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Total Newbie Found Fossil... Help!


neddle

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This fossil was retrieved from the cliff face approx 8 ft above water line on the southern side of Filey Brigg in North Yorkshire UK. I nabbed a piece of it before running out of time and then went back and collected the larger piece a couple of months later. The fossil (if it even is a fossil) is cylindrical with a hollow cavity that tapers to a point. This was filled with translucent crystal-like material (lost that sorry). The outer "casing" has striations that spread from the centre to the cirumference and the hollow cavity has ridges across it like a carrot in a bugs bunny cartoon.

I hope someone can help, I thought it could be a belamnite but I have never found one with a cavity in it.

Thank in advance

Neddle

post-558-1214385744.jpg

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Hi Neddle,

welcome to the forum, from another Brit. That is the front end of a Belemnite, generally called the guard. The hollow tapering bit is where the phragmocone went. The crystalline bit that's now lost, was the phragmacone. Here's a Belemnite from Charmouth.

post-45-1214392427_thumb.jpg

KOF, Bill.

Welcome to the forum, all new members

www.ukfossils check it out.

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Thanks Bill. Shame it's only a fragment because the girth of it suggests a hoofing great size if complete. I shall have another looksee in the same area and see if there are any others.

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Yeah, it looks like it would have been a good size. Whereabouts are you from?

KOF, Bill.

Welcome to the forum, all new members

www.ukfossils check it out.

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I currently reside in sunny Scarborough and the Mrs and little 'un like digging about in rock pools so i peer at the cliffs and rocks and try to find fossils.

I want a trilobite but alas I think I search in vain.

Where do you dig?

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You're about 200 million years too late there. Trilo's were long extinct before the Jurassic of your area.

I have only collected fossils south of Cambridgeshire. Cambridge, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Dorset, and Abbey Wood in London.

KOF, Bill.

Welcome to the forum, all new members

www.ukfossils check it out.

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So do I need to head to Dorset and poke about there for a trilo? Is there anything more interesting than ammonites and belamnites to be found in my area?

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No Trilo's anywhere along the south coast. Somewhere pre-Permian, Wales for example. Checkout www.ukfossils.co.uk, look for areas near you and what can be found there.

KOF, Bill.

Welcome to the forum, all new members

www.ukfossils check it out.

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Wilco. Thanks. I shall have to make do with Belamnites for now then. Checked that website and it's a world of help. Ta. I'll get me a trilo yet.

Can you recommend any books for beginners? When I say beginners please read dunces.

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The Natural History Museum set of, British Palaeozoic, B. Mesozoic and B. Caenozoic books are a good starting point. I'm not sure which ones are still on in print but they are cheap enough on the net. Some name changes have been made since I got mine. The Caenozoic one is a 5th edition 1975 book.

KOF, Bill.

Welcome to the forum, all new members

www.ukfossils check it out.

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There's a great book about the natural history of trilobites. It might not help you find them, but will help explain what you have when you do find them. It's called Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution, by Richard Fortey.

Besides fossils,

I collect roadcuts,

Stream beds,

Winter beaches:

Places of pilgrimage.

Jasper Burns, Fossil Dreams

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you should also have a fair chance of finding (silurian) trilobites in the Wenlock area near Ludlow

I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things; by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose — which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me. ~ Richard Feynman

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