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A horned lizard that had been found alive in a block of stone "so solid
as to preclude the entrance of the smallest insect" was sent to the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington by Judge Houghton of New Mexico in 1953. The
lizard lived for two days after its release. (Scientific American, 8:366, July
30, 1853)
During excavations being made for the Hartlepool waterworks in Durham,
England, in 1865, workmen inadvertently freed a living toad from a block of
magnesium limestone 25 feet below ground level. ‘The cavity [in which the toad
had been contained] was no larger than its body, and presented the appearance of
being a cast of it. The toad’s eyes shone with unusual brilliancy, and it was
full of vivacity on its liberation. It appeared, when first discovered, desirous
to perform the process of respiration, but evidently experienced some
difficulty, and the only sign of success consisted of a "barking"
noise, which it continues invariably to make at present on being touched. The
toad is in the possession of Mr. S. Horner,, the president of the Natural History
Society, and continues in as lively a state as when found. On a minute
examination its mouth is found to be completely closed, and the barking noise it
make proceeds from its nostrils. The claws of its fore feet are turned inwards,
and its hind ones are of extraordinary length and unlike the present English
toad...The toad, when first released, was of a pale colour and not readily
distinguished from the stone, but shortly after its colour grew darker until it
became a fine olive brown." A local clergyman and geologist, the Reverend
Robert Taylor, expressed the opinion that the toad was 6,000 years old. At the
last report (1865) the creature was to be given a place of honour in the
Hartlepool Museum, its "primary habitation" - the rock - being
provided for accommodation should it so desire. (The Leeds Mercury, April 8,
1865; as quoted in The Zoologist, 23:9630, 1865)
A living toad was liberated from a cavity near the centre of a large rock by
workmen digging for ore at Paswick, Derby, England, in 1852. They came upon the
rock - actually a large lump of ore - at a depth of 12 feet below ground level
and since it was too large for two men to lift they had begun to break it up
with their picks. The cavity in which they found the toad was nearly 6 inches in
diameter, considerably larger than the animal itself, and was lined with
crystals, perhaps of carbonate of lime. The toad died soon after being exposed
to air.
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Sources: Mysteries of The Unexplained |