Fossil Finder Database 2022
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…
This is the lower jaw of a reptile, Kapes bentoni, only known from the East Devon coast. Kapes is a tortoise-like reptile and as such, it lies within the ‘anapsid’ group of reptiles. These are considered to be the most primitive forms of reptiles.
Here are two very well-preserved rhynchosaur jaws, complete with blunt teeth set directly into the jaws. The teeth were used for cutting and crushing plant material.
This rhynchosaur jaw is complete with blunt, peg-like teeth in two rows. The teeth were used for cutting and crushing plant material.
How flint forms Banded (or striped) flints are something of a mystery as no-one is quite sure how they form. The flint itself originated from the spines of sponges that became buried in the ooze at the bottom of the chalk sea. Later, ground water percolating through the chalk dissolved the spines and carried the…
Cretaceous shipworm – with no ships to bore into! Here is a really unusual fossil – the boring made by a bivalve shell. Modern shipworms are also bivalves, not worms. Today they bore into wooden piers, docks and ships. We don’t know what the Cretaceous shipworms bored into, but it is most likely that it…
This burrow follows the rock bedding, suggesting that an animal moved horizontally through sediment, digesting it and extracting nutrients in the process.
This block of oolitic limestone also contains belemnites and pecten shells (scallops). The name oolite refers to the tiny egg-like structures that make up the rock. These are grains of sand or shell fragments that were rolled around in a warm sea gathering layer upon layer of calcium. The name oolite is derived from the…
This is a strangely preserved ichthyosaur skull in which the upper jaw has broken away revealing the teeth still largely in place. The left eye socket is quite well preserved, as is the overall symmetry or shape of the skull.