Lyme Regis/Charmouth Trip

[Calli99]

Hi everyone!

 

Last week I went camping for 3 days with my cousin and her parents in Lyme Regis (first time on the jurassic coast) and managed to persuade them to join me in a little fossil hunting!

 

On the first day we went to Lyme Regis beach and to cut a long story short, we had no luck. all I found was half of a compressed ammonite in the shale which I then realised I lost when we got back to the campsite! I wasn't bothered though as the shale is so crumbly that it would not have lasted very long anyway. We did however have a really nice time on the beach and saw lots of huge ammonites in the rocks and the ammonite graveyard which was amazing.

 

 

The next day was allocated to the museum and looking around the fossil shops. Of course I would have loved to have spent the day searching for fossils, but I only tagged along to this holiday! On the last day we went to Charmouth beach in the hope of better luck. My hope was diminished when we saw the hundreds of people all traipsing the beach looking for fossils. A lot of them had hammers and seemed to be hammering indiscriminately at rocks however, and most of those looking on the beach were just walking and staring at their feet. It became obvious quite quickly that this was not an effective method at this site and so I spent that day on my hands and knees. Belemnites were abundant (I really should have stopped picking them up but I couldn't resist) as were tiny ammonite fragments. I only found 3 nicely exposed whole ammonites though and one encased in rock (I might buy some tools to prep it myself - just got my university scholarship money, why spend it on fees!)

 

And then came the excitement: all the previous week I had been preoccupied about this trip to the Jurassic coast and the odd chance of finding an ichthyosaur vertebra, without ever thinking I would. But, a few hours into the trip, what should I see laying on the ground by my feet? An ichthyosaur vertebra!! I just grabbed it and had to sprint back to my cousin down the beach to show her! It more than made up for not finding a larger or more complete ammonite. All in all we had a great time, I can't wait to go back!

Some of my nicer finds

Some bivalves

My only nice whole ammonites

 Ammonite fragment filled with crystal, there's a lovely ring of golden pyrite showing around the crystal too

Crinoid stems

The ichthyosaur vertebra!

[grandpa]

Congratulations on a great hunt and on the Ich vert!!  That's quite a nice find. 

 

I've got to get to England.

[LiamL]

Nice finds, the vert is my favourite aswell. I cant get enough Jurassic Marine reptile fossils. 

Looks like that ammonite graveyard wont be there long, has had lots of erosion by the sea.

[gieserguy]

Absolute beauties! I have such a soft spot for Pentacrinites, it’s such a unique shape. And what’s more exciting than Ichthyosaur material? You just can’t beat it!

[ynot]

Congratulations on the successful trip.

[Monica]

Those ammonites are gorgeous!!!  Congrats on finding them, along with that ichthyosaur vertebra! 

[Calli99]

23 hours ago, grandpa said:

Congratulations on a great hunt and on the Ich vert!!  That's quite a nice find. 

 

I've got to get to England.

Thank you! We're very lucky to have such diverse and plentiful fossils for such a small place.

22 hours ago, LiamL said:

Nice finds, the vert is my favourite aswell. I cant get enough Jurassic Marine reptile fossils. 

Looks like that ammonite graveyard wont be there long, has had lots of erosion by the sea.

Thank you! The ichthyosaur vert goes nicely with my plesiosaur vert!

I'm sure a lot of the ammonite graveyard has been washed away (not been there before so can't compare it to earlier) but it's such a wide area that I hope it'll be just as amazing for a while to come!

15 hours ago, gieserguy said:

Absolute beauties! I have such a soft spot for Pentacrinites, it’s such a unique shape. And what’s more exciting than Ichthyosaur material? You just can’t beat it!

Thank you, I agree!

14 hours ago, ynot said:

Congratulations on the successful trip.

Thank you!

4 hours ago, Monica said:

Those ammonites are gorgeous!!!  Congrats on finding them, along with that ichthyosaur vertebra! 

Thank you, they are small but stunning! The vertebra was the icing on the cake!

[LiamL]

17 minutes ago, Calli99 said:

Thank you! The ichthyosaur vert goes nicely with my plesiosaur vert!

I'm sure a lot of the ammonite graveyard has been washed away (not been there before so can't compare it to earlier) but it's such a wide area that I hope it'll be just as amazing for a while to come!

Could you post pictures of the plesiosaur vertebrae? I’m guessing as the ammos erode more fresh ones will be revealed.

[Calli99]

25 minutes ago, LiamL said:

I’m guessing as the ammos erode more fresh ones will be revealed.

I think so too.

25 minutes ago, LiamL said:

Could you post pictures of the plesiosaur vertebrae?

Of course, to be clear, I didn't find this but was given it by a very generous friend. 

Found in Weymouth, Colymbosaurus sp.