I found this beautiful 3D nautilus fossil on the Jurassic Coast a few days ago freshly washed out of the Jurassic clay. The sea had done all the hard work on this one, cleaning it up and leaving it sitting there for me to find! If it hadn’t been found, the next tide would have beaten this fossil up a lot and would have eroded away lots of the detail of its preservation. 🌊🌊🌊🐚🌊🌊🌊 This one will prep up a treat. ⚙🐚🦖🦕 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #nautilus #jurassiccoast #dorset #shell #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
I found this large Stephanoceras ammonite recently on the Jurassic Coast. These are uncommon ammonites and I got very lucky with this one! You usually have to spot a small bit of the fossil in the rock, but this one was fully exposed waiting to be found. The tricky bit was carrying it home! Around 168 million years old (Middle Jurassic). 🐚🏖🌊🦖🦕 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #jurassiccoast #dorset #fossilhunting #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Here’s another one of my best fossils from the Jurassic Coast – a pefect juvenile ichthyosaur from the Blue Lias of Lyme Regis. 🌊🐬 This animal would have been pretty young when it sadly died 196 million years ago. It’s hard to know what killed it so young as there’s no evidence of any damage to the bones that would suggest predation or disease. 🐬🦖🐬 It also must have sunk into the deep mud on the seafloor quickly as there’s no evidence of scavenging that would have moved the bones around. 🦈🦈🦈 I have replicas of this fossil for sale on my website – check out the link in my bio to see them. #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
It’s not just fossils I find when out collecting. I love looking for living things too! The range of wildlife you can find on the coast if you know where and how to look is amazing. It takes me back to being a kid growing up on the coast and finding everything in nature fascinating. 🦀🦀🌊🏖 This little one is a long-legged spider crab that uses seaweed it sticks to its shell and legs to camouflage itself in rockpools. Commonly called decorator crabs, this gives them some of the best camouflage out there and makes them super hard to spot. 🦀🌊🦀 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #crab #collecting #crabs #rockpool #rockpooling #beach #crustacean #camouflage #seaweed #weed #nature
This is the front limb of an ichthyosaur I found some years ago on the Jurassic Coast. 🏖🌊🐚 Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that were superbly adapted for life in the water. When alive, they would have superficially resembled dolphins, but their bones show how different they were. Their limbs evolved to have lots more bones in them, with ones like this having dozens and dozens. This would have given them great stability in the water. 🐬🦖🐬 This fossil is from the Early Jurassic and is 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 #hand #paddle #jurassiccoast #dorset #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
Sometimes you get lucky and find a fossil that needs very little preparation, nature has done the work for you! This is an ammonite from the Middle Jurassic of Dorset. It was freshly washed out of the cliffs and sitting waiting to be found in the mud. This one will clean up nicely. 🌊🐚🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #outdoors #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #jurassiccoast #beach #dorset #fossilhunting #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
I found this rock recently on the Jurassic Coast and split part of it to see what was inside. I was pretty pleased to see the edge of a 196-million-year-old ammonite! I brought it home before finishing the split to reveal this amazing Asteroceras obtusum ammonite preserved in brown crystalline calcite. 🐚⚙ These are my favourite ammonites to find – the detail and colour of the fossil contrasts so well with the dark grey limestone rocks they’re preserved in. This one won’t take too much more work to prep now that it’s split so nicely. I’ll finish the job a bit more delicately in the workshop. #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #prep #reveal #split #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
This is one of my best fossils I’ve found on the Jurassic Coast – a near-perfect juvenile marine reptile called an ichthyosaur. 🌊🦕🌊 Usually, these fossils preserve the animals lying on their sides as they easily rolled over on the seafloor after they died, but this one preserves it lying on its belly with its limbs splayed out. It must have sunk into the mud on the seafloor like this before being preserved. 🐬 This one is so well preserved that it even has skin still present between its ribs. 🦕🦖🦕 #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 are some better shots of the nautilus fossil from my latest reel that I found recently on the Jurassic Coast beach of Charmouth. It’s very unusual to find one like this free of matrix (extra rock) on this part of the Coast, they’re usually inside hard limestone concretions (though still rare even then). 🌊🐚🌊 Nautilus fossils like these are strikingly similar to the shells of the living Nautilus despite being nearly 200 million years old. Unlike the much more common ammonites that died out with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, the humble nautilus survived and still lives in tropical waters today. 🐚🐙🐚🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #nautilus #shell #shells #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Here are some better shots of the nautilus fossil from my latest reel that I found recently on the Jurassic Coast beach of Charmouth. It’s very unusual to find one like this free of matrix (extra rock) on this part of the Coast, they’re usually inside hard limestone concretions (though still rare even then). 🌊🐚🌊 Nautilus fossils like these are strikingly similar to the shells of the living Nautilus despite being nearly 200 million years old. Unlike the much more common ammonites that died out with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, the humble nautilus survived and still lives in tropical waters today. 🐚🐙🐚🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #nautilus #shell #shells #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Here are some better shots of the nautilus fossil from my latest reel that I found recently on the Jurassic Coast beach of Charmouth. It’s very unusual to find one like this free of matrix (extra rock) on this part of the Coast, they’re usually inside hard limestone concretions (though still rare even then). 🌊🐚🌊 Nautilus fossils like these are strikingly similar to the shells of the living Nautilus despite being nearly 200 million years old. Unlike the much more common ammonites that died out with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, the humble nautilus survived and still lives in tropical waters today. 🐚🐙🐚🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #nautilus #shell #shells #jurassiccoast #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
