Fossil hunting: Searching for a pooh-stone

By Nicola Venning 527PM GMT twelve March 2010

Living in the impulse geologist Paddy Howe shows what to see out for in Lyme Regis Photo JAY WILLIAMS

It was tough to discuss it who was some-more tender by the tough black mill the hoary consultant or my 11-year-old son. The dim conical figure incited out to be 200 million-year-old shark coprolite, or "pooh-stone" as my youngest gleefully forked out.

We had picked up with about a dozen alternative adults and children, on a grey wintry sunrise on Black Venn. This pebbly beach is about a entertain of a mile easterly of Lyme Regis in Dorset and is the site of unchanging hoary walks organized by the Museum of Lyme Regis. Our guides were internal geologists Paddy Howe and Chris Andrew.

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As we splashed along the beach in the wellingtons, racing boats glided past on mill-pond-still Lyme Bay and the faraway rise of Golden Cap glowed in the strengthening sun. It was, in short, a undiluted sunrise to wander along the Jurassic coast. However, we werent meddlesome in the views of this Unesco World Heritage Site. Instead, we were staring tough at the ground, seeking for fossils.

The widen of seashore from Lyme to Charmouth is in in between 195 and 205 million years old and was once a shoal pleasant sea plentiful with life. That hold up is right afar entombed in the murky "marls" (silty clay) progressively being unprotected in the Jurassic cliffs.

Two days earlier, Paddy had detected Ichthyosaur teeth in in between the boulders. Glossy brownish-red pieces of bone from this dolphin-like invertebrate are a little of the majority sparkling fossils to be found in this area, so we were feeling lucky.

Realistically, we were far some-more expected to event opposite a little of the spiral-shaped ammonites (a hard-shell mollusc and relations of the squid) for that Lyme is famous. Other probable finds enclosed bivalves a antiquated oyster popularly well well known as Devils Toenail as well as belemnites (another fossilised squid). Paddy and Chris, who additionally run the Fossil Workshop, explain that they have never returned from the beach empty-handed. "I can pledge belemnites," Chris says. "If you cant find these afterwards you should unequivocally take up golf." Impressed, my sons incited their eyes to the belligerent and kept them there.

But acid for fossils is not as candid as it sounds. It takes time to get your eye in. Beginners are mostly duped by grey pebbles well well known as "beef", that see similar to fossils but are essentially layered turn stones. Equally charming are the gold-flecked black crystallised rocks of the vegetable pyrite which, though pretty, are in actuality meaningless as a result their usual name, Fools Gold.

"Fossil sport is not something you can do quickly," says writer Tracy Chevalier, whose book Remarkable Creatures tells the story of the Victorian fossilist, Mary Anning. One of Annings majority conspicuous finds was a near-complete 17ft Ichthyosaur majority normal around 6f 6in. Although skeleton of the antiquated quadruped had often been detected prior to then, they had been insincere to be crocodile remains. Only when the complete legless hoary was suggested for the initial time was it recognized for what it was the find of a new creature.

Chevalier did her investigate on Black Venn and followed the same hoary travel that my family took, so she speaks with management when she says "You have to switch off from bland life. Its about negligence down and vital in the moment."

Certainly, the organisation we assimilated was rapt. "If we do not pick up these fossils, they will be broken by the tide," Paddy explained, as he showed us where to look. And certain enough, in in in between sifting and scrabbling among the pebbles and after separating the "beef" from the "bivalves", we found a antiquated oyster shell, flattering ammonites (some slick phony and recorded in calcite crystals, others a elementary grey) and a couple of belemnites.

My sons were anxious with their haul. They might not have bagged an Ichthyosaur, but what they found was each bit as great as pooh-stone.

There are countless hoary walks around Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Most are about a half to one mile prolonged and take about dual hours. Contact the Lyme Regis traveller bureau (lymeregis.org), Lyme Regis Museum (lymeregismuseum.co.uk) or fossilwalks.com in CharmouthFor sum of Paddy Howe and Chris Andrews workshops call 01297 444720

FOSSIL FACTS

Only fossils lying on the beach can be collected. Any still hold in their strange covering cannot be private but permission.Fossils found in soft shale need to dry out solemnly or they disintegrate.Beach fossils should be cleared in uninformed H2O to purify out the salt, "otherwise if it becomes humid, the salt crystals can grow and break the fossil", Chris warns.Stay afar from the cliffs, that can pulp and tumble at any time. Black Venn is Europes majority active landslide.Forage on the beaches as the waves goes out and be wakeful of incoming tides, generally around headlands.