Search the Community

I've spent a fair amount of time now combing the beaches around Lyme Regis and Charmouth in Dorset, England, and thought i would put together a topic that presents all of my marine reptile bone finds (so far) in one place. The fossils here are Early Jurassic in age, approx. 195-190 million years old and come predominantly from the Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone formations. I first visited this area in 2013 with the simple goal of finding at least one ichthyosaur vertebra, and now after three subsequent trips in 2014, 2017 and 2019, i've put together a far better assortment of finds than i could have possibly hoped for! I think i have been quite lucky along this coastline, although it has taken many hours to amass this collection. Across all four of my England trips i have spent a total of 18 days looking for bones in the Lyme Regis area, most often on the stretch of beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth but sometimes at Monmouth Beach as well. This coastline also produces a large quantity and diversity of ammonites, belemnites, crinoids, bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods, and even rare insects. However i've always been most interested in fossil vertebrates, and so the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs that are found here have been my primary target for collecting. There are also some impressive articulated fish to be found, but as yet i have had no luck in finding any! Ichthyosaur bones are the most common type of vertebrate fossil in the area, particularly their bi-concave vertebrae. Less commonly you can also find pieces of the jaw, sometimes with teeth. If you are extra lucky though you may also find plesiosaur bones, which for whatever reason are much rarer than those of ichthyosaurs. The best way to find any type of marine reptile bone around Lyme Regis is to closely examine the shingle on the beach, and i've spent seemingly countless hours bent over and slowly walking along the shore looking for them. If you have a bad back it's even more difficult! I've learnt that bones can be found pretty much anywhere on the beach: in the slumping clays, at the top of the beach in the 'high and dry' shingle, along the middle of the beach, at the low tide line, and also underwater amongst the rocky pools and ledges. And just when i start to think that the beach has already been heavily searched and there isn't much left to find, there always seems to be another bone that turns up, often lying in plain sight. The truth is that most people who visit here to collect are not experts and will probably walk past a lot of these bones, as the texture is the most important thing that gives them away and learning to recognise it takes a bit of time. For the sorts of articulated skeletons that sometimes make news headlines and are beautifully intact, searching the shingle is not the way to go, but for a short term visitor like me i think it is the best way of maximising the chances of finding any sort of reptile bone in the shortest amount of time (and something i can take back with me on the plane too!). Without further ado, here are the pics (spread across multiple posts due to file size limits). I've also included as-found pictures for some of these finds to provide a sense of what they look like and how they are found when they are on the beach. The collection so far. Starting first with my favourite Lyme Regis fossil, this is a very nice plesiosaur vertebra that is in great condition! A very rare find! I have been very fortunate to find two plesiosaur vertebrae at Lyme Regis so far, although this one is smaller and more beach-worn than the previous example. Continued below.

Hey everyone - hope you're all doing all right For the past few days, I was for a short holiday in South England - and while I was in Oxford, I had the chance to see at the Natural History Museum a new, amazing exhibit called Out of the Deep. The display consisted of two remarkable, nearly complete skeletons of marine reptiles - both of them from the ~165-million-year-old Oxford Clay Formation of southern England. One of the skeletons was of a pliosaur (otherwise known as a short-necked plesiosaur) called Peloneustes, which had been discovered in 1994 in Yarnton (Oxfordshire). The other skeleton (nicknamed "Eve"), discovered in Peterborough (Cambridgeshire) in 2014, was of a longer-necked plesiosaur. According to Roger Benson, the skeleton might represent a new species. Both skeletons are really beautiful - and I'd recommend all of you to check them out The Out of the Deep display, with its two plesiosaur skeletons in all their glory Photo credit Oxford University Museum of Natural History Well-preserved mandible from the Peloneustes skeleton The nearly complete skull of "Eve" the long-necked plesiosaur... The Out of the Deep exhibit is truly a must-see!! -Christian

We had two really great Dinosaur programs this week. We have two more Dino programs and a shark program next week too so things are rolling along very nicely for us. I did notice this week that we are missing out on an opportunity to give a broader picture of the paleoecology of the dinosaur era. The kids yesterday wanted to see Pterosaur and marine reptile fossils. We had a chance to really explain the difference between those reptiles and dinosaurs because we have yet to acquire those fossils. I wanted to open this topic to TFF members because I respect the knowledge of fossils and the animals that left the fossils behind that our friends have. We need to round out our programs and I need to begin learning more about dinosaur age animals that were not dinosaurs. We do have croc teeth that will start going with us and I am putting together a display of dinosaur era shark teeth to keep in the dino program bin. Now that I have a better handle on how much material we can fit into an hour long program, I can tighten up the program and find a few minutes to cover non dinosaurs. This is where we need your help. I want to know what critters from the age of dinosaurs you think we should be touching on. What animals do I need to start looking into getting fossil representatives from and what critters do i need to study ? I thought it might be really fun to get the opinions of our friends and have the great minds here contribute to the material cover. This is open to all forum members so give us your thoughts and knowledge. Help us further our education goals by creating a more well rounded program !

