Paramoudras, Paramoudra flints, Pot stones or Potstones are flint

Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 nodules found mainly in parts of north-west Europe: Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 (United Kingdom), Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Basque Country and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In Norfolk they are known as Pot Stones and can be found on the beach below Beeston Bump just outside of Beeston Regis

Beeston Regis

Beeston Regis is a village and civil parish in the North Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It is about a mile east of Sheringham, Norfolk and near the coast. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,091...

. In Ireland they are known as Paramoudras.

Pot Stones are flint nodules with a hollow center and have the appearance of a doughnut

Doughnut

A doughnut or donut is a fried dough food and is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets...

 (torus

Torus

In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...

). They can be found in columns resembling a Backbone

Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...

.

These flints are trace fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s of the burrows of an organism otherwise unknown except for these relics sometimes referred to as Bathicnus paramoudrae.

External links

• Norfolk Museums Beeston Regis-West Runton - paramoudra flints
• geography,org Paramoudra on chalk outcrop