Not all fossils can be saved from the elements. This large ammonite was preserved compressed in the shale and was exposed at low tide. The action of the waves rolling over it and grinding sand onto the shell gradually eroded it over time. These flat ammonites are very hard to salvage due to their delicate preservation. Last time it checked, this ammonite was no more, destroyed by the erosive forces that first revealed it. 🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #salvage #erosion #beach #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Here’s a decent ichthyosaur front limb (colloquially known as a paddle) that I found a couple of years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🦈 I found it in bits and had to put it back together. I’ve still got a few more bones to reassemble but I’ve not yet figured out where they fit! If you swipe along, you can see what it looked like when still covered in shale before I removed it to reveal the detail of the bones. It’s well preserved on both sides. 🦈🐬🦈 These amazing bits of anatomy are some of the most exciting things to find as fossils. Sadly I don’t have the rest of this animal, it was probably lost to the sea before I found this bit. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #limb #hand #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Here’s a decent ichthyosaur front limb (colloquially known as a paddle) that I found a couple of years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🦈 I found it in bits and had to put it back together. I’ve still got a few more bones to reassemble but I’ve not yet figured out where they fit! If you swipe along, you can see what it looked like when still covered in shale before I removed it to reveal the detail of the bones. It’s well preserved on both sides. 🦈🐬🦈 These amazing bits of anatomy are some of the most exciting things to find as fossils. Sadly I don’t have the rest of this animal, it was probably lost to the sea before I found this bit. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #limb #hand #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Here’s a decent ichthyosaur front limb (colloquially known as a paddle) that I found a couple of years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🦈 I found it in bits and had to put it back together. I’ve still got a few more bones to reassemble but I’ve not yet figured out where they fit! If you swipe along, you can see what it looked like when still covered in shale before I removed it to reveal the detail of the bones. It’s well preserved on both sides. 🦈🐬🦈 These amazing bits of anatomy are some of the most exciting things to find as fossils. Sadly I don’t have the rest of this animal, it was probably lost to the sea before I found this bit. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #limb #hand #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Here’s a decent ichthyosaur front limb (colloquially known as a paddle) that I found a couple of years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🦈 I found it in bits and had to put it back together. I’ve still got a few more bones to reassemble but I’ve not yet figured out where they fit! If you swipe along, you can see what it looked like when still covered in shale before I removed it to reveal the detail of the bones. It’s well preserved on both sides. 🦈🐬🦈 These amazing bits of anatomy are some of the most exciting things to find as fossils. Sadly I don’t have the rest of this animal, it was probably lost to the sea before I found this bit. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #limb #hand #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Plucking a pyrite ammonite from the shale on the jurassic Coast. These ammonites are preserved in tough iron pyrite, which is much more solid than the soft clay mudstone they’re preserved inside. 🐚🐚🐚 This means that when the sea washes over the shale, it erodes quickly, revealing the fossils that take much longer to be broken down by the elements. 🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊 If you get to them in time, you can find them in perfect condition like this one! . #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #beach #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Sometimes they’re easy to find! I found this large Middle Jurassic ammonite hiding under the sand while taking a stroll on the beach on the Jurassic Coast. You never know when you’ll stumble across a piece of ancient natural treasure! 🌊🐚🌊🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #beach #reveal #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #hidden
Trying to teach the dog about fossils. I don’t think Tia quite gets the awesomeness of this fossil, or the fact that it’s nearly 200 million years old. It’s one of the best I’ve found, a perfect juvenile ichthyosaur from the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🏖🐬 I’ve not been fossilising for far too long. I’ve been working on another project for the past few months, which is fossil related and pretty cool, but I can’t reveal anything about it yet! I’m getting the urge to go collection again though… #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #dog #jurassiccoast #dorset #teaching #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
