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Hi I got this from a minor who found it 3000ft down in a mine in Yorkshire UK. He thought it may be part of a tree but wasn't 100%. Can anyone help identify this? Thanks

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.

Hi there I found this vertebra on the beach here at Walton on the Naze, Essex, UK. Unusually it was found on the sandy beach near the pier rather than the usual spot near the cliffs. Anyway, from the little I know is it right to assume that shark vertebrae have regular bony connections in the profile, Ray vertebrae tend to be smooth in profile and bony fish have irregular profiles. Is this generally true or am I way off the mark? Given that, is this a bony fish vertebra rather than shark, and if so is there any way to pin it further down to a given species? thanks in advance, Carl

A near complete, partly enrolled Paladin sp. found a couple of days ago, lying in three pieces in a pile of disintegrating mudstone. Brigantian stage (Mississippian), N.E. England, UK. I spent ages unsuccessfully looking for the missing bit but never mind, it's still the nearest to a whole one I've found for about four years - decent Carboniferous trilobites are generally hard to come by though moulted bits are quite common at the site. This stuff falls apart when wet and another spell of rain would have completely destroyed it. Apart from gluing, no prepping was needed. 1.5cm long

Just a quick hello, I live in the New Forest on the South coast of England. Enjoyed fossil hunting as a youngster on family holidays to Lyme Regis. Now I have spare time on my hands I thought I might try my hand at it again. Just a quick browse here shows how much I have to learn.

Kate and I were having a bit of a day yesterday so we decided off the cuff to visit Offerton 8 miles from Home to chill out. Hit an amazing vein, I’ve never had such a variety.

Hi there, i found this today within the shingle at Walton on the Naze in Essex, UK. The usual teeth found here are striatolamia and Otodus but in humble opinion this doesn’t appear like any of those. Dare I say more like carcharocles (is that spelled right?) I’m trying to not get too excited but any help would be appreciated.

Hi, I found these while pulling apart loose shale eroding from the rockface at the Lady's Walk Shale, Scotland. Be interested for any thoughts...! Can upload better pics if needed.

Hi, Went on a small hike today in my local area, Glouctershire UK. There is a hillside that was once part of the sea during the Jurassic period. Found this strange looking thing that really stood out. It was palm sized, found shells embedded in the rock a few feet away. Fossil or just a strange shaped rock? Any help welcomed, thanks!

Found this today at Lepe beach in Hampshire, UK. Any identification help would be greatly appreciated.

Ok this made me laugh on our favourite auction site . I am calling Doren because he enjoys this type of post @caldigger Fossilized skeleton . Found on Jurassic coast. Uk Possibly crocosaurus, wood you believe it.

hi totally new to this,but go to Walton on the naze uk for kids to find sharks teeth at the beech .they picked up this and have no idea if at al a fossil..

A quick iPhoney pic of a foot cast while on The Isle of Wight whilst i had a couple off hours of work.

Hi all, my wife found this impressive vertebra on the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze this morning. Apart from it being from a bony fish, is there any way of narrowing down the species? It is from the London Clay deposits (Ypresian / early Eocene).

My son found an amber coloured like tube on a beach in West Runton, Cromer, England. He is really excited that it could be something! It's 5cm long and was attached to a chalk rock on the beach. Any ideas?

Ive never posted a trip report before so thought it was about time I gave it a go! I took a trip to my favorite shark tooth site this afternoon in search of some Upper Carboniferous/Pennsylvanian shark teeth from the Westphalian A of the British Coal Measures. The site is a stretch of shoreline beneath the spoil heaps of two long closed collieries which dumped their waste material directly onto the foreshore. Blocks of the best matrix for vertebrate remains are hard to find and getting rarer, the majority of the beach boulders are basalt, sandstone and un-fossiliferous shales and mudstones. When you do find the right matrix its crammed full of fish scales, bones, spines teeth, coprolites etc but shark teeth can be hard to find. Today I came across a grand total of two small blocks of the right matrix along the entire stretch of the beach but luckily both of these contained a shark (well Holocephalian more closely related to the Chimaeras) crusher tooth! They need a lot of prep which I'll hopefully get done over the next couple of days. A shot of the the site looking rather bleak in the Scottish winter today:

Hi all, i am trying to learn how to identify the different species of shark teeth that you find here at Walton on the Naze. Up until now I have classified the very big teeth I have found as Otodus and the smaller ones lumped together as striatolamia macrota but I think that’s too simplistic. The ones below appear to have different characteristics to the other teeth. Could someone please help me to identify if these are indeed different species or just variations of striatolamia macrota. Thanks in advance. tooth 1: larger, boxier root?

Hi all, While sifting for sharks teeth in the pebbles we came across these different looking ‘stones’. The top and bottom specimens are the ones we are questioning. Stones? Seeds? Scute? (Top one). Any help would be welcomed. Thanks in advance

Hi, I'm new to fossil hunting and found this (full of structures) on a pebble beach on the Jurrassic Coast (Sidmouth), Devon, UK - have been right through two fossil ID books and spent hours searching online to no avail - any ideas?!!! Thanks in advance for any thoughts/suggestions. More pics of other side of object in next post!!!

From the Great Limestone, Pendleian (Upper Mississippian) of County Durham, UK. One for @Spongy Joe and any other sponge experts out there. There appear to be no sponges (apart from Chaetetes) recorded from this well researched limestone but I've collected over thirty over the past few years. There are several different types, generally fossilised as broken fragments though these can be quite large (several inches across). This one is a curved sheet, like part of a vase or dish, about 10 - 15mm thick. The outer (convex) layer contains a good proportion of spicules showing five (and a few six) rays so could it be a heteractinid of some sort? The preservation is mostly calcite, perhaps original. Scale bar is 1cm long. Vertical section, showing disposition of tangential sections below. (specimen no. Sp. 13) Tangential section, cutting through outer surface on right and bottom (the orange layer, with smaller spicules than the internal ones). Closeups of tangential sections. Several five rayed spicules are visible along the edges (i.e. in the outer layer).