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Hello Everyone! After my very successful trip to Charmouth last time, I have been on 4 single day trips across the months of February/March/April, and wanted to share each days finds. I was once again looking for bone fossils - and had more luck than I possibly could have hoped for as far as I am concerned! I spent the majority of the time on Charmouth beach, though I did walk across to Lyme Regis Church cliffs on a couple of days. DAY 1 I found 4 very nice bone fossils, including my first articulated vertebrae, and my first definite piece of jaw! Apart from the damage to one side, the bone quality on this Ichthyosaur tail vertebra is very nice - an excellent start to the first day. My first set of articulated vertebrae! The base of the neural arches are also present though most has been been worn off. A nice section of Ichthyosaur jaw, with some other bone fragments stuck in the pyrite. A fairly worn Ichthyosaur vertebra which at the time was my largest to date. DAY 2 3 Bone fossils were found on day 2 - all of which were vertebrae. 3 Articulated ichthyosaur vertebrae - although these are worn down to pretty much a pebble - I was still over the moon with this. Next challenge would be finding 4 articulated! Another single tail vertebrae, the size and preservation on this one is so similar to the one I found in day 1 (and only found a week apart), which makes me think these could be from the same animal. Half an Ichthyosaur vertebra, which shows the bone tie shape nicely. DAY 3 4 Bone fossils were found on day 3, including my best preserved ichthyosaur vertebra, and a section of jaw with some worn down teeth. My assumption on this one is that it is an Ichthyosaur paddle digit, though I wasn't aware that they could be sloped like this? But the bone surface on the top and bottom have the lines radiating from the centre like I have seen on other digits. My best preserved vertebra to date, the photo doesn't do it justice but the bone quality is amazing on this one, and it has pretty much 0 wear from the sea. A quite worn unknown piece of bone, although the shape initially suggested paddle digit to me, I'm now not so sure A very small section of jaw with some worn down teeth! This one was just staring at me on my walk back to the car to drive home. DAY 4 This is easily the best day I have had fossil hunting to date - and I think I will be hard pressed to beat these finds. 2 Good sided articulated Ichthyosaur vertebrae from- need some mudstone cleaning off. This was the first find of the day - and it only got better from here on. A Partial Caturus sp. fish skull! Probably my favourite find to date. I am able to identify the branchiostegal rays at the bottom there but if anyone with more knowledge about fish skulls recognises any of the other skull sections please let me know. I assumed that the next bone up from the rays in the below photo is the dentary/angular but again I am very new to all this. This bone appears to have an ovular cross section from the second photo below which is what made me think jaw. 2 Nice sized ichthyosaur vertebrae with the neural arches present - in the matrix. A small piece of bone, I wasn't too sure on this one, and it may be too small to really know what this could have been. I found some nice ammonites, crinoids and a devils toenail too, though as I was mainly looking for bones, hence why I didn't end up putting them in this post. I actually managed to find more bones than in my 5 day trip from before where I was looking for bones. My favourites definitely have to be the fish skull, the large articulated vertebrae with neural arches, and the jaw with teeth. Needless to say I have definitely 'caught the bug', and will be returning again soon.

I found this huge rock in Dorset, it has a very obvious open seam with some crystallisation. Any tips of how I can crack it open neatly? Thank you so much

Cool fossil found over a century ago redescribed. A "squid-like" creature hunted a fish and both were fossilized. https://scitechdaily.com/200-million-year-old-squid-like-creature-attack-captured-in-ancient-fossil/amp/