Fossil Finder Database 2022
These tail vertebrae are ‘articulated’, meaning they are still joined together as they would have been in life. Therefore, they were probably part of a fossil of a complete animal that was destroyed by cliff falls and the sea before it could be rescued. The edges of the vertebrae are worn, indicating that this specimen…
A three-edged pebble A dreikanter is a worn pebble that was shaped by wind-blown sand in arid environments. Our specimen formed in the Triassic desert 240 million years ago. They typically have three faces that join to form a triangular pyramid – the name comes from the German word Dreikanter, meaning ‘three edged’. The base…
Our oldest fossil! This is almost certainly the oldest specimen in this entire database! The brachiopods are contained within a pebble made up of 450 million year-old Ordovician quartzite, a sandstone cemented together by silica. During the Triassic period, about 240 million years ago, these hard rocks formed mountains in the area we now call Brittany,…
The nautilus has survived unchanged for millions of years. It’s known as a ‘living fossil’. They can still be found swimming in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but they’re rarely seen because they spend most of their time in very deep water. In this beautifully-prepared nautilus, the hollow inside of the shell has been filled…
With beautiful detail preserved on the shell, these are perhaps the classic brachiopod from the chalk. The specimen on the right shows the pedicle opening near the top, where a fleshy stalk extended to attach the animal to the sea bed. On the others you can see the detailed growth rings.
Here is an example of a ‘classic’ chalk sea urchin. Look closely and you can see the tiny pimples that supported fine hair-like spines, used when the animal was burrowing through the soft chalk ooze. Notice that there’s also a shell encrusted on the urchin (bottom side of photo).
This is a common bivalve shell particularly in the middle chalk. As the name suggests, bivalves consist of two shells. ‘Bi’ means two and ‘valve’ means shell.
Identical ammonites to this specimen, called Asteroceras obtusum, are found in Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire. This tells us that the rocks at Charmouth are exactly the same age as the rocks in Robin Hood’s Bay, over 300 miles away. The collector, Barney Hansford, lived in Charmouth. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, he built up…
Mystery markings Here are two unusual examples of the ammonite Lytoceras from the Belemnite Stone Band. Notice they have the occasional large flanges (ridges) on the shell – no-one is quite sure what purpose they serve or why they should be so prominent on this genus of ammonite. But this is one of the great…