Lyme Regis Fossil Walks, Fossilwise

Lyme Regis Fossil Walks, Fossilwise Lyme Regis fossil hunting walks. Book your spot today!
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Our knowledgeable guide, Chris ensures that the content not only educates but also keeps participants of all ages engaged with a generous dose of humour, creating a fun and inclusive atmosphere.

07/07/2024

I've not posted much recently as my phone wasn't talking to Facebook (thanks Georgia for sorting that🙂). Collecting is poor at the moment, too much nice weather! Did get a nice Microderoceras yesterday, right at the end of the walk.

Really nice fossil walk today, managed to avoid the rain. A couple of interesting bits, a hybodus shark tooth and a nice...
26/05/2024

Really nice fossil walk today, managed to avoid the rain. A couple of interesting bits, a hybodus shark tooth and a nice section of crinoid bed. The crinoid was a very good spot by a young man on the walk

Fossil Identification! Myself and Richard Edmunds have been known to have a post walk evaluation meeting in a local inn....
25/05/2024

Fossil Identification! Myself and Richard Edmunds have been known to have a post walk evaluation meeting in a local inn. We thought it would be a fun use of our time if we identified fossils people had collected. It's short notice, but if you want to bring us fossils or pics to look at we will be at the Fox and Owl cellar in Lyme from around 4.30 until 5.30 (possibly later!) tomorrow (Sunday 26th May). Cannot guarantee to identify everything, but we can mostly make a plausible guess! Hope to see at least some people, it doesn't have to be a new species of ichthyosaur, we're happy to look at anything.

Spent a few hours in the last two days working on the oolite fossils I collected at Freshwater caravan park. All work wa...
22/05/2024

Spent a few hours in the last two days working on the oolite fossils I collected at Freshwater caravan park. All work was done with Zoic pens, no air-abrasive yet. I think it was a worthwhile couple of days collecting.

Walking on the undercliff to the west of Lyme I came across a fence decorated with artistic silhouettes cut from metal. ...
19/05/2024

Walking on the undercliff to the west of Lyme I came across a fence decorated with artistic silhouettes cut from metal. They feature prominent local female figures in geology. Needless to say, one was Mary Anning. The outline of Mary they chose was a sketch of her thought to be done by her friend and fellow geologist Henry De la Beche. Unfortunately the image has since been shown to be one drawn by another geologist, Thomas Sopwith. Worse still it is not an image of Mary Anning, but William Buckland. Buckland is a well-known, eccentric geologist and a friend of Mary Anning. Tales of him are well worth looking up on the internet. The sketch was made in North Wales while Sopwith and Buckland were studying glacial features.
Fortuitously the next image is the not so well known Mary Buckland. Mary was the wife of William Buckland so it is appropriate they are illustrated together, even if accidentally. Mary was a scientist in her own right and a skilled artist. She illustrated many of her husband’s papers. Her eldest son commented that she also helped with Williams papers “giving them a polish that added not a little to their merit”.
Not altogether certain I can figure out the plesiosaur silhouette beside Mary, I will let people make their own comments.

I had a walk out on Monmouth beach yesterday. First time I've been to the West of Lyme for some time. The walking is a b...
15/05/2024

I had a walk out on Monmouth beach yesterday. First time I've been to the West of Lyme for some time. The walking is a bit rough and you need to beware of the steep cliffs, but there are lots of big ammonites to be seen. You need to walk out to Seven Rock Point, so check it is a falling tide. Please don't hammer the big ammonites, the fact they are less accessible to people is partly why they are there. Photographs make wonderful souvenirs, and are considerably lighter to carry! 🙂

The cliffs around freshwater caravan park produce wonderful fossils from the inferior oolite. But they are very high, sh...
07/05/2024

The cliffs around freshwater caravan park produce wonderful fossils from the inferior oolite. But they are very high, sheer, and prone to sudden massive falls. I know several collectors who are reluctant to collect there. I have been twice recently (thanks Cameron) and can now add a new hazard. As well as hostile geography, there is also hostile wildlife. On the rock fall was an adder taking in the sun. I presume it came down with the cliff! Worth remembering when you are scrambling over rocks. Also a nice nautilus from the same day

Good fossil walk today. Beach wasn't brilliant, but everybody really looked, despite the rain. A lovely big ichthyosaur ...
05/05/2024

Good fossil walk today. Beach wasn't brilliant, but everybody really looked, despite the rain. A lovely big ichthyosaur vertebra was found, as well as the usual small ammonites and belemnites.

