In contrast to archaeologists, who dig great trenches to get at their evidence, geologists rely on nature or quarrymen to open the earth up for them. A hitherto unknown fossil creature pleads to be discovered:
You geologists are lazy –
You wait for things to show.
I wish you’d be proactive
And excavate below.
Stop scratching at the surface,
Go get a JCB
And open up some trenches
Until you unearth me.
I’ve lain around for aeons
Several metres underground
Just suffering compaction,
And waiting to be found.
At current rates of weathering
The sun will be stone cold
Before my re-emergence
As a cast, or complex mould.
There’s nothing going on here;
I’m bored out of my shell.
A bit of action on your part
Would help me bear this hell.
I’m not your average fossil:
There’s only one of me.
I’m quite unknown to science,
Unique in history.
I’m officially anonymous,
So this could be your chance:
Get trenching, get me out of here,
Let palaeontology advance!
[Its plea was unexpectedly answered a few years later – see The hole.]