While you’re at the water: fossil hunting

Beaches, riverbanks and riverbeds can all reveal fossils, which have been buried for millennia. Susanne Masters has your guide to post-swim fossil hunting. 

Water can reveal fossils, which have been buried unseen for thousands of years. Beaches are a good place to look among shingle or rocks where fossils can be caught after having been washed out of sea cliffs or mud. Both riverbanks and riverbeds also yield fossils. 

Specific fossil-finding locations are dictated by the substrate water disturbs. Lyme Regis is a treasure trove of ammonites cast in iron pyrite. Also known as fool’s gold, iron pyrite fossils have an appealing golden gleam, although it is ephemeral since over time exposure to oxygen decomposes iron pyrite. Whitby jet is fossilised wood from ancient forest. Deep black and also lightweight, its popularity rose as Whitby became a seaside destination and people found pieces on the shore to bring back as souvenirs, and Queen Victoria endorsed wearing it as a gemstone.

In the UK you can take fossils that you find home; in some countries and at protected sites fossil collecting is illegal or restricted. In the interest of contributing to scientific knowledge of geological time and minimising damage, extracting fossils that are embedded in rock is best left to experienced collectors with tools who know when a find is significant and should be reported. There are plenty of easy to find loose fossils that can be picked up. The trick is being able to recognise they are fossils and not just unusual looking rocks.

Photo: Susanne Masters. This article is from the March 2023 issue of Outdoor Swimmer. Click here to subscribe to the magazine. Read more from the March edition.