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Hi All, Spent a few days down on the Devon/Dorset coast with family. Plan was to fish and fossil hunt over the period. Got to Lyme Regis nice and early on the Friday and still didn't beat the crowds. Found a few Pyrite Ammonites (of which the photos i will attach later) but nothing else of major significance. Went back on the Saturday and had a rummage around in the loose material on the beach slightly away from the crowds. Found a single Ichthyosaur vertebra under a large rock, then a small piece of paddle bone in a rock pool, and lastly and my favourite half a larger vertebra with other bones in matrix just laying out in the open!! To say i was happy is an understatement! It was very busy down there so i think i got very lucky to find these. Apologies there is no scale on them. Hopefully my hand will suffice! I am planning to get the larger find prepped to remove some of the matrix, if anyone can recommend someone in the UK who can do it that would be brilliant, please send me a message. Thanks for reading.

Can anyone tell me what this is? I was thinking it was some sort of coral. I found it on the Jurassic Coast of England.

Hi. Can anyone help me identify what this is? (if anything) I'm unsure of what rock it is but it was found on the Jurassic Coast of England. I believe I can see some encrusted shells on it but it has a strange undulating form on the top and an almost fibrous appearance on its opposite side. I've heard different opinions on what it is. I've been told that it may be a shoulder bone possibly from an ichthyosaur or it may just be a section with preserved sand ripples from the sea bed. I was hoping someone could give me a more definitive answer. EDIT - My last photos were too blurry so I've added some better ones.

