not. What could be armor and what could be ribs all mixed up. I think I'll mark it for future reference."
"I suppose it'll be another Devonian whatsit, like everything else on this planet, when you do decide."
"Pennsylvanian would better describe the world as a whole. Barring that, you may be right. Rob, if you'd give me a hand here we could get some basic work done."
"Eh?"
"You say this is a tilted block. In lowest formations right now. I'd like to get photos and if possible specimens of as many different varieties of shellfish as possible, at each level. Then it may be possible to set up some sort of temporal sequence—and use the things as index fossils if animals do evolve on this be-nighted mudball. If you could get me some radioactive dates at two or three nicely scattered levels, it would also help."
"Thanks," returned Lampert drily. "I could use material like that myself. I can tell you what you probably already know—you're not likely to get anything of the sort from limestone."
"Well—intrusions are always possible."
"You watch for 'em, then." The pair went to work.