Holding hands with an animal that died almost 200 million years ago. This is an ichthyosaur (marine reptile) paddle I found on the Jurassic Coast. Although we call them paddles locally, it’s a misnomer as ichthyosaurs didn’t use them to swim. Instead, they beat their tail side to side to propel themselves forwards while these front limbs kept the animal stable in the water and helped them steer. 🏖🐚🐬🦈🌊 When I found this fossil, the bones were all loose in the rock. So I had to piece them back together into their original arrangement. Which took some time! 🌊🦈🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #paddle #jaws #marine #reptile #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
A view along the spine of one of my best fossil finds, a near-perfect ichthyosaur from the Jurassic Coast of Dorset. Finding an animal this complete is pretty darned rare, and needless to say I was pretty excited when I spotted it eroding out of the rocks. 🐬🗿🐬🗿 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #rare #jaws #reptile #marine #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Yesterday was the grand unveiling of the 200-year overdue statue to one of my personal heroes, the pioneering 19th Century fossil hunter Mary Anning. I’m sure many of you will be more than familiar with Mary’s life and work, but for those who aren’t, she is widely considered to be the greatest fossil hunter of all time. She found thousands of incredibly rare fossils at Lyme Regis that no one had found before and helped to start palaeontology as a science. Her specimens, including the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs, were pivotal in us understanding about life before humans in the deep past and were important in the development of the theory of evolution. 🦈🐬🦖 Sadly, she lived in poverty for much of her life, and was not properly recognised for her work in her lifetime. She wasn’t allowed into the Geological Society of London because she was a woman, despite knowing more about fossils than any man in there. The Jurassic Coast wouldn’t be the place it is without her, yet it’s taken this long for a statue to be made in her honour. 🐚🐚🐚 A massive congratulations to the team at @maryanningrocks for getting this statue put in its rightful place. And a special thanks to Evie for kick starting the whole thing. Your effort to get this done was incredible and will inspire generations who head out past Mary to go fossil hunting. I know I’ll be giving her a nod before passing by to find the same types of fossils she found. And I’m sure fossil hunters in 200 years will do the same! 🌊🏖🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #beach #collecting #treasure #lymeregis #lyme #maryanning #maryanningrocks #jurassiccoast #dorset #ammonite #ammonites #ichthyosaur #plesiosaur
Yesterday was the grand unveiling of the 200-year overdue statue to one of my personal heroes, the pioneering 19th Century fossil hunter Mary Anning. I’m sure many of you will be more than familiar with Mary’s life and work, but for those who aren’t, she is widely considered to be the greatest fossil hunter of all time. She found thousands of incredibly rare fossils at Lyme Regis that no one had found before and helped to start palaeontology as a science. Her specimens, including the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs, were pivotal in us understanding about life before humans in the deep past and were important in the development of the theory of evolution. 🦈🐬🦖 Sadly, she lived in poverty for much of her life, and was not properly recognised for her work in her lifetime. She wasn’t allowed into the Geological Society of London because she was a woman, despite knowing more about fossils than any man in there. The Jurassic Coast wouldn’t be the place it is without her, yet it’s taken this long for a statue to be made in her honour. 🐚🐚🐚 A massive congratulations to the team at @maryanningrocks for getting this statue put in its rightful place. And a special thanks to Evie for kick starting the whole thing. Your effort to get this done was incredible and will inspire generations who head out past Mary to go fossil hunting. I know I’ll be giving her a nod before passing by to find the same types of fossils she found. And I’m sure fossil hunters in 200 years will do the same! 🌊🏖🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #beach #collecting #treasure #lymeregis #lyme #maryanning #maryanningrocks #jurassiccoast #dorset #ammonite #ammonites #ichthyosaur #plesiosaur