At Charmouth one of the flows of liquid mud had dried and cracked. This shrinkage cracking is the same process you see i...
22/04/2024

At Charmouth one of the flows of liquid mud had dried and cracked. This shrinkage cracking is the same process you see in some of the nodules at Lyme Regis. These nodules cracked in the same way as they formed. The cracks then filled with calcite. When these nodules weather you see the polygonal cracking pattern inside. The fat nodules that have cracked in this way are called septarian nodules. They can contain large ammonites (Asteroceras stellar) but they are often badly broken by the cracking.

Nice fossil walk today and we had some good finds (despite a terrible sunny day and flat sea). Cameron kindly donated so...
20/04/2024

Nice fossil walk today and we had some good finds (despite a terrible sunny day and flat sea). Cameron kindly donated some of his spare time and we found a nice group of Promicroceras ammonites in a wood stone., a well as belemnites and some crinoid stems.

This is fossil related, bear with me. On the beach several days ago I saw a pallet washed up at the base of the cliff. A...
13/04/2024

This is fossil related, bear with me. On the beach several days ago I saw a pallet washed up at the base of the cliff. Attached to it were hundreds of goose barnacles. They are a crustacean that filter feeds as they hang down in the water. When you find pieces of crinoid limestone it was formed in a similar way. The crinoids hung down from floating driftwood filter feeding in a similar way to the goose barnacles. Eventually the driftwood became waterlogged and sank to the seafood. Forming a patch of crinoid limestone. Again hope that's of interest. Here are pics of a crinoid head and the goose barnacles.

Just a quick request. If you find a big fossil that is far too big to collect, please leave it for others to enjoy. Most...
08/04/2024

Just a quick request. If you find a big fossil that is far too big to collect, please leave it for others to enjoy. Most large ammonites are getting rapidly broken. I know young children like to hammer, but keep them away from the more special fossils. Here is a family on a walk enjoying a large ammonite we spotted recently.

Just finished today's walk. Had a half ichthyosaur humerus (I think), from a large animal. Also a small ichthyosaur toot...
07/04/2024

Just finished today's walk. Had a half ichthyosaur humerus (I think), from a large animal. Also a small ichthyosaur tooth. At the end of the walk when we were down to the keen enthusiasts we split one last nodule. We were rewarded with this lovely Microderoceras birchi ammonite. Hope everyone enjoyed the walk, I certainly did!

06/04/2024

Just to reinforce the post made by Charmouth Heritage centre. With the rain and winds we have had recently the cliffs are unstable. Please, please keep away from the base of the cliff. Material can fall very suddenly and you have no time to react! Also the tide comes in much faster with the wind behind it. Otherwise enjoy great fossil collecting weather.

31/03/2024

On the fossil walk yesterday a very nice lady found a nice fat birchi nodule. Mostly they contain nothing, around one in 30 contain a nice Microderoceras ammonite. Sometimes you get something less common. This nodule contained fossil bone, probably from an ichthyosaur skull. Sadly I don't think it is worth preparing, but still a good find. Well done Olga

On a fossil walk this week a lady approached me with a find to identify. She thought it might be bone, and was totally c...
27/03/2024

On a fossil walk this week a lady approached me with a find to identify. She thought it might be bone, and was totally correct. It is the tooth plate from the palate of a big fish. The small black shiny domes are the tops of crushing teeth. Dapedium teeth are like this, but it seems a bit big. I'm not familiar with the larger rarer fish. For comparison I've also attached a pic of a Dapedium jaw I have, showing teeth from the side. Always nice to see unusual things.

I thought I would put up some pictures of the less usual ichthyosaur bones you can find at Lyme. This one is very disti...
24/03/2024

I thought I would put up some pictures of the less usual ichthyosaur bones you can find at Lyme. This one is very distinctive, it's the basioccipital bone from the back of the skull. The rounded peg is where it articulated with the atlas and axis bones at the end of the backbone. Although there was only one of these bones on each ichthyosaur they are very solid and robust. So they survive fossilisation and rolling about on the beach very well. I meet amateur collectors who've found them very regularly. The pics show three well preserved ones from both sides. On one side you can see the groove for the spinal cord. The other pic shows several more worn examples. These are what you most commonly find. Hope this is useful, if so I'll do some more.

