Andrew Bourke's Website
FOSSILS - OTHER UK
This page shows a sample of fossils collected by me or family members from sites in the UK other than ones in Norfolk. Fossils we've collected in Norfolk have their own page here.
All images are © Andrew Bourke. If you would like to use one, please contact me (see e-mail address on Contact page). If you think I've made a mistake in any of the identifications, or can supply any missing information, please also let me know.
Trilobite, Ogyginus corndensis (Llanvirn Series, Builth Inlier, Ordovician), Upper Gilwern Quarry, Gilwern Hill, Powys, Wales
This is not the world's best trilobite specimen, but it was still a thrill to find an example of such an iconic extinct organism. The trilobites from our family visit to this quarry site also represent our oldest fossils, the parent rock being dated at 461-466 million years old. This specimen was identified as O. corndensis, which is typical of the site, from its match to Kennedy and Stammers (2018: 162-163). [F_141]
Kennedy R, Stammers S (2018) Trilobites of the British Isles. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester.
Trilobite, Ogyginus corndensis (Llanvirn Series, Builth Inlier, Ordovician), Upper Gilwern Quarry, Gilwern Hill, Powys, Wales
This is another specimen of the species in the previous entry, from the same site. It was found by one of my sons on our family visit to the site a few years ago. [F_315]
Crinoid, unidentified sp. (Pilton Shale, Devonian), Saunton Sands, Devon
Bits of crinoid are very common fossils in the Devonian rocks from this and nearby sites. This is a single ossicle (part of a stem or arm of the living organism) preserved as an impression in a small piece of rock (upper image), its radial structure clearly visible in close-up (lower image). Again, this specimen is not particularly spectacular, but there is an excitement in finding even small relics of long-gone organisms and environments from Earth's history. At first I mistook this fossil and others like it for a small coral, but its true identity as a crinoid ossicle is evident from its match to such in, for example, Gluchowski and Racki (2005: Figs 4, 5) and Fearnhead and Donovan (2015: Figs 5, 6). [F_56]
Fearnhead FE, Donovan SK (2015) Fossil crinoids from the Valley of Rocks, Lynton, north Devon (Devonian). Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 126: 582-588.
Gluchowski E, Racki G (2005) Disarticulated crinoid stems from the Devonian and Carboniferous of north Devon, England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 55: 161-172.
Bivalve mollusc, Bositra sp. (Lias Group, Jurassic), Runswick Bay, Yorkshire
This fossil is identifiable as the named genus from its resemblance to this taxon in, for example, Lomax (2011: 54) and Lord (2019: Fig. 9.7). Bositra is frequently found, as in this example, as 'compressed specimens in large numbers within the shales' (Lomax 2011: 54). Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the cause of these and similar death assemblages of the time was a sudden and severe rise in temperature that led to low-oxygen conditions in early Jurassic seas (the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event) (e.g. Caswell et al. 2009). So it turns out that fossils like this example are of particular interest because they tell an important story. [F_326]
Caswell BA, Coe AL, Cohen AS (2009) New range data for marine invertebrate species across the early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) mass extinction. Journal of the Geological Society, London 166: 859-872.
Lomax DR (2011) Fossils of the Whitby Coast: A Photographic Guide. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester.
Lord AR, ed. (2019) Fossils from the Lias of the Yorkshire Coast. The Palaeontological Association, London.
Ammonite, likely Arnioceras sp. (Lower Lias, Jurassic), Lyme Regis (Monmouth Beach), Dorset
We visited this famous site a few years ago and, while the visit was well worthwhile because of the charm of the town, the spectacular setting and the iconic geology (including the ammonite 'graveyard'), we didn't manage to find many fossils (probably because of our inexperience). Apart from a few very small specimens, this ammonite, found by one of my sons, was our best of the visit. It is seen here in top view (upper image) and side view (lower image). Its diameter was c. 7.0 cm. Though clearly incomplete, it was evidently preserved in a nodule, and there is enough detail (e.g. curvature of ribbing, presence of a keel flanked by grooves) to identify it as most likely to be the named species, which is the typical ammonite of the site (Dawes 2003: 23; Lord and Davis 2010: Plate 32). [F_316]
Dawes C (2003) Fossil Hunting around Lyme Regis: A Practical Insight into the Jurassic Period. Colin Dawes Studios, Lyme Regis.
Lord AR, Davis PG (eds) (2010) Fossils from the Lower Lias of the Dorset Coast. Palaeontological Association Field Guide to Fossils: Number 13. The Palaeontological Association, London.
