Fossil Finder Database 2022
Horn Park Quarry Horn Park Quarry near Beaminster is an internationally-important site for the study of rocks from the start of the Middle Jurassic, about 174 million years ago. Its ammonites are important because they are ‘tools of time’ – they evolved rapidly through time and their shells became trapped in the rocks in sequence. …
Nasty monster? These small but spectacular teeth illustrate that there really are some nasty little monsters in the Triassic rocks of East Devon. Someday, someone is going to find a complete skull, so long as collectors continue to search for them.
This rhynchosaur jaw is complete with blunt, peg-like teeth in two rows. The teeth were used for cutting and crushing plant material.
The rhynchosaur was a very odd-looking reptile with a large head, tiny eyes and a beak-like snout. This strange herbivore was found all over the world in the Triassic period.
Jig-saw skull The amphibians from the Triassic rocks of East Devon were once thought to be crocodiles due to the similarity to their armoured scutes (body plates). However, this is a single skull plate which would have fitted together with several other plates, like a jig-saw, to form a solid skull. The worn edge provides…
Dinosaur poo! This fossil dropping (or coprolite) probably came from a dinosaur. It was found in the Purbeck Beds which formed in shallow swamps and lagoons. Dinosaurs walked along the shores and waded through the water and their footprints are miraculously preserved. Dinosaur coprolites are really quite rare.
Rare bits The most commonly fossilised cephalopod parts are shells (of ammonites or nautili) and guards (of belemnites). Very rarely, as here, parts of their hard jaws are found. This specimen is most likely to be from a nautilus.
This specimen shows burrow networks running in all directions – possibly the feeding traces of worms living in stagnating mud. They branch in a similar way to tree roots, but unlike roots are all a similar size.
This is one of the rarest and most obscure specimens in our collections. Opisthias was a lizard-like reptile known as a sphenodont. Only one genus of sphenodont survives to the present day, and that is the Tuatara of New Zealand. Like all reptiles, note how the jaw is populated with a row of identical teeth. This…