Just thought this was worth mentioning, I had a lady with a very nice but shy dog on my walk recently. She turned back ...
18/03/2024

Just thought this was worth mentioning, I had a lady with a very nice but shy dog on my walk recently. She turned back early because she was, quite rightly worried about the risk of broken glass cutting his paws. If you are out on the east side of Lyme Regis be careful. The slip of 2008 brought down a lot of the old council tip on the cliff top. This includes much broken glass and sharp metal. The recent rough weather is breaking up the slip and releasing more glass.
Also be careful if you are turning over the shingle for pyritic ammonites best to use an old gardening fork or even a stick from the beach. However the news is not all bad, you can also find coins, medals, badges and all sorts of other cool stuff among the rubbish. Here are a couple of pot lids and a Virol jar, think they are all from around 1900's.

Did a walk with a lovely lady from Australia called Bronwyn. Here are some of her finds. Including a nice little ichthyo...
13/03/2024

Did a walk with a lovely lady from Australia called Bronwyn. Here are some of her finds. Including a nice little ichthyosaur neck vertebra.

Just been to the office to make sure it was alright for tomorrow's walk! Seems OK
07/03/2024

Just been to the office to make sure it was alright for tomorrow's walk! Seems OK

Fossils that are filled with sediment can show you which way up the creature was lying on the sea floor. When ammonites...
07/03/2024

Fossils that are filled with sediment can show you which way up the creature was lying on the sea floor. When ammonites die and fall to the sea bed mud starts to get washed into the empty shells. Normally only the body-chamber fills with mud as the chamber walls stop the mud getting further into the shell. When ammonites are split or prepared the shell is removed (less so these days). This allows you to see the calcite crystals filling the chambered part of the ammonite and the mud filling the outside, hence two colours. This is clearly seen if you prepare both sides of the ammonite and hold it too the light. If only a bit of mud washes in, it settles to the floor of the shell. The one held to the light shows the mud has settled in the grooves of the ribs. This gives you a geopetal structure, a spirit level. It is most commonly seen in ammonites, but other fossils can also show it. Here is a sea urchin from the greensand with mud filling part of the shell (test). Again, I hope people find this interesting and of use.

Some poorly preserved ammonites that people find are not actually ammonites, although they are connected to ammonites. ...
29/02/2024

Some poorly preserved ammonites that people find are not actually ammonites, although they are connected to ammonites. They are actually oysters that have grown on ammonites. The lower valve of the oyster attaches to the ammonite and as it grows over it takes on its shape. The upper valve then has to follow the contours of the lower valve. This leaves a positive shape of the ammonite on the top valve of the oyster's shell. They call this a xenomorph (foreign shape/form). Sometimes the ammonite shell is crushed and dissolved, leaving the oysters behind.
These photos show a group of oysters growing on a crushed ammonite on the somerset coast. The second picture is the top valve of a Gryphaea shell from the Oxford clay. It has the positive shape of an ammonite it has grown upon. Xenomorphs are not uncommon, and do not always show ammonites. It depends what the oyster has grown on. Hope that's interesting folks, and gives you something else to look for.

This is a fossil from several years ago, but it tells a cool story. It's a brittle star from the "starfish bed" between...
28/02/2024

This is a fossil from several years ago, but it tells a cool story. It's a brittle star from the "starfish bed" between Seatown and Eype. There are many better specimens around. However, if you look closely at the tip of one leg you can see it suddenly narrows. The obvious thought is it has been badly restored (sorry to all the preparators for suggesting such a thing!), but this isn't the case. It is regrowth as a result of damage to the living brittle star millions of years ago. Even better, on holiday in the Philippines we found a modern brittle star with the same regrowth. The living specimen also shows how little modern brittle stars have change from their early Jurassic ancestors

Sometimes when you find ammonites at Lyme Regis they are distorted. This can be due to crushing during preservation, bu...
19/02/2024

Sometimes when you find ammonites at Lyme Regis they are distorted. This can be due to crushing during preservation, but there might be another explanation. Parasitic worms might have grown on the keel of the shell of the living ammonite. The worm used feathery arms (probably brightly coloured) to filter food from the water. The movement of the ammonite created feeding currents and the ammonite kept the worm above the stagnant sea floor. You can find ammonite shells with these worms attached. Pyritic ammonites often show them. As the ammonite grows it covers the tail end of the worm. This can distort the shape of the ammonite. For some reason Microderoceras seems very prone to this. At some point I will add a longer post about this as it is interesting and tells a story about life in Jurassic seas. Here are some pics of ammonite shells showing a parasitic worm tube. I also did a quick sketch of the living worm. If any of you dive think of modern day Christmas tree worms.

