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Greetings all, This is my first post so please excuse any obvious ignorance. I'm an absolute newbie in all things fossil hunting related. I was wondering if anyone help me confirm if this is or is a sort of a fossil or just a random rock? Found it near Hannover Point at Isle of Wight during low tide. Feels fairly light and has some distinct shiny/ gold-ish patterns among the cracks. There is also a sort of a vertical ridge going through the length of it. Thank You! Michael

Hi all, I've been spending time walking the beach at Compton, Isle of Wight, UK. I came across this fossil when I was sat down after walking 2 miles and finding nothing! I've not cleaned it up yet. All of the beach is of the cretaceous era, and was found at the Western end of the beach. I've found various Aptian age finds nearby previously. I've looked online,but nothing I've seen has the very symmetrical shape and close together ridges that this has. I'd appreciate any help with this! Many thanks, Steve.

Hi all, After reading the "Geologists' guide to The Isle of Wight" I popped out to Compton Bay the other evening. Due to big spring tides I only had access to the Gault Clay and Upper Greensand area available at the far western end of the bay. As you can see from Compton Chine, it was windy enough to blow the water upwards : (youtube link) After a while I managed a few bits and pieces to start my collection. Every single one of the appeared exactly in the right section of the book. This made identification somewhat easier. The book is a bit of a 'must have' for people like me, who are new to this. There were a few large ammonite 'negatives' in some of the Greensand rocks, but I'll need to get down the there over low tide to investigate further. Here's what I found from the short time I was there. Here's a closeup of the ammonite, it has a lot of rock to be removed, but I don't have to tools (yet). I'd thoroughly recommend getting this book, if you plan an Isle of Wight visit: Regards, Steve.