#FindsFriday Raspberry seeds

Today for #FindsFriday we’ve got another microscopic treat for you today. This beauty is a Rubus sp. or a raspberry seed! 

This particular seed was preserved through mineralisation – where a lack of oxygen in an environment causes organic material to “mineralise” rather than decay.

Cess pits (old toilets) are quite common for mineralisation of plant remains – people eat food and pass it, then the cess (waste) deposits lack oxygen meaning that the food remains get preserved! 

This raspberry seed was one of thousands found in a soil sample! Typically each raspberry will produce 100-120 seeds, so this deposit is indicative of a huge number of raspberries being eaten on this site!