Fossil Finder Database 2022
Cat’s paw This broken piece of ammonite shows the delicate patterns on the shell, known as suture lines. These lines are formed from the folded walls that divide the shell into a series of hollow chambers. On the left side of the specimen, you can see how the smooth wall becomes folded towards the outside…
Flaky fossils! Unfortunately this specimen is suffering from pyrite decay, a fate that awaits nearly all fossils preserved in iron pyrites (fool’s gold). The best way to slow down the decay is to keep the specimens in a dry place, and apart from each other. It’s impossible to determine which specimen might start to decay…
This is a vertebra or back bone from an early crocodile. These vertebrae are different from other fossil reptile backbones in that they are more slender and thin, resembling a bow tie in the middle. A dinosaur vertebra is similar, whereas a plesiosaur vertebra is much bigger, and an ichthyosaur’s is more simple and disk-like.
This crocodilian has been given the species name purbeckensis because it is found in the Purbeck Limestone rocks, near Swanage. This specimen is a holotype and as such it defines the species Steneosaurus purbeckensis. If someone was doing new work on the classification of early crocodiles, they would come to the County Museum to look at…
Here is a single tooth from the early crocodile, Goniopholis. The teeth of this genus are quite distinctive with strong grooves along their length when compared with ones like Dakosaurus (lower photo) or teleosaur, which is thin and slender.
Windows in the skull Notice how there are three pairs of holes in the skull, two on the top, two on the side (one hidden in this photo) and two more looking forward. The front ones are the eye sockets, and the others are called temporal fenestrae or ‘windows in the skull’. They are there…
This is the internal cast of a snail shell. The shell itself was not preserved, just the space within it where the soft parts were housed.
This is a femur (upper rear leg bone) of a crocodile-like reptile. True crocodiles evolved at a slightly later date than this specimen.
Guts and all! A very unusual feature of this fossil is the gut content – visible towards the back end of the specimen where the scales have come away. The exceptional preservation can be used to find out what ancient fish ate.