I believe Pete Chadwick still works in the Psychology Department at
Liverpool University.
Dear Ms. Gjerløff,
This is an interesting topic, and a few possibilities come to mind:
1. Dr. Richard G. Bromley, professor emeritus at the Dept. of Geology,
University of Copenhagen, has worked with chalk flints for most of his
career and may have some information on flint pseudofossils.
2. People have an innate ability to recognize faces, therefore we see
faces
everywhere, even in a few lines. ;-) A few people lack this
ability in
varying degrees, even to the distressing degree of not
recognizing family
members on the street. This is prosopagnosia or
'face-blindness' and you may
be able to find more information about it
on the Web.
3. I vaguely remember an article on common optical illusions as they
affect
geologic mapping. (Does anyone remember where it is?) For
example, there is
the tendency to link dots into lines when dealing with
remote imagery, which
can sometimes lead to dramatic mistakes, e.g., the
mapping of canals on
Mars.
4. Every academic paleontologist has been presented pseudofossils by
people
who are absolutely certain that they have found (or their
grandfather found)
a fossilized toe, wasp's nest, egg, footprint, etc.
It is not the
misconception, but the certainty, that paleontologists
find puzzling;
perhaps it is due to the emotional weight of having a
possibly valuable
specimen or a valued family memento. Of course, there
are many others who
are broad-minded about their finds.
5. A few centuries ago, there were no professional paleontologists, and
the
earliest works on paleontology are full of such wonders. See Martin
Rudwick's wonderful book on the early history of paleontology, 'The
Meaning
of Fossils' (2nd edition).
When you publish your work (which I presume may be in a historical
journal),
please post the citation on PaleoNet so interested
paleontologists may find
it readily.
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, USA