G'day all! After three years since my last visit to the UK, i finally returned in December 2017 for another massive collecting trip across England. This was my most ambitious tour of the UK's Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertebrate deposits thus far, with 20 days of collecting across ten different locations. These were (in chronological order from first visit): Abbey Wood in East London Beltinge in Kent Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight Compton Bay to Grange Chine on the Isle of Wight Lyme Regis to Charmouth in Dorset Aust Cliff in Gloucestershire Saltwick Bay in Yorkshire Kings dyke in Cambridgeshire Minster in Kent Tankerton in Kent. If you went collecting at any of these places in the last month, there's probably a 25.6975% chance you saw me looking very intimidating hunched over in my hooded rain jacket and muddy pants 14 of those collecting days were back-to-back, a new record for me, though it was very tiring! Having just come from the hot Australian summer, winter collecting in England was certainly a challenge at times and my fingers and toes froze to the point i could barely feel them on multiple occasions. Temperatures for many of the days reached 0 degrees celcius or below, with ice on the ground around me and even snow falling while i was trying to collect! I also went out during the middle of the night to collect using a head torch on some occasions (mainly at Bouldnor) due to the tidal conditions and bad weather which prevented collecting during the day. All in all i am certainly pleased with how the trip went, i was successful at all locations with the exception of Tankerton. For some of the locations (Aust Cliff, Kings dyke, Saltwick Bay) it was also my first and only visit, so i'm glad i still managed to do well with no prior experience at these sites and with such limited time at each. I have tried to write this trip report not only as a means of showing you guys my finds but also to provide an informative overview of some of the better locations for Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertebrates across England for others who might be planning similar trips. Anyway, here are the results! Pictures will be spread across the next 12 posts due to file size restrictions. Abbey Wood - East London (6/12/17, 30/12/17 and 31/12/17) Formation: Blackheath ('Lesnes Shell Bed') Deposit Age: 54.5 million years (Eocene) Fossil Diversity: Sharks, bony fish, chimaeroids, bivalves, gastropods, rare mammals, turtles and crocodiles This was one of only two inland locations i visited (the other being Kings dyke). As i have found, the majority of the UK's easily accessible fossil collecting locations are coastal! Abbey Wood is an excellent location just 45 minutes on the tube from central London. It is situated in a park called the Lesnes Abbey Woods and there is a small collecting area that is open to the public for shallow digging (see my first two pictures below). You definitely need a sifter, shovel and basin of water at this location to have any real success. Be warned though that once you combine the fine Blackheath sediments with water during sifting you get some pretty gnarly mud so expect to come away from this site looking like you've just been rolling around in the dirt. I'm sure i got some interesting looks from people on the tube going back to London it was all worth it though, as every single sift load produced at least one shark tooth across the three days i visited. Very impressive considering the number of obvious holes dotted around the ground from years worth of other collectors visiting. It should be noted though that the mammalian material from this location is of high scientific importance, and collecting here is allowed on the condition that any mammalian finds be brought to the attention of and handed in to specialists like Dr Jerry hooker at the Natural History Museum in London. I didn't find any such material on my trips unfortunately. Here is the designated collecting area. The statue at the front is of Coryphodon, one of the rare Eocene mammals that has been found at the site. The full haul of shark teeth from three days of sifting in the collecting area. Most are from Striatolamia and Sylvestrilamia. I gave up trying to count them once i got past 100 Some of the other fishy bits that often turn up during sifting, including guitar fish teeth on the far left and two dermal denticles (Hypolophodon sylvestris), one gar pike fish tooth in the middle (Lepisosteus suessionensis), one shark vertebra down the bottom and unidentified bony fish vertebrae on the right. I don't typically collect shells, but i picked these up for the sake of adding a bit more diversity to my Abbey Wood collection. These are bivalves and gastropods of various species. The molluscan diversity from this one location is actually quite impressive. Beltinge - Kent (7/12/17 and 29/12/17) Formation: Upnor ('Beltinge Fish Bed') Deposit Age: 56.5 million years old (Paleocene) Fossil Diversity: Sharks, chimaeroids, bony fish, rays, turtles, crocodiles, bivalves, wood This is my favourite shark tooth collecting location in the UK and probably my favourite that i have visited anywhere so far. The shoreline directly opposite the access point at the end of Reculver Drive in Beltinge is loaded with teeth and dare i say it's impossible to come here and walk away empty handed. The shore however is very flat so there is generally only about a two hour window of time that collecting can be carried out here, one hour either side of low tide. Conditions can also vary depending on how sanded over the shore is, whether the Beltinge Fish Bed itself is exposed and how low the tide drops. However even on a poor day you will still find teeth here, just not as many! I experienced this first hand as the first day i visited on December 7th the conditions were excellent. The tide dropped quite low, there wasn't too much sand covering the clay and the Beltinge Fish Bed was exposed. This allowed direct in-situ collecting of teeth from this rich layer and i ended up with something like 240 teeth from just a couple of hours of looking. The second visit i made on December 29 of the same month was almost the exact opposite. It's amazing how quickly these coastal locations can change! The shore was largely sanded over, the fish bed was covered and the tide didn't drop anywhere near as much. I was out about the same amount of time as the first but only managed 69 teeth (only ). Keep these things in mind if you are planning a visit. Luckily though i didn't just find shark teeth, i also managed to locate some of the other less common finds as you will see below! Here is the area of shoreline that produces teeth, photographed on December 7th. It was quite cold and rainy! Three teeth sitting next to each other as found. More as-found shark teeth. This one made me quite excited when i saw it. It's a large piece of chimaeroid fish jaw and mouthplate coming straight from the Beltinge Fish Bed itself (the darker, dull-green sandy clay in this picture). Beltinge is continued in the next post.

Hello, my first post so thanks in advance to all of you who look at novice finds and tell us, with great patience, what we've found. I found this on the beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth in what I think is the Black Ven, The stone cleaved easily enough with a butter knife and this was revealed. The coin in the photos is a UK 5p piece and the fossil measures approx. 15mm X 8mm Thank you Simon

I went fossil hunting in Lyme Regis for the first time in my life. I cracked open a nodule and found this ammonite "fossil". When I tried to brush the fossil area with a plastic brush is seemed to scratch away the fossil as well. The detail has disappeared. Is this just a poorly preserved fossil? If it is a proper fossil... what can I use as hand tools to release it? I don't want to invest in a dremel tool, and don't mind hard graft with hand tools if it's an option. The rock is super soft and easy to remove. I looked online and saw something about freezing and then running it under hot water as an option. Thanks in advance for any help! -Justin-

Hey guys! One week ago I was on the Jurassic coast of Lyme Regis looking for fossils. I found many nice ammonites and belemnites(I will soon make a post about my finds ) I was hoping to find some ichthyosaurus material. First I thought this was a small tail vertebra when I saw it in the soft rock. Then I thought it looked rather like a very small ichthyosaurus paddle bone because it does not have the curves of the fossil. I can see a distinction between what I think is the matrix and what I think is the bone. Really not sure about this but it looks a bit too smooth to be just a simple rock. But you never know... What do you guys think? I colored the matrix in red and left the part that I think is the paddle bone. Thanks for your help! Kind regards.

