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Humans have been on Earth for two million years! Sure, that may sound like a long time, but if you think of the Earth’s life as a clock, the first humans only arrived here at 11:58 p.m.

A 200-million-year-old Ichthyosaur skull was found in Larne in Co. Antrim. These were large marine reptiles which resembled modern-day dolphins.

Ammonites are coiled-up shells.

We can see many fossils from the creatures of that sea trapped in Ireland’s limestone and chalk. Fossils are the remains of long-dead animals and plants. They are found in rocks near the coast or in areas which were once covered by water. Here are some of the fossils you can see in Ireland:

Tetrapods (four-legged amphibians) lived here at least 350 million years ago. That is 100 million years before dinosaurs. Tracks can be seen in Valentia, Co. Kerry, from a tetrapod that left its prints in mud as it walked along the shore.

Long before you, your ancestors, or any other human ever set foot in Ireland, it was a very different place. Ireland was once just land sitting under a shallow, warm sea.

Trilobites are bug-like creatures.

Brachiopods have hard shells like a clam or an oyster, but they are not related.

Echinoids are a type of fossilised sea urchin.

Gastropods are what we call snails. They first lived in the sea before moving onto land.

Crinoids are marine animals related to starfish.

Siphonophyllia are large cylinders commonly found in limestone. You can see some at Streedagh Point in Co. Sligo.

Michelinia looks a bit like honeycomb.

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Dinosaurs lived on Earth for more than 165 million years. Dinosaurs were, for the most part, land animals. This may be one of the reasons why there haven’t been as many dinosaur remains found here as in other countries, since Ireland was submerged in water for most of this period.

However, new discoveries are being made all the time – the best place to hunt for fossils is in your own back garden, so try your hand at being a palaeontologist and see what you can dig up.

Scelidosaurus was a herbivorous four-legged dinosaur with light armour on its skin.

Megalosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur, was about seven metres long. It walked on its strong back legs and is related to the T-Rex.

Two of our biggest dinosaur discoveries – a Megalosaurus and a Scelidosaurus – were made in Co. Antrim.

Between and after the Ice Ages, Ireland had many different species of animals, such as those shown above, that either migrated or became extinct.

The Irish elk was the heaviest known member of the deer family. A fine example was discovered in the Marble Arch Caves in counties Cavan and Fermanagh, and can be seen in Dublin’s Natural History Museum.

A woolly mammoth was discovered in Co. Waterford as limestone was being mined. Some of the bones were used in a landfill or crushed to make fertiliser. Fortunately, archaeologists saved the rest! Eurasian Lynx

Spotted Hyena

Grey Wolf

Arctic Lemming

Brown Bear

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A Mesolithic campsite was found at Mount Sandel in Co. Derry. Archaeologists found the bones of animals such as pigeons, teals, mallards, grouse, eagles and wild boars, which tell us what these people ate.

The first people came to Ireland around 8000 BC, when the whole island was covered in trees. This is known as the Mesolithic or ‘Middle’ Stone Age.

These early people were hunters and gatherers, moving from place to place. They built campsites, which they left as soon as the food in that area became scarce – like seeds, nuts, fruits and berries. Mesolithic people invented clever fish traps and used their keen hunting skills to capture birds and animals for meat, which they cooked over open fires.

The Mesolithic people used tiny chips of stone (mostly flint) to make knives, arrows and tools, which we call microliths.

They lived in tent-like structures that were built from wooden posts and covered in thatch or animal hides. Inside they would light a fire for warmth and light.

Five Mesolithic fish traps were excavated near Spencer Dock in Dublin. They are some of the oldest fish traps in Europe.

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Neolithic houses were rectangular and built of oak planks, wattle or a mixture of both. The houses were divided into two or three rooms, and the sleeping areas would have been quite warm and comfortable.

The Neolithic or ‘New’ Stone Age is the period when farming became a way of life. Neolithic people began to clear the forests in Ireland to make farms, where they planted wheat and kept cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. What made this age so different from the Middle Stone Age was that Neolithic people were able to stay in the same place for longer.

A wonderful example of Neolithic farming was revealed when the Céide Fields of north Mayo were discovered under blanket bog in the 1970s.

Portal tombs, or dolmens, have a giant capstone partly balanced on at least two ‘portal’ or entrance stones.

Brownshill Dolmen in Co. Carlow has the largest capstone in Europe!

Court tombs are rectangular tombs with a courtyard in front of the main entrance.

Creevykeel Court Tomb in Co. Sligo is one of the best examples, but there are about 300 more dotted around Ireland.

Neolithic people are known for their impressive megalithic tombs. The dead were buried in these tombs, but that was only one of their functions. Some tombs were used to mark territory, some were places of worship, and some were used to track the sun, the moon and the stars!

Neolithic people learned to make pottery, which they used for cooking and storing food. Clay was coiled round and round to build up a simple bowl or vase. Some pots were decorated by pressing stones or sticks into the wet clay. The pot was then hardened by placing it in a hot fire to bake.

Passage tombs have at least one inner chamber that is reached through a long tunnel built of stone.

The most famous are Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange in Co. Meath.

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Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb, built in Co. Meath around 3200 BC.

... and older than Stonehenge in England!

That makes it older than the pyramids in Egypt ...

The Newgrange site consists of a large circular mound, or cairn, with a passageway leading to interior rooms or chambers. There is a wall in front

decorated with quartz stones. The cairn is ringed with decorated kerbstones.

It is believed that Newgrange had huge religious meaning for those who built it.

It was so important that Neolithic people were prepared to haul massive boulders long distances to build it.

It would have been extremely hard work to construct a passage tomb using only stone, bone and wood for tools!

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Above the entrance to the passage, there is an opening called a roof-box. When the sun is at a certain height, a beam of light shines through the roof-box and travels up the 19-metre passage and into the chamber in the centre of the tomb.

As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated. This happens at sunrise on 21 December – the shortest day of the year.

Beautiful carvings can be seen on the stones at

Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. These stones have wonderful spirals,

chevrons (zigzags) and diamonds carved into them. In fact, the Knowth site

contains a quarter of all the megalithic art in Western Europe.

There are many different opinions as to the purpose of these passage tombs. Some people think that they were a place of worship for a cult of the dead.

Others think the builders were sun worshippers.

Some people believe that they helped to predict the seasons and plan farming activities.

We don’t know for sure. Perhaps you have some ideas!

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