Yesterday was the grand unveiling of the 200-year overdue statue to one of my personal heroes, the pioneering 19th Century fossil hunter Mary Anning. I’m sure many of you will be more than familiar with Mary’s life and work, but for those who aren’t, she is widely considered to be the greatest fossil hunter of all time. She found thousands of incredibly rare fossils at Lyme Regis that no one had found before and helped to start palaeontology as a science. Her specimens, including the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs, were pivotal in us understanding about life before humans in the deep past and were important in the development of the theory of evolution. 🦈🐬🦖 Sadly, she lived in poverty for much of her life, and was not properly recognised for her work in her lifetime. She wasn’t allowed into the Geological Society of London because she was a woman, despite knowing more about fossils than any man in there. The Jurassic Coast wouldn’t be the place it is without her, yet it’s taken this long for a statue to be made in her honour. 🐚🐚🐚 A massive congratulations to the team at @maryanningrocks for getting this statue put in its rightful place. And a special thanks to Evie for kick starting the whole thing. Your effort to get this done was incredible and will inspire generations who head out past Mary to go fossil hunting. I know I’ll be giving her a nod before passing by to find the same types of fossils she found. And I’m sure fossil hunters in 200 years will do the same! 🌊🏖🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #beach #collecting #treasure #lymeregis #lyme #maryanning #maryanningrocks #jurassiccoast #dorset #ammonite #ammonites #ichthyosaur #plesiosaur
Yesterday was the grand unveiling of the 200-year overdue statue to one of my personal heroes, the pioneering 19th Century fossil hunter Mary Anning. I’m sure many of you will be more than familiar with Mary’s life and work, but for those who aren’t, she is widely considered to be the greatest fossil hunter of all time. She found thousands of incredibly rare fossils at Lyme Regis that no one had found before and helped to start palaeontology as a science. Her specimens, including the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs, were pivotal in us understanding about life before humans in the deep past and were important in the development of the theory of evolution. 🦈🐬🦖 Sadly, she lived in poverty for much of her life, and was not properly recognised for her work in her lifetime. She wasn’t allowed into the Geological Society of London because she was a woman, despite knowing more about fossils than any man in there. The Jurassic Coast wouldn’t be the place it is without her, yet it’s taken this long for a statue to be made in her honour. 🐚🐚🐚 A massive congratulations to the team at @maryanningrocks for getting this statue put in its rightful place. And a special thanks to Evie for kick starting the whole thing. Your effort to get this done was incredible and will inspire generations who head out past Mary to go fossil hunting. I know I’ll be giving her a nod before passing by to find the same types of fossils she found. And I’m sure fossil hunters in 200 years will do the same! 🌊🏖🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #beach #collecting #treasure #lymeregis #lyme #maryanning #maryanningrocks #jurassiccoast #dorset #ammonite #ammonites #ichthyosaur #plesiosaur
Following on from my last post, this is the full ichthyosaur fossil I found many years ago on the Jurassic Coast. I found the skull in a small cliff fall in summer and could see where the rest of the fossil was in the cliffs. I had to wait as the bit of the cliff was too dangerous to attempt an extraction, which would have also required permission. Luckily, a few months later, that bit of the cliff fell, revealing the rest. 🗿🌊🗿 I was a bit disappointed to see that most of the body was missing, but it’s still a cool and rare fossil! It’s strange that the skull is so well preserved while the body is scattered, which might mean it nose dived into the muddy sediment on the Jurassic seafloor after it died. This would have kept the skull away from scavenging and reduced decay while the body was still exposed. 🐬🦈🦖🌊 #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 an incredible fossil of a 48 million year old bird feather from the Eocene age Messel Formation of Germany. This location has some of the best-preserved fossils in the world, many of which include soft tissues like these feathers. 🦜🐦 The feathers are preserved because the original pigment that gave them colour in life is very resistant to decay, and under the right conditions (no oxygen) can remain long enough to be preserved in the rock after the other tissues (keratin) have decayed. 🗿🐚🦜 The pigment isn’t the same colour that it would have been in life though. That changes as the rock heats up under pressure underground and chemical changes occur. The colours that it is now are caused by trace metals that bind too the pigment from the sediment. 🎨🦚 If you swipe along, you’ll see scanning electron microscope (SEM) images I took of the pigment granules (melanosomes) inside the feather for my PhD. These are tiny, you could fit 1000 of them end to end in a millimetre! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #feather #feathers #bird #birds #messel #pigment #eocene