Ammonite, Dactylioceras sp. (Lias Group, Jurassic), Runswick Bay, Yorkshire
Found in a nodule loose on the beach and sent off by me for preparation (by a commercial service found online). Identifiable as Dactylioceras sp., the common ammonite of the site, because of its numerous, thin, closely-packed ribs and lack of a keel (Lomax 2011; Lord 2019: 63-65). [F_341]
Lomax DR (2011) Fossils of the Whitby Coast: A Photographic Guide. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester.
Lord AR, ed. (2019) Fossils from the Lias of the Yorkshire Coast. The Palaeontological Association, London.
Ammonite, Dactylioceras sp. (Lias Group, Jurassic), Runswick Bay, Yorkshire
Found loose on the beach and sent off by me for preparation (by a commercial service found online). Identifiable as per the Dactylioceras specimen above. [F_342]
Crab, Zanthopsis leachi (London Clay, Eocene), Minster beach, Isle of Sheppey, Kent
This nice specimen was found by a family member. It is seen here in top view (upper image) and in frontal view (lower image). It is identified from its match (as regards detailed sculpture of the carapace etc.) to the given species in Natural History Museum (1975: Plate 4) and Rayner et al. (2009: 63). [F_36]
Natural History Museum (1975) British Caenozoic Fossils, 5th edn, Natural History Museum, London, 2003 Intercept Ltd reprint.
Rayner D, Mitchell T, Rayner M, Clouter F (2009) London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex. Medway Fossil and Mineral Society, Rochester.
Shark tooth, possibly Striatolamia macrota (London Clay, Eocene), Bawdsey beach, Suffolk
Small shark teeth are well known as common fossils of the London Clay (Rayner et al. 2009: 105-121). But finding one is always an event. The possible identification of this specimen stems from its resembling the teeth of this species (Rayner et al. 2009: 108) and the species being one of the relatively small number named as occurring at the site (Dixon 2012: 99). [F_164]
Dixon R (2012) The Suffolk Geocoast -- Bawdsey East Lane to The Manor. Suffolk Natural History (Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society) 47: 98-106.
Rayner D, Mitchell T, Rayner M, Clouter F (2009) London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex. Medway Fossil and Mineral Society, Rochester.
Shark tooth, possibly Otodus obliquus (London Clay, Eocene), Minster beach, Isle of Sheppey, Kent
This pleasingly large shark tooth was found by a family member and is identified as O. obliquus, as this seems to have been a major species with teeth of this size in the London Clay (Rayner et al. 2009: 116). If so, then in life the tooth would have been more pointed, so in this specimen the tip seems to have broken off. [F_4]
Rayner D, Mitchell T, Rayner M, Clouter F (2009) London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex. Medway Fossil and Mineral Society, Rochester.
Wood, unidentified sp. (London Clay, Eocene), Bawdsey beach, Suffolk
Fragments of fossil wood are very common on the London Clay foreshore of the beach at this site. With their grain and sometimes (as in this specimen) knots and/or bark, they look like wood, and they can be assigned to their formation from their match to similar specimens from the London Clay in Kent and Essex (Rayner et al. 2009: 217). [F_167]
Rayner D, Mitchell T, Rayner M, Clouter F (2009) London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex. Medway Fossil and Mineral Society, Rochester.
Bryozoa-coral symbiosis, Celleporaria palmata (bryozoa) and Culicia parasitica (coral) (Coralline Crag, Pliocene), Ramsholt Cliff, Suffolk
This is one of my favourite fossils because it preserves not just an organism, but an association of species (a symbiosis). It consists of a fragment of a bryozoan with branching colonies, in which are embedded a number of symbiotic solitary corals (the small disks). Some of the corals have eroded out, leaving cylindrical voids. In life, the corals lived in the bryozoan colony and it is thought that the corals gained from having a substrate to grow in and better access to nutrition and the bryozoa gained from the defence provided by the corals' stinging cells. The association of the two named species is described and/or illustrated by Cadée and McKinney (1994) and Taylor and Milne (2017: Fig. 12). [F_132, F_252]
Cadée GC, McKinney FK (1994) A coral-bryozoan association from the Neogene of northwestern Europe. Lethaia 27: 59-66.
Taylor PD, Milne R (2017) Pliocene bryozoans in the Suffolk Coralline Crag. Deposits 2 February 2017; available here
Echinoid, unidentified sp. (Red Crag, Pliocene-Pleistocene), Ramsholt Cliff, Suffolk
Found by one of my sons, this attractive heart urchin is the only specimen of an echinoid we have found at this site. It takes its colour from the very red sediments of the well-named Red Crag from which it comes. However, we haven't yet discovered a firm identification for it.