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Insects are uncommon as fossils at Lyme, but can be found if you look carefully while splitting blocks for ammonites. A ...
14/02/2024

Insects are uncommon as fossils at Lyme, but can be found if you look carefully while splitting blocks for ammonites. A hand lens is a very useful tool, as with the naked eye most look like blackish smudges. Beetles are the most common finds, but there are plenty of other types of insects to be found. All fossil insects should be reported to Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre as important finds. They will record your finds, but will not take them off you!

Scorpionfly wing from the 2008 fall to the east of Lyme Regis. Found in an already split birchi nodule. Really well preserved, in close up shows hairs on the wing (that pic to go up soon). Thanks to Wobbly Fossiler for pic on his microscope.

Book a Lyme Regis guided fossil walk online at www.fossilwise.com

Winter storms wash limestone nodules out of the cliff at Lyme Regis. There are many layers of nodules, some are more fos...
13/02/2024

Winter storms wash limestone nodules out of the cliff at Lyme Regis. There are many layers of nodules, some are more fossiliferous than others. On Sunday's guided fossil walk, we found several birchi nodules, only about one in thirty contain a large ammonite. We got the right one, it contained a lovely big Microderoceras. Fossils like this are much less common in summer.

This lovely family went home with a very heavy backpack! "Saying it's a day well spent is an understatement. Brilliant introduction to what we're looking for and a perfect guided tour with some very nice finds! Highly recommended!"

Book a guided Lyme Regis fossil walk online at www.fossilwise.com.

The 2008 slip to the east of Lyme Regis was a great source of fossils as it was weathering away (it’s now virtually gone...
10/02/2024

The 2008 slip to the east of Lyme Regis was a great source of fossils as it was weathering away (it’s now virtually gone). On the fossil walks we used to find small creamy phosphatic nodules. When split open they often contained nothing, but some contained sections of arthropods or fish. They were difficult to clean with an air-pen, but I’ve discovered they clean very well with iron powder. Here are a few nodules as examples. Two are arthropod remains, the other is a tiny ichthyosaur humerus, jugal and other bones. This has to be from a newly born animal. I now rarely see the nodules, I suspect its because the slip has nearly gone, or perhaps I’m just getting old and my eyesight’s going!

Now taking guided fossil walk bookings on www.fossilwise.com

February's walks are starting to book up! Half term slots book up well in advance, so make sure that you get yourself bo...
29/12/2023

February's walks are starting to book up! Half term slots book up well in advance, so make sure that you get yourself booked in if you're planning on visiting Lyme Regis.

February is usually a great time to go fossil hunting. The tides can be rough, and new fossils are exposed every day. Winter is by far the best time to find fossils (even if you might need your waterproofs).

Public walks are ÂŁ12/adult and ÂŁ7.50/child over the age of 5. Under 5s are FREE.

Private walks for up to 10 individuals are ÂŁ130 flat rate. Private walks can be tailored to your groups requirements and interests.

BOOK ONLINE HERE: https://www.fossilwise.com/bookings

âš’LYME REGIS FOSSIL WALK DATES FOR 2024 NOW LIVE! âš’Book online at www.fossilwise.comPublic guided walks ÂŁ12/adult and ÂŁ7....
20/12/2023

âš’LYME REGIS FOSSIL WALK DATES FOR 2024 NOW LIVE! âš’

Book online at www.fossilwise.com

Public guided walks ÂŁ12/adult and ÂŁ7.50/child (under 5s are FREE)
Private guided walks for up to 10 people ÂŁ130

Some of you will know me, I'm Chris Andrew and I've been leading fossil walks in Lyme for the last 17 years or so. I've been a fossil guide for the last 25 years, and this is my new independent venture, Fossilwise.

If you have been on holiday to Lyme and remember 'the chatty Yorkshireman with long hair from Lyme Regis Museum', that was probably me! I'm now taking fossil walk bookings with dates available until October 2024.

Our public fossil walks along the Jurassic Coast offer an opportunity for individuals and groups to learn to find fossils on the beaches of Lyme Regis. Each walk starts with a hands-on session before everyone ventures out onto the beach to see what the tides reveal for the day. Find your own fossils and have them identified as you go!

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