This is an incredible fossil of a 48 million year old bird feather from the Eocene age Messel Formation of Germany. This location has some of the best-preserved fossils in the world, many of which include soft tissues like these feathers. 🦜🐦 The feathers are preserved because the original pigment that gave them colour in life is very resistant to decay, and under the right conditions (no oxygen) can remain long enough to be preserved in the rock after the other tissues (keratin) have decayed. 🗿🐚🦜 The pigment isn’t the same colour that it would have been in life though. That changes as the rock heats up under pressure underground and chemical changes occur. The colours that it is now are caused by trace metals that bind too the pigment from the sediment. 🎨🦚 If you swipe along, you’ll see scanning electron microscope (SEM) images I took of the pigment granules (melanosomes) inside the feather for my PhD. These are tiny, you could fit 1000 of them end to end in a millimetre! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #feather #feathers #bird #birds #messel #pigment #eocene
This is an incredible fossil of a 48 million year old bird feather from the Eocene age Messel Formation of Germany. This location has some of the best-preserved fossils in the world, many of which include soft tissues like these feathers. 🦜🐦 The feathers are preserved because the original pigment that gave them colour in life is very resistant to decay, and under the right conditions (no oxygen) can remain long enough to be preserved in the rock after the other tissues (keratin) have decayed. 🗿🐚🦜 The pigment isn’t the same colour that it would have been in life though. That changes as the rock heats up under pressure underground and chemical changes occur. The colours that it is now are caused by trace metals that bind too the pigment from the sediment. 🎨🦚 If you swipe along, you’ll see scanning electron microscope (SEM) images I took of the pigment granules (melanosomes) inside the feather for my PhD. These are tiny, you could fit 1000 of them end to end in a millimetre! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #feather #feathers #bird #birds #messel #pigment #eocene
A small ammonite fossil that popped open with the tap of a hammer on the beach. Parkinsonia, from the Middle Jurassic Inferior Oolite of the Jurassic Coast, 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 #beach #jurassiccoast #popped #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
The tail bones of a 198 million year old plesiosaur I found on the Jurassic Coast. Still looking for the rest of it! 🦈🐬🦈 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #tail #spine #plesiosaur #verts #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Ad| This is one of the largest ammonites I found during last winter’s fossil hunting. I’ve left it “as found” as it was pretty well prepped by falling from the cliff! I’m not sure how it survived a 100 foot fall and stayed intact, but I’m glad it did! 🗿🌊🐚🗿 I’m also rocking my new @revolutionrace gear! They’ve have been helping out my fossil hunting by providing great outdoor gear. For the next two days, I’ve got a discount code for any of my followers to get 20% off any Revolution Race gear. Use the code FOSSILS20 at checkout to take advantage! 💦💨🧥👖 I love their gear for my fossil hunting and would highly recommend it. The code is valid for people living in the UK and Ireland from the 9th to the 11th June and can’t be used in combination with any other discounts. Enjoy! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #outdoor #outdoors #jurassiccoast #hiking #explore #exploration #adventure #adventuring #walking #ammonite
Ad| This is one of the largest ammonites I found during last winter’s fossil hunting. I’ve left it “as found” as it was pretty well prepped by falling from the cliff! I’m not sure how it survived a 100 foot fall and stayed intact, but I’m glad it did! 🗿🌊🐚🗿 I’m also rocking my new @revolutionrace gear! They’ve have been helping out my fossil hunting by providing great outdoor gear. For the next two days, I’ve got a discount code for any of my followers to get 20% off any Revolution Race gear. Use the code FOSSILS20 at checkout to take advantage! 💦💨🧥👖 I love their gear for my fossil hunting and would highly recommend it. The code is valid for people living in the UK and Ireland from the 9th to the 11th June and can’t be used in combination with any other discounts. Enjoy! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #outdoor #outdoors #jurassiccoast #hiking #explore #exploration #adventure #adventuring #walking #ammonite
An ichthyosaur skull I found many years ago on the Jurassic Coast. This was the first really impressive fossil I found and sparked my love of these ancient treasures. I’ve been lucky enough to find a few more since this one. They’re not easy to find though and you need a lot of luck on your side! 🐬🌊🌊🐬 #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
Smoothing out the rough matrix after revealing some amazing iridescent ammonites from the Early Jurassic of the UK. This is using a basic grinding bit on a cheap rotary tool to wear down the scratches left by the airscribe. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #prep #grinder #shells #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
