It was 1970 when Greenfield Community College Professor Emeritus Richard Little first discovered Jurassic armored mud balls in the sandstone cable anchors of a now-dismantled suspension bridge over the Connecticut River between Turners Falls and Gill. Fifty-four years later, Little marked his 80th birthday by speaking to the discovery’s significance, both locally and internationally.

Speaking to an audience at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls recently, Little explained how Franklin County’s Jurassic armored mud balls are unique.

“These are definitely the best [mud balls] and certainly the ones that are easily seen,” Little said, adding that this region’s mud balls are well-preserved and very accessible.

At Unity Park in Turners Falls, several large boulders contain lithified armored mud balls that have withstood the test of time since the Jurassic period roughly 200 million years ago. Little initially discovered the mud ball by a bridge there in 1970, where he noticed the rocks around the mud balls created a sort of “armor” that was solidified.

Little broke down the process through which an armored mud ball is created. An armored mud ball is formed when dried mud crumbles and falls into a streambed where the mud becomes sticky, collecting rocks as it travels in the stream. The armored mud balls of the Jurassic age were then covered by stream deposits where they would solidify over millions of years.

Little has been sharing his knowledge about armored mud balls for decades, both with his GCC students and interested community members. Last year, he testified during a legislative hearing in support of H.3129, seeking to certify the rare geological formation as the state’s “official sedimentary structure.”

“I had the legislative support of [Rep.] Susannah Whipps, so it was her office that submitted it to the Legislature. We had a bill number and everything from the House,” Little explained. “All the Connecticut Valley legislators signed on as co-sponsors, but 10 is not enough.”

For this legislation to be properly considered, he said, more support is needed from more legislative co-sponsors across Massachusetts.

“I’m trying to recruit people into our working group from other parts of the state,” Little noted.

When asked about his perspective on armored mud balls, Steve Winters, a retired geology professor at Holyoke Community College and a friend of Little’s, said, “What’s important here is that [Richard] Little is pointing out a tremendously important geologic feature that has educational value for everybody living in the valley. These are fun things to learn about, but you can also learn a lot of geology by understanding their formation and their preservation.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.