Stone Swallow

• Stone Swallow
  Barbaud, Belgium
  
  In ancient China, this stone was thought to be a swallow turned into fossil in the cave, and was called Stone Swallow.
  It sure is a fossil, but it is not a swallow. It is the fossil of a brachiopod called Spirifer, which flourished in Upper Devonian.
  This creature has beautiful form that looks like a bird with its wings spread. Spirifer is an ancestor of today’s “living fossil” species such as Lingula.