Sponge
This is a sea sponge fossil preserved within a flint nodule. Sponges are quite commonly found in chalk flints.
Fossil Finder Database 2022
Bivalve shell
There are Myophorella clavellata and Gervillia bivales on this block. Notice how all of the shells are lying in the same orientation. This suggests that a strong current was flowing across the sea bed when these animals became buried. Convex shells tend to flip over with the curved face uppermost as this is a more stable angle than the…
Bivalve shells and ammonite
Ammonite sandwich! Ostrea oysters, which are types of bivalves, can fix themselves to hard substrates and grow upon these. In this instance, two oysters attached themselves to either side of a dead ammonite’s shell, and almost encompassed it. Perhaps the seafloor was too soft for them to attach to.
Coral
Colonial corals These corals are known as ‘starred agate’ because their cross-section forms a star shape. They are a colonial coral, that is, they live together to form a structure much larger than the individuals that make it up. These are also reef building corals that today, form coral reefs. They are quite unlike solitary…
Bivalve shell
These bivalve shell casts formed when sediment filled spaces between the shells, then hardened. The shells were later removed, leaving casts showing details of the shell insides.
Pliosaur
The world’s biggest bite! Everything about this fossil is amazing! It is the head of a pliosaur, the scariest sea creature that has ever lived. The head is 2.4m long, but the entire animal would have been up to 15m long – even longer than a double-decker bus! From fin tip to fin tip it would…
Sponge
Flask-shaped flint Flints are made from silica that originally derived from sponges living in the chalk sea. The sponges are made up of millions of minute needles of silica locked together to form this simple animal. When the sponges died, the needles were scattered on the sea bed and buried in the sediment. Later, ground…
Sponge
The soft chalk surrounding this fossil has been lost, leaving a hard fossil that closely resembles living coral colonies.
Sponge
This fossil shows a relationship between a flint nodule and the branching sponge inside. See how the shape of each sponge branch is followed by the nodule.