Sir David Attenborough helps discover brand new species of ichthyosaur in Lyme Regis, Dorset Echo, Jennifer Mulcahey, January 3, 2018 http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/NEWS/15805526.Sir_David_Attenborough_helps_discover_new_species____and_you_might_recognise_the_location/ P.S., I am not responsible for the article's title. Yours, Paul H.

Hello all Around April, May I'm going to the UK for a couple of days with my parents. They will visit some villages, while I'll be fossil hunting on the beach. I've done some research on the internet and thefossilforum, but sometimes the messages I get are contradictory. So I have some questions. -Is it allowed to search fossils in Lyme Regis and Charmouth with a hamer? I know you can't hack in the cliffs. -Is April and May a good period to search for fossils? -I have some serious problems with my eyes and it's very difficult for me to find loose fossils lying on the beach. Are there nice finds in the rocks? I can see those a whole lot better. -If you find an ichthyosaur or a big ammonite (I don't expect to find any) are you allowed to take them with you home? -Does anyone of you know if a good place to stay in Lyme Regis or Charmouth? I found a lot of places and now I don't know which one I have to choose. Our dog is going with us. -Any more tips? Thanks already Greetings Thijs

Here is my small ichthyosaur collection. I keep all my fossils in 19th century draws as it fits with our living room which is a Victorian cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer. Paddle basioccipital

Hi, I found this amongst rocks near the water at Lyme Regis beach in 2004. I assumed icthyosaurus but the curvature seems extreme for one. So if anyone can shed light on what this is, would be most appreciated as it's my most precious and largest creature find. Thanks in advance.

Scanning a small coprolite from Lyme Regis, UK, I noticed this little button-shaped inclusion. I was just wondering if anyone recognized what this might be. My only guess would be an otolith. Any ideas? I'm tempted to try to remove it to get a good look at the other side. Thanks for looking!

Hello everyone, Today I was going through all my older fossils, and I found this in my box of ammonites. Obviously this isn't one, and I must have put it in that box by mistake. It looks a lot like a coprolite to me, but I have no clue from what animal. Unfortunately I don't remember anymore where I found it. There are two possibilities: either from Lyme Regis (UK), or from one of the Cretaceous beaches on the Isle of Wight. Any clue to what it could be, and maybe what location? Best regards, Max

Hi all! For the holidays, I am enjoying a nice relaxation at my grandparents house in Middelburg (NL). We were planning on hunting at Kaloot for sharkteeth and seashells, unfortunately the bad weather prevented it . My grandma, being a sculptor (Hanneke Beaumont, if you're interested in sculpture you might know her), brought me to her atelier today for me to make something myself. I had already made a few things a few years back, so the material wasn't very new to me. 1) an Euoplocephalus in its habitat 2) an Acrocanthosaurus resting its head on a tree (because its head is too heavy ) Today, I wanted to make something new, so I decided, after a bit of brainstorming, to make a re-creation of what Lyme Regis (UK) looked like 200 million years ago, basing my idea on the fossils from the Blue Lias formation found there (ammonites, belemnites, coral, fish, marine reptiles, etc). I am using this picture for ideas on the background. I am nowhere near finished, as for now I have only worked on it for one morning. I am planning on finishing it though as quickly as possible. This is what I have done till now: Sorry for it being wet, but I had to make it wet so that it wouldn't dry up immediately. The big lumps are meant to represent rocks on the seafloor, and the tubes plus the othe thing are meant to be coral. In the middle lies an ammonite shell half-buried in the sand. Detail on the ammonite: Detail on the corals: I am going to add still a small Dapedium fish, a big ammonite and a big belemnite, then add a few more small details. I will return this afternoon and tomorrow morning, and will of course keep you updated of the progress! I hope the end result will be good! Best regards, Max

Hello! I have got this nodule from Lyme Regis and was wondering whether this looks like a good nodule to contain a fossil and how you can tell from the outside? Thank you in advance!