Hi everyone, With this thread I wanted to start a discussion about what the feeding habits would be for most mosasaur species, how you think they would have fed. I personally love mosasaurs, they are one of my favorite prehistoric animals for a number of reasons and I’ve recently even bought my first Prognathodon jaw and I also live in an area that is not only known for their fossils but also for the discovery of mosasaurs. I’ve been doing a bit of reading lately about mosasaurs but I can’t really find anything difinitive on their feeding habits. Their diet yes. But exactly how they consumed their prey, not yet. I personally work with reptiles on a daily base, both with my job and with my hobby and I know quite a bit of different feeding behaviours with these animals. And as I was feeding the ball pythons (Python regius) at work I was kinda wondering, how would a large marine reptile like a mosasaurus eat? Would they just tear off chunks of meat like their closest living relatives the monitor lizards? Or would they perform deathroll like crocodiles do to tear of chunks of meat of their prey? Or when we talk about smaller prey, would they just swallow them whole like a snake does with it’s two lower jaws that can move independently, would a mosasaur be capable of that? Or would it be a mix of all those things or something entirely different? So I was just wondering what are your thoughts on the subject? I love to hear your theories and own finds and observations or if anyone ever read something in a scientific paper about the matter. I am dying to know your thoughts on the matter, as I want to learn as much as I can about these magnificent beasts!

Hello everyone, had a super quick trip to the cretaceous creeks of new jersey and found this particularly interesting large bone fragment, likely it is a chunk of miscellaneous bone material but it reminds me alot of a scute like ankylosaurus or some sort of other bone scute especially the edge, or from maybe something like a large turtle but I am entirely not sure if it's dinosaur, marine reptile, etc or if there is anyway to tell, looks super suspicious to me anyways so if anyone has any ideas I'd definitely love to hear them. (If more pictures are needed I will definitely be able to get some more angles if necessary)

Last month, @Troodon kindly posted a notice of the offer of the Dino 101 course from U of Alberta. This online course (MOOC) was pursued by several Forum members. I hope they have enjoyed it, as I did, when I was previously enrolled. Yesterday, I signed up for "Paleontology, Ancient Marine Reptiles" also an online course offered by U of Alberta. The course is available through Coursera.org, the same group that sponsored Dino 101. It is set to start on March 28. However, the lectures and all course material is currently available. I have already completed the first lesson. I assume, when the course officially kicks off there will be a real time discussion board added, that is monitored by U of Alberta grad students. That's the way other courses via Coursera have worked. It's FREE!!!!! That is, unless you wish an official certificate of completion. snolly has all the official academic baggage he will ever need or want at this stage of life; so it's the cheap route for me! Parenthetically, I think these online courses are brilliant examples of the value of the Internet (This Forum being another). There are a couple of profs listed for the course. However, the first lesson's lectures were all delivered by W. Scott Persons, a doctoral student supervised by Dr. Currie. While I chuckled at Mr. Persons' affectation of an Indiana Jones fedora, worn as he lectured; the content was first rate, fascinating! Mr. Persons' style of delivery, energy, and mastery of the subject insured that the lectures easily maintained my attention. As an autodidact in the field, I find opportunities like this one extremely valuable. Check it out. I think you will be pleased.

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

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.

Title says it all really. Can anybody help? @abyssunder @doushantuo @Fruitbat Thanks!

i brought this from my job almost a year ago now i have been having some troble identifying it wondering if you guys could help

i dont know exactaly but it could only be two mosasaurs eather mosasaurus or prognathodon however i dout it is prognathodon due to the overall shape of it also the tooth is very large it is 2.5 cm tall at the highest point if not taller and about 2.5 3 cms across

Hello, I am trying to find a site on the south coast of England that has a high frequency of marine reptile fossils - I have visited Charmouth a number of times and only found a badly weathered caudal vertebra, does anyone have any knowledge at other sites? Thank you

An article you might find interesting…... http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/09/18/thalattosaur-fossil-discovered-near-kake-may-be-new-species/ I first heard of Thalattosaurus when I read a book about prehistoric reptiles from California, and I didn't know that Mesozoic marine reptiles inhabited the waters off the Pacific Coast of the US until I read about where Shastasaurus has been found. The discovery of a thalattosaur from Alaska shows that North American thalattosaurs roamed the Pacific Coast as far north as Alaska.

A book on Mesozoic reptiles of Mexico will be out in 2014...... http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_3130_3175&products_id=807153 While Mexico's biggest claim to fame in Mesozoic history is that it boasts the asteroid impact site at Chicxulub on the Yucatan Peninsula, what very few people know is that Mexico during the Mesozoic was once inhabited by marine reptiles and boasted the southernmost occurrences of North American ankylosaurs, ceratopsians, tyrannosaurs, hadrosaurs, and dromaeosaurs. While "Plesiosaurus"mexicanus and Amphekepubis were the first Mesozoic reptiles described from Mexico, the significance of Mexico in reconstructing the paleogeography of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, and marine turtles was only recognized several years ago with the discovery of Cricosaurus vignaudi and C. saltillensis as well as unnamed geosaurines and pliosaurs. As for Mexico's dinosaur fauna, the discovery of Labocania, Magnapaulia, Coahuilaceratops, Velafrons, Huehuecanauhtlus, and Latirhinus has provided considerable insights into the southernmost limits of the North American distribution of the major dinosaur clades that roamed western North America in the Late Cretaceous. Mexico may be famous for its ancient Mayan and Aztec ruins, but it holds the secrets as to how Jurassic ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs ended up in the Rocky Mountain Formation and it provides us with an idea of how far south the dinosaurs inhabited North America in the Late Cretaceous. "Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles from the Mesozoic of Mexico" will be s must-read for anyone curious to see what life was like in Mexico in Mesozoic times.