This is a section of a Jurassic plesiosaur I found a few years ago on the coast. I found the bones individually in very crumbly rock, so I removed them and was pretty happy to discover they fit back together. There may be more of this animal to find, but the rocks it came from have been covered by a large cliff fall since I found them! I live in hope more will be exposed at some point and I can put more of it back together. 🦴🦕🌊🦴 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #plesiosaur #collecting #treasure #spine #vackbone #vert #vertebrae #rare #dinosaur #age #jurassiccoast #ichthyosaur #bones
Here’s another ichthyosaur paddle (front limb) I’m working on in my prep workshop. It’s one of the best I’ve found and is part of a large near-complete animal I found a few years ago. 🦈🐬🦈 I’ve not yet removed the fine layer of clay from the bones because this paddle is very unusual – it has soft tissue (skin and muscle remnants) surrounding the bones. 🦴🍗🍖 These soft tissues rarely preserve in fossils and are very hard to prepare. Because they are so thin and delicate, traditional methods used to reveal the bones destroy them along with the rock. 🗿⚙🦈 There is more work to be done on this one, but it will be very slow and delicate… #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #hand #skin #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
A few bits of bone in my collection from the Jurassic Coast. There are a few different species of marine reptile in this shot. Many of the fossils from the coast are fun to find, but bone like this always takes the top spot! 🦴🦴🦈🦖🦴🦴 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
This is the skull of my most recently found ichthyosaur from the Jurassic Coast. One side of the skull is perfectly preserved because it was lying in the soft silty mud of the Jurassic seafloor before becoming fossilised. This protected it and slowed decay and erosion. The other side of the skull was exposed to the elements, allowing it to drift apart and scatter before being buried. 🌊💦🦈🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
This is a pyrite ammonite from the Jurassic Coast. I removed the shell with a grinder to reveal the internal buoyancy chambers that are naturally filled with clear calcite crystals. I then polished it to really bring out the shine. This nicely shows off the internal detail of an ammonite shell without having to slice it in half. There aren’t many ammonites you can do this with though! They need to be preserved just right. 🐚⚙🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #golden #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
My biggest ichthyosaur next to my best one (well, a cast of it anyway!). I found both of these on the Jurassic Coast about five years apart. 🏖🏞🌊 Several species of ichthyosaur lived alongside one another in the Early Jurassic seas of what is now the UK. The largest, Temnodontosaurus, was the top predator at the time and would have happily eaten the smaller species. The large skull here is a juvenile Temnodontosaurus, the adults had skulls up to three times this big! 🦈🐬🦈 The cast of the smaller one is available in my shop, check out the link in my bio to take a look! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
This is a large pyrite ammonite I found on the Jurassic Coast. The ammonite was inside a thick pyrite matrix that couldn’t be removed, so instead, I cut it open and polished it. ⚙🐚⚙ You can see that the internal buoyancy chambers of the shell have filled with calcite crystals over geological time. The colours of these crystals nicely contrast the golden-coloured pyrite of the shell. 🌈 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #golden #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Here is a before and after of the prep process of one of my ichthyosaur skulls (done by @alexander_james_moore). The first shot is from before the shale was abraded away from the bones, and the second is the result of this process. 🦈🐬🦈 The third shot is the whole skull next to another one I’ve found that I’m halfway through preparing. You can see on that one the shale is still covering the detail of the bones. It’ll need an abrade to get it to the same state as the finished one. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Here is a before and after of the prep process of one of my ichthyosaur skulls (done by @alexander_james_moore). The first shot is from before the shale was abraded away from the bones, and the second is the result of this process. 🦈🐬🦈 The third shot is the whole skull next to another one I’ve found that I’m halfway through preparing. You can see on that one the shale is still covering the detail of the bones. It’ll need an abrade to get it to the same state as the finished one. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Here is a before and after of the prep process of one of my ichthyosaur skulls (done by @alexander_james_moore). The first shot is from before the shale was abraded away from the bones, and the second is the result of this process. 🦈🐬🦈 The third shot is the whole skull next to another one I’ve found that I’m halfway through preparing. You can see on that one the shale is still covering the detail of the bones. It’ll need an abrade to get it to the same state as the finished one. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jaw #jaws #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Ad| I took a little break from the fossil world to explore some new parts of the amazing British coastline this summer. This is Worm’s Head, on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. No fossils to be seen, but a stunning place for a hike! 🏞⛰🚵♂️ It was also a great opportunity to test out my @revolutionrace gear. I’ve been using their outdoor clothes for most of my adventures over the past couple of years and can really recommend it. I especially love the zip-off trousers that I can wear in the depths of winter and mid summer. ❄☀️👖🏞 I have another discount code for anyone in the UK and Ireland to get 15% off any Revolution Race gear on their website – FOSSILS15 (can’t be used in conjunction with other discounts). 🧥👖☀️❄🌈 Do you lot have any recommendations for other parts of the UK I should visit before summer’s out? I’m thinking Scotland next… ☀️⛰🌊☀️ #wales #gower #dog #geology #summer #paleontology #coast #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #revolutionrace #animals #revolution #landscape #greatoutdoors #gear #collecting #treasure #outdoor #outdoors #adventure #adventuring #hike #hiking #explore #exploration #walk #coast
Ad| I took a little break from the fossil world to explore some new parts of the amazing British coastline this summer. This is Worm’s Head, on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. No fossils to be seen, but a stunning place for a hike! 🏞⛰🚵♂️ It was also a great opportunity to test out my @revolutionrace gear. I’ve been using their outdoor clothes for most of my adventures over the past couple of years and can really recommend it. I especially love the zip-off trousers that I can wear in the depths of winter and mid summer. ❄☀️👖🏞 I have another discount code for anyone in the UK and Ireland to get 15% off any Revolution Race gear on their website – FOSSILS15 (can’t be used in conjunction with other discounts). 🧥👖☀️❄🌈 Do you lot have any recommendations for other parts of the UK I should visit before summer’s out? I’m thinking Scotland next… ☀️⛰🌊☀️ #wales #gower #dog #geology #summer #paleontology #coast #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #revolutionrace #animals #revolution #landscape #greatoutdoors #gear #collecting #treasure #outdoor #outdoors #adventure #adventuring #hike #hiking #explore #exploration #walk #coast
Ad| I took a little break from the fossil world to explore some new parts of the amazing British coastline this summer. This is Worm’s Head, on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. No fossils to be seen, but a stunning place for a hike! 🏞⛰🚵♂️ It was also a great opportunity to test out my @revolutionrace gear. I’ve been using their outdoor clothes for most of my adventures over the past couple of years and can really recommend it. I especially love the zip-off trousers that I can wear in the depths of winter and mid summer. ❄☀️👖🏞 I have another discount code for anyone in the UK and Ireland to get 15% off any Revolution Race gear on their website – FOSSILS15 (can’t be used in conjunction with other discounts). 🧥👖☀️❄🌈 Do you lot have any recommendations for other parts of the UK I should visit before summer’s out? I’m thinking Scotland next… ☀️⛰🌊☀️ #wales #gower #dog #geology #summer #paleontology #coast #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #revolutionrace #animals #revolution #landscape #greatoutdoors #gear #collecting #treasure #outdoor #outdoors #adventure #adventuring #hike #hiking #explore #exploration #walk #coast
A quick before and after of a crinoid fossil I found recently in the Jurassic Coast. Sometimes, these fossils take considerable time to clean by painstakingly removing rock millimetre by millimetre using pneumatic tools. And sometimes all they need is a two minute scrub with an old tooth brush! This one was thankfully the latter. Around 196 million years old. 🌊🐚🖌🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #prep #jurassiccoast #crinoid #clean #outdoor #outdoors #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
This is a small part of a huge crinoid colony I found a few years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🌊🐚🌊 These bizarre animals lived in large colonies with many individual animals clinging into one another. They hung down in the water underneath pieces of driftwood. This is part of a colony that measures nearly 3 metres across. 🌲🌴🐙 They are still alive today, but don’t live in the same way as these Jurassic examples. . #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #driftwood #crinoid #colony #communal #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
This is a nautilus fossil I found a few years ago on the Jurassic Coast. It took a while to chisel it out of a rock that had fallen from the cliff but was worth the effort! It didn’t split perfectly, but I like the way it reveals the inner parts of the shell. Around 168 million years old. 🏖🐚🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #nautilus #beach #jurassiccoast #outdoors #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