This summer we took a rare vacation away from the kids, and headed across the pond to England. While the focus of the trip was on mudlarking on the Thames (finding everything from a Roman pottery fragment, 100-year old coins, a hammered silver coin, tons of pottery shards from the 1400s, clay pipes from the 17th-19th centuries, Tudor pins & nails, etc.) and on walking across the country on Hadrian's Wall Path, we decided to take a day out of the journey to do a little fossil hunting - a first for us. We decided to visit Lyme Regis, on the southern coast of England, where Mary Anning once searched for fossils in the early 1800s. We rented a car in Salisbury, and drove down to Lyme Regis, a two-hour drive away. This was the most challenging part of the trip, as we had never driven purposefully on the wrong side of the road. But it turned out the skinny roads were more daunting than the change of driving habits. We felt constantly pressed in on the left side by the encroaching hedges or ancient stone walls. Needless to say, we made it there alive. We had booked a walk through the Lyme Regis Museum (at £11 each), and we found the museum (still closed, in the early morning) after a short walk from the parking lot. It was a chilly morning, so we wore layers, and brought a backpack and our hiking shoes so that we'd be prepared for any uneven terrain. While we waited for the group to gather (~15 or so), we admired the view. The English Channel was calm and flat. The guides then walked us down to the end of the sea wall walkway, and gathered us all around for a 30-minute instructional talk. They discussed the types of fossils that we could find, how stratigraphy works, the dangers of the eroding cliffs, the ancient flora and fauna of the region, etc. They said that the fossil-finding would be a bit rough today, as the beach is best after a nice storm or two (or in the winter time). We had just gotten through a lengthy spell of amazing weather, which meant that there most likely wouldn't be any amazing fossils. We then walked down a short stairway onto the beach.

Soooo under the pretence of a holiday in the South West of England I took Dr B and little Violet to Lyme Regis and we, er, stumbled across Lyme Regis Museum which unbeknown to me had some paleontological specimens inside something to do with a certain Mary Anning I believe. Fortunately the museum has other things that Dr B was interested in (actually we all were), as a teacher of creative writing and a novelist, so my bacon was saved when it became apparent that John Fowles was curator there for two years and Jane Austin visited Lyme regularly. The museum is really kid friendly an there are questionnaires for children of all ages to do with a small prize of a polished piece of semi precious stone. Lots of images to follow Pencil in hand Violet is ready to start her questionnaire.

Hello everyone! First of all, I would like to say that I am new to the website, so if I am doing something wrong, please notify me! Second, I would like your help identifying this fossil lobster I found at Lyme Regis (Dorset Coast, England) 4 years ago. I am pretty sure it's a lobster, as a local paleontologist (Paddy Howe) said it definitely that; but he said he had no clue to what species it was. Here is some basic info about the fossil: Age: 200 myo, Sinemurian stage of the early Jurassic Size: from left to right, around 4cm Important: the head and the tail are missing! As there is no head nor tail, I would understand it is difficult to determine which species it is, but I would still be happy if you give me an opinion. Warm regards, Max

I am visiting Charmouth for a bit of fossil hunting this week, hoping to find marine reptile. Does anyone recommend a particular direction along the beach in which to search?? I.e. East towards Seatown or West towards Lyme Regis?? Thanks!

Spent a few days last week on the beaches at Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Plenty of ammonites (most of them pyrite, one of which I left on Mary Anning's grave), crinoids, oysters, belemnites, one ichthyosaur paddle bone, and the absolute treasure: a complete, matrix-free Acrodus anningiae tooth. Our guide down there, Paddy Howe, who has collected those beaches daily for decades, said he'd seen only one other. It's going right into the AMNH collections. If you ever do make you way down there, make sure to hook up with Paddy: he's a superb collector, preparator, insanely knowledgable about local fossils, and enjoys a pint!