During the Early Devonian age approximately 400 to 412 million years ago there were hot springs and geysers in Rhynie. Rhynie was located near the equator in this time. The waters contained dissolved silica that coated and trapped plants, animals, bacteria and fungi on the land surface or within shallow pools and this flora and fauna became mineralised and eventually fossilised. Rhynie Chert contains in remarkable detail, including internal structures, the community of some of the earliest life forms to colonise land and has become the cornerstone of modern palaeobotanical studies. The chert does not naturally outcrop and has to be drilled for.