“It would indeed be a great delusion, if we stated that those sports of Nature [we find] enclosed in rocks are there by chance or by some vague creative power. Ah, that would be superficial indeed! In reality, those shells, which once were alive in water and are now dead and decomposed, were made thus by time not Nature; and what we now find as very hard, figured stone, was once soft mud and which received the impression of the shape of a shell, as I have frequently demonstrated.”
![“It would indeed be a great delusion, if we stated that those sports of Nature [we find] enclosed in rocks are there by chance or by some vague creative power. Ah, that would be superficial indeed! In reality, those shells, which once were alive in water and are now dead and decomposed, were made…” quote by Agostino Scilla](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/944/agostino-scilla-180925_alive_it-would-indeed-be-a-great-delusion-if-w_1962829.jpg)
![“Evidence of this [transformation of animals into fossils] is that parts of aquatic animals and perhaps of naval gear are found in rock in hollows on mountains, which water no doubt deposited there enveloped in sticky mud, and which were prevented by coldness and dryness of the stone from…” quote by Albertus Magnus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5a7/albertus-magnus-39861_animal_evidence-of-this-transformation-of-anima_3017159.jpg)
