Aurelius Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Hi everyone, My girlfriend and I are going to Somerset for a brief holiday at the end of March, and I wondered if anyone can offer any advice as to suitable sites for finding fossils? We aren't hardcore fossil collectors, but we both find it fascinating and would be happy to find anything really! We went to Lyme Regis recently and found very little, aside from a couple of fist-sized but heavily worn ammonites and some Victorian bottles in debris from a recent collapse. Any tips as to locations and what we might be able to find would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I'd be tempted to try Blue Anchor and go round the RH corner (round the massive sections of rock)a few hundred yards to the old fall... There is always irridescent ammonites with a purpley hue washing out of there and plenty very nicely preserved bivalves... Dont mistake the muddy rocky bit as the fall go a little further to the blue lias bit... You should find fossils there...The rest of the coast is much harder...the whole coast is productive right upto hinkley point and all the access points and information on each bit is listed on UKFossils. Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 PS... Go at least 3-4 hours after high tide or you wont get round the corner... and theres also beltin sit in cafe for fish and chips up the other end... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelius Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Thank you, really appreciate the advice - I will give it a go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 No problem... Let us know how you get on... I'm sure youll find something nice... maybe a nice multiblock of these.... I only picked this single specimen up from there that caught my eye as I'm always concious of how much display space I have... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelius Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Thanks for the recommendation! We found some really nice white ammonites, amongst other things. Here's some pictures of a couple. They aren't the best ones we found (we have some large, complete ones), but I'm giving these two away as a gift, so thought I'd better prep and photograph them first! The white one is about 4 inches across, the other is about an inch.We are totally new to this, so please don't judge my poor prep technique too harshly...! One of the images is a close-up of the shell from the larger specimen (this depicts about 2.5mm across). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ammojoe Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) Great specimens; they don't come much nicer then them! You've done well, you've found both Psiloceras planorbis (which is much more common) and Psilcoeras plicatulum (a lot rarer, and often overlooked by many collectors). The central image is the P. planorbis, and the right hand image is the P. plicatulum - thanks for sharing. Kind regards, Joe Edited March 30, 2013 by Ammojoe Kind regards, Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelius Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Thanks very much Joe, that's really interesting! Could you possibly recommend a book to help with the identification of ammonites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ammojoe Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) I sure can! It depends upon what sort of ammonites you're collecting (if you're collecting in Lyme Regis, Yorkshire, and Somerset) then you'll mostly be collecting Lias ammonites. If you're collecting in other areas (such as inland quarries throughout the country, you'll experience different geology and therefore different ammonites). For the Lias ammonites, as a starter I'd recommend this book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fossils-Lower-Lias-Dorset-Coast/dp/1444337742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364682110&sr=8-1. It will cover practically everything you'll encounter in Dorset (and a lot of the Somerset ammonites too). If you would like more information or help with identifications; please feel free to PM me. Edit: I forgot to mention in my previous post, so will add here. I always find it helpful when someone points out what features they used to determine the identification of my find. If you look at your first ammonite you can see it is an ammonite which has no ribs (or occasionally very faint ribs on the inner whorls) and therefore is the standard Psiloceras planorbis. That's an ammonite you see a lot of and learn to recognise. Now, if you look at your second specimen you may notice, actually quite prominent ribs, getting a little more noticeable towards the centre of the ammonite. This lead me to think that it was a different species. There are a variety of different Psiloceras species which show ribbing, but knowing the area and the finds you'll usually encounter (along with the slight differences between the other species) I could tell that it was a Psiloceras plicatulum. I hope this clarifies how I identified your ammonite, and gave you an insight into what sort of thing you need to look at when identifying ammonites. Kind regards, Joe Edited March 30, 2013 by Ammojoe 1 Kind regards, Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Nice finds...I think Joe can teach me a thing or two about ID's....Theres some great colours on the shells in the close up.... I hope you got to taste the fish & chips to...and watched the steam train go by.... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelius Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Thanks very much Joe, I appreciate you explaining that - and thanks for the book recommendation, my copy arrived in the post today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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