264: Snail fossils

ENN: Thais Fight to Save Rare Fossil Bed from Miners:

Thai conservationists urged the government on Wednesday to stop a state firm digging up what they called the world's only bed of fresh water snail fossils.

The firm had already started digging, with cabinet permission, into the 12-metre (39 ft) thick layer of fossils to get at low-grade lignite coal underneath it, they said.

…

“We have what others don't, but we just take it for granted, not realising its value,” said a government palaeontologist who declined to be identified.

“What I can say is that it is worth preserving.”

Because it tells us about the evolution of life on earth.