I’ve spent the day putting a giant ammonite back together. I found the first half of this huge Asteroceras stellare ammonite about a month ago in a cliff fall, but there was no sign of the other half. Then, last week I found the other half in a huge concretion freshly washed out by the sea. 🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊 Each piece was huge and weighed well over 100 kg, so I had to whittle them down on the beach to be able to carry them home. Luckily, the two halves fit back together nicely. I still need to do plenty of prep work on this one, but it’s already impressive for its size (over 75 cm). I’ve only ever found one specimen of this species larger than this (which is still on the prep pile waiting for a rainy day). 🐚🐙🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jurassiccoast #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #shell #shells #huge #beach #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
I’ve spent the day putting a giant ammonite back together. I found the first half of this huge Asteroceras stellare ammonite about a month ago in a cliff fall, but there was no sign of the other half. Then, last week I found the other half in a huge concretion freshly washed out by the sea. 🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊 Each piece was huge and weighed well over 100 kg, so I had to whittle them down on the beach to be able to carry them home. Luckily, the two halves fit back together nicely. I still need to do plenty of prep work on this one, but it’s already impressive for its size (over 75 cm). I’ve only ever found one specimen of this species larger than this (which is still on the prep pile waiting for a rainy day). 🐚🐙🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jurassiccoast #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #shell #shells #huge #beach #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
I’ve spent the day putting a giant ammonite back together. I found the first half of this huge Asteroceras stellare ammonite about a month ago in a cliff fall, but there was no sign of the other half. Then, last week I found the other half in a huge concretion freshly washed out by the sea. 🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊 Each piece was huge and weighed well over 100 kg, so I had to whittle them down on the beach to be able to carry them home. Luckily, the two halves fit back together nicely. I still need to do plenty of prep work on this one, but it’s already impressive for its size (over 75 cm). I’ve only ever found one specimen of this species larger than this (which is still on the prep pile waiting for a rainy day). 🐚🐙🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jurassiccoast #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #shell #shells #huge #beach #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Changing the angle that light hits these ammonites causes the colours to change thanks to refraction caused by the thin stacked layers of the shell. This iridescence is rare in ammonites and is only found in fossils from a select few locations. This is a Caloceras johnstoni from the earliest Jurassic of the UK. 🌈🌈🐚🌈🌈 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #colourful #iridescent #rainbow #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
This is the best fossil fish I’ve found on the Jurassic Coast. It’s called Dapedium and is an iconic genus from the Early Jurassic seas. I did my undergraduate thesis on this fish and then published my first scientific paper looking into its feeding ecology. They had deep, strong jaws that could close powerfully. This allowed them to crush hard-shelled prey along with other foods, giving them lots of choice of food in the Jurassic oceans. 🐟🐚🦐🐙🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #fish #jaws #food #eating #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
This is the biggest Asteroceras obtusum ammonite I’ve found on the Jurassic Coast alongside a smaller one that’s of a fairly average size for comparison. It measures just over 8 inches across. These are rare fossils at this size, and in my opinion, some of the nicest ammonites that can be found anywhere in the world. The colours vary, but these big ones tend to be shades of brown and grey. I don’t expect to be finding another this nice any time soon! 🐚🌊🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #shell #shells #jurassiccoast #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
One of the larger ammonites I’ve found on the Jurassic Coast in recent years! 🏖🌊🐚 This is an ammonite from the Middle Jurassic Inferior Oolite I found a few years ago after a cliff fall brought it down onto the beach. 🏖 The tool on top is an air scribe – a pneumatic chisel that you use to slowly remove the rock from the shell. I’ve still got a lot of work to do on this one before it’s finished! ⚙🐚⚙ #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #tool #jurassiccoast #shell #shells #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
A few weeks ago I had a lucky day on the beach. 🏖 Among a few decent ammonites I found this beauty that popped perfectly to give me the positive and negative impression of a large Stephanoceras ammonite. These amazing fossils are from the Middle Jurassic. This one won’t take much prep work at home to get it finished! ⚙🐚🦖 #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