On a day when I wasn’t finding much, I stumbled across this beauty just sitting waiting to be picked up on the sand. This one won’t need much cleaning up, it’s pretty much perfect as cleaned by the sea! 🏖🌊🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #jurassiccoast #beach #fossilhunting #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
This Jurassic ammonite was doing a pretty good job at hiding on the beach, but not quite good enough! While not a perfect example, it’s always a thrill to spot something like this just waiting to be discovered. Knowing you’re the first thing to see this in 168 million years is pretty awesome. 🌊🐚🐚🌊🏖 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #dorset #jurassiccoast #beach #hiding #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Sometimes you get very lucky fossil hunting on the coast when the sea has freshly revealed some treasure. Pyrite ammonites don’t come much better, or much easier to find, than this one! It won’t take much cleaning up in the workshop, the sea has done that for me! 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 #ammonite #ammonites #beach #jurassiccoast #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
One of the coolest things about some of the 3D ammonites from the Jurassic Coast is that if you completely remove the rock from both sides of the fossil and put a light behind it, it glows. 🔦🐚☀️ This is thanks to the ammonite being preserved in crystalline calcite, which lets some light through but not all. These yellow ones glow a beautiful orange. Nature’s art! #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #gold #glowing #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age ones
Looking down the tail of a 198-million-year-old plesiosaur. 🦕🐬 I found these bones together in very fragile shale. It was so fragile that I decided to remove the bones and prepare each one individually. This then meant I could put them back into their original articulation in 3D. Now I just need to find the rest! 🦖🦕 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #spine #prep #tooth #teeth #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #plesiosaur #bones
A perfect example of the ammonite Androgynoceras from Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast. We’re super lucky on the coast to have a huge variety of fossils preserved in all manner of ways. Beautiful 3D ammonites like this are relatively common, but each one is unique. 🐚🌊🐚 #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 #dorset #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
This is a time lapse of the prep work involved in revealing an Asteroceras obtusum ammonite from its rocky tomb using airscribes. This took a few hours but was a relatively easy prep job. I continued afterwards by fully prepping the other side of the shell so it almost floats free of the rock matrix. This has the added bonus of making the fossil glow orange when you shine a light behind it thanks to its crystalline structure. ⚙🐚⚙🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #prep #prepping #reveal #timelapse #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Sometimes all fossil hunting requires is a good eye and being in the right place at the right time. This Early Jurassic ichthyosaur jaw piece full of teeth was just waiting to be found! 🐬🦖🐬 #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
An iridescent ammonite from Somerset, UK (Caloceras johnstoni). These ammonites can show almost all the colours of the rainbow depending on the angle you’re looking at them from. The light is refracted by the layers of the shell, changing the wavelengths of the light reflected back to you. The thickness of the shell determines the colours. Nature at it’s artistic best! 🌈🐚🌈🐚 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #iridescent #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age #colorful
I found these huge ichthyosaur vertebrae many years ago on the Jurassic Coast. I found a total of 16 bones, all joined together but covered in iron pyrite. 🐬🦖 It took lots of work to remove the pyrite but the bone underneath was in beautiful condition. They would have come from a huge animal, but sadly, I never found the rest of it! Imagine the size of the skull a beast like this would have had. 🦈🦕🌊 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #jurassicoast #jaws #vert #dorset #rare #dinosaur #age #dinosaurs #ichthyosaur #bones
An Asteroceras obtusum ammonite from the Jurassic Coast. There are some amazing fossils found all over the world, but for me, these are some of the most beautiful ammonites found anywhere. Around 196 million years old (Early Jurassic). 🐚🌊🐚🦖🌈 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #ammonite #ammonites #jurassiccoast #dorset #beauty #beautiful #minerals #crystal #dinosaur #age
Sniffing out the fossils on the Jurassic Coast. I do most of my fossil hunting alone, and luckily I’m fine in my own company! In fact, I find it the perfect way to get away from things and it’s pretty much essential to my mental wellbeing. But it’s nice to have your four-legged friend join you from time to time out on the beach. Now I just need to get Tia’s nose tuned in to the scene of ichthyosaurs! Sadly, she gets pretty bored with me staring at the floor for hours on end. Shame you can’t find truffles on the beach. 🐶🐚🦖🐬🐶 #fossil #fossils #art #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #paleo #curiosity #ancient #history #collect #collection #animal #animals #evolution #science #museum #jewel #collecting #treasure #beach #jurassiccoast #dorset #ammonite #fossilhunting #dog #dogs #outdoor #outdoors #adventure
