Fossil hunting is probably as close as we’ll ever get to time travel. Split open a rock nodule on one of Britain’s famous fossil-rich Jurassic coasts, north of Scarborough and around Lyme Regis, and you could become the first human to cast eyes on an ammonite that last trundled along the sea floor 150 million years ago.
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Peel apart layers of coal shale deposited in the Carboniferous and you’ll discover the exquisite beauty of fern foliage that thrived in swamps 345 million years ago, when the most advanced life-forms were the first amphibians.
Head west to the 550 million-year-old Cambrian strata of Wales and you might unearth trilobites that shuffled through marine sediments before the earliest fish evolved.
You don’t need much equipment to go fossil hunting – just a geological hammer – but you do need to take the relevant safety precautions (don’t work immediately below unstable cliffs, wear a safety helmet near rock faces and use goggles when breaking open rocks).
There’s nothing quite like finding the often intricate and detailed imprint of something that existed such an incredibly long time ago. Happy hunting!
Amazing fossils you can find in the UK
Ichthyosaurus teeth
Possibly one of the most iconic of fossils, the ichthyosaur was a marine reptile that swam in Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous seas 150 million years ago. The first complete ichthyosaur fossil was discovered by Mary Anning in England in the early 19th century.
While you're unlikely to discover a complete fossilised ichthyosaur, its grooved teeth, with a distinctive cone shape, were constantly being replaced throughout its life so you may be luckier with one of these.
Dibunophyllum
Coral preserved in lower Carboniferous limestone (320 million years ago). Polished limestone revealing its delicate internal structure can be seen in Durham Cathedral. They are fossils regularly found in northern England and are one of the more beautiful of specimens if you can find them.
Megalodon tooth
Megalodon was a prehistoric giant shark that dwarfed modern sharks. This huge beast (thought to measure between 14-24 metres) dominated the oceans, was the biggest shark in the world and also the largest fish ever to exist. It was four times longer than the largest recorded great white shark.
As sharks loose their teeth throughout their life, finding megalodon teeth is easier than you might think, although still fairly rare – with most examples in the UK found on the Suffolk coast. They used their serrated cutting tooth to hunt until the end of the Tertiary period.
Platysomus
A deep-bodied fish that first swam in Carboniferous seas 350 million years ago, before going extinct at the end of the Permian period (225 million years ago). If you're lucky enough to find one of these, you'll get one of the fossils that most seem to resemble a modern day fish.
Around 18 centimetres long, they are thought to have lived on plankton and in both fresh and salt water. Experts discovered this fish had extra teeth deep inside its mouth allowing it to crush and chew tough food like shells or insects.
Venericardia
These heavy-shelled bivalve (meaning it has two halves) mollusc were abundant during the Palaeocene and Eocene epochs 50 million years ago. They lived in shallow seas and resemble smaller modern-day cockles and you might be lucky to find these if you're hunting for fossils in the UK.
Holectypus
Internal shell (test) of a sea urchin that thrived in shallow Jurassic and Cretaceous seas 190-65 million years ago. Pores mark where tubular feet projected through shell.
Turritella
These fossils look a lot like shells you might find washed up on any beach. But don't be fooled, this fossil was originally a sea snail that first appeared in the fossil record during the Cretaceous period 136 million years ago. Similar living molluscs, that are slow moving and filter seawater for particles of food, are still common around our coasts. Turritella fossils are common around Britain and Ireland.
Acrocoelites
Internal, bullet-shaped shells of squid-like animals that hunted in Jurassic seas 180 million years ago. You can find them in the UK.
Calamites
Ridged-and-grooved stem of a 20-30m-tall version of today’s horsetail plants. They had bamboo-like ribbing and the leaves were needle shaped. These plants thrived in Carboniferous swamps 300 million years ago and had roots that could give them a firm hold in these unstable soils. You'll be able to find these in rocky foreshores along the UK coast.
Spirifer
This was a brachiopod that resembled a symmetrical version of bivalve molluscs (clams), though they weren't closely related. Spirifers lived in Carboniferous coastal waters 300 million years ago.
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Asteroceras
The name of this extinct genus of cephalopod comes from the Ancient Greek meaning 'star' and 'horn'. A carnivore, the squid-like owner of this ammonite shell patrolled Jurassic seas 180 million years ago. Ammonites went extinct at the same time as the large dinosaurs (65 million years ago). You'll find them in Lyme Regis and Dorset among other UK fossil-hunting places.
Ogyginus
Ogyginus lived 440 million years ago on the Ordovician sea floor. A trilobite (one of the earliest animals with a hard exoskeleton), which went extinct during the Permian period 200 million years ago. You'll find these around the UK, including in Wales.
Neuropteris
A pteridosperm (seed fern) that grew during the coal-forming carboniferous period 300 million years ago. Modern-day ferns have tiny spores, not seeds which they use to reproduce. Seed ferns were among the earliest seed bearing plants on the planet.
Lingula
A burrowing brachiopod that attached to rocks with a stalk, with shell halves that separated at death. First appeared in Ordovician rocks 500 million years ago.
Lepidodendron
A large, tree-like plant that could reach up to 50 meters tall. Its bark was eye-catching, as it was often covered in diamond-shaped leaf bases. Dubbed 'scale trees' due to the marking, Lepidodendron were a tree-sized version of today’s diminutive club-mosses. They thrived in Carboniferous swamps 300 million years ago.
