Hunting for Fossils

Jurassic Coast

My 6-year old son is a huge fan of prehistoric life and dinosaurs and all related subjects.  This also includes fossils. So after he had seen a programme on the BBC’s Children’s Channel about the Jurassic Coast and the great amount of fossils that can be found there, he wanted to go there immediately.

The Jurassic Coast is the first natural World Heritage Site in England. It covers 95 miles of truly stunning coastline from East Devon to Dorset. World Heritage status was achieved because of the site's unique insight into the Earth Sciences as it clearly depicts a geological ‘walk through time’ spanning the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Children can be very stubborn when they really want something. My son kept asking us when we were going to go to hunt the fossils so many times that we finally gave up and booked a guided tour in a town called Lyme Regis.

Lyme Regis

I couldn’t be happier about our decision. It was a perfect day trip. First of all it is not far from London. Depending on the traffic, you can drive there within 3 ½ hours.  Second of all the Lyme Regis itself is just one fabulous little town. It is called The Pearl of Dorset and I couldn’t agree more. Sadly we only stayed there for a short period of time and did not have time to look around more than just a few hours but it was enough to fall in love with the town. And I’m not the only one. The resort's unique appeal has famously been depicted in the film versions of John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman and Jane Austen's Persuasion.

But we weren’t there for lovely scenery; we were there to find fossils. The Fossil Walk (as they call it) was organised by the Lyme Regis Museum. There were about 20 of us taking the tour and we were guided by two experts. Firstly they explained to us what kind of fossils we might find and what we should be looking for. The excitement grew every minute. I couldn’t believe that we actually might find these really fascinating fossils that the guides showed us.

Prehistoric poo

Then the fun began! We walked along the pebble beach, our eyes glued to the ground in the hope of finding some fabulous fossils. Suddenly I spotted one and then another and they just kept coming…I was happy I had a little rucksack with me, because my son kept coming with all his wonderful finds that found their places in my bag. After a while we became picky and took only the best ones and left the others that were not so perfect on the ground. It was such fun! We even managed to find a prehistoric poo with the help of the guide. We could not have spotted this little brown stone ourselves. It looked just like an ordinary stone and I could never have imagined that it may be something so ‘special’. My son had a great time at school later next week scaring girls with this fossil and all the boys found it the coolest thing they had ever seen.

Our catch of the day

Time flies when you are having fun and I was very surprised when I noticed that we had walked on the beach for nearly three hours. Our tour ended with the little demonstration from our guides. They had found some interesting rocks on their way and showed us how a true fossil expert would work. They broke the rocks very gently with a special hammer and to our surprise the rocks revealed many very well preserved fossils.

It was a truly wonderful day out and although we were quite tired after this long walk, we were also very happy and the fabulous fossils that we took with us will remind us of this day for years to come. 

By Eva Unt