Fossil Finder Database 2022
This nautilus is well-preserved in iron pyrite, and shows the chambered section well. The body chamber is missing. Based on the colour of the matrix, the rock filling parts of the specimen, and the fact that it is in Lyme Regis Museum, this is probably Lower Jurassic in age.
This bivalve (scallop) is beautifully-preserved as a cast in flint. The two valves (the two shells) are together as they would have been when the creature was alive, and the detail is excellent. The occasional, stronger growth lines may be annual lines (modern scallops have them too), making this shell five years old when it…
This unweathered block of Greensand contains many bivalve specimens, as well as parts of two scallop shells. The preservation is very good, and much fine detail can be seen.
This squid is well-preserved in a limestone nodule. When phragmoteuthids like this retain the fossilised ink sac, the ink can be ground up, mixed with water and then used to write or draw with!
This is a lovely specimen of an oyster, with well-preserved growth lines. Although this specimen is not from Dorset, it was collected by the original curator of Lyme Regis museum for comparison with the local fossils.
This squid is well-preserved, and retains traces of the soft body parts and the ink sac. Fossils preserved in limestone nodules like this often retain unusual features.
This squid is incomplete, and was found in a bed of soft shale, making it difficult to collect. It formed part of the collection belonging to the Philpot sisters, who often went out fossil hunting with the celebrated Lyme Regis collector, Mary Anning.
The nautilus Cymatoceras is unusual because the faint ribbing on the outside of the shell has a chevron pattern. Most nautili have simple curved ribbing, if any. This specimen has been crushed at an unusual angle.
A living fossil This specimen has been sectioned to show the internal gas-filled chambers, and the much larger body chamber. The inner chambers have been filled with calcite crystal, while the body chamber was filled with sediment.