Lyme Regis Fossil Walks, Fossilwise

Lyme Regis Fossil Walks, Fossilwise Lyme Regis fossil hunting walks. Book your spot today!

Our knowledgeable guide, Chris ensures that the content not only educates but also keeps participants of all ages engaged with a generous dose of humour, creating a fun and inclusive atmosphere.

The beach has been a bit poor recently, hopefully this rougher weather will help. I picked up this chunk of crinoid bed ...
06/06/2026

The beach has been a bit poor recently, hopefully this rougher weather will help. I picked up this chunk of crinoid bed to the east of Lyme Regis yesterday. It's a bit worn, so it's been on the beach a while. The rougher seas have turned things over and revealed different fossils.
This type of crinoid was unusual as it could attach to floating driftwood. Pieces of crinoid bed like this from Lyme and Charmouth formed when the wood eventually sank to the stagnant sea floor. The crinoid died producing a patch of crinoid limestone around and under the wood. The lower surface of the limestone usually shows the most articulated crinoids.

One of my friends, Paul Crossley has been collecting sections of a decent sized ichthyosaur to the east of Lyme Regis. T...
24/05/2026

One of my friends, Paul Crossley has been collecting sections of a decent sized ichthyosaur to the east of Lyme Regis. These are probably all parts of a single animal. Sadly none of the sections fit together. People are always surprised that a large reptile can break up in a cliff fall and then be found in pieces over the following months. Often several collectors will find parts of the same animal, sometimes deals are made to bring the parts together. More commonly the collectors never meet! Here are some nice sections of the ichthyosaurs jaw (rostrum).

Really nice walk today despite a bit of rain. The beach is still fairly sandy so find freqquency could certainly be bett...
16/05/2026

Really nice walk today despite a bit of rain. The beach is still fairly sandy so find freqquency could certainly be better. Despite this we did get a few things, including this nice section of crinoid stems. The back of the specimen is fossil wood. These crinoids were not anchored to the sea floor. Instead they were attached to floating driftwood.
I only have a small group tomorrow so if anybody is interested in a walk tomorrow (Sunday) meet me at the anchor on the seafront at 10.00am. Directions are on my website (fossilwise.com).

I've been lucky enough to meet Sir David Attenborough on several occasions at Lyme Regis in Dorset. These pictures were ...
11/05/2026

I've been lucky enough to meet Sir David Attenborough on several occasions at Lyme Regis in Dorset. These pictures were taken on Monmouth beach to the West of Lyme. I've been a bit busy with elderly parents, so I'm a bit late posting this. In a geological scale, the difference is slight! 🙂

Just are quick reminder that dogs are welcome on my walks if they are well behaved! I mostly carry dog treats. You will,...
06/05/2026

Just are quick reminder that dogs are welcome on my walks if they are well behaved! I mostly carry dog treats. You will, however, need to watch out on the first part of the beach. There is rubbish from the old tip on the beach. This can include sharp metal and glass, but also more interesting coins, medals and badges. So far we've not had any cut paws! 🙂
This is a pic from a recent walk looking at an Arietites ammonite, the dog is clearly fascinated!!

Here's a really nice septarian nodule containing a partial Dapedium from Charmouth, Dorset. Septarian nodules are can be...
26/04/2026

Here's a really nice septarian nodule containing a partial Dapedium from Charmouth, Dorset. Septarian nodules are can be large and have polygonal fracture lines filled with calcite inside. These fractures often break up any fossils they contain. The fossil is likely to be an Asteroceras stellar or a nautilus. In this case it has broken a Dapedium fish into sections. The preparation of the fish is not yet complete and was done with a fine air pen under a binocular microscope.

I always tell people when they do the walks at Lyme Regis "everytime they go on the beach they're rolling the dice". Yes...
05/04/2026

I always tell people when they do the walks at Lyme Regis "everytime they go on the beach they're rolling the dice". Yesterday we rolled well. A young man found a large tubular nodule with a line of six big ichthyosaur vertebrae going through it!! Here are pictures of him holding the nodule and a couple of detailed pictures of it. His dad sent me an image of it being washed, in that photograph the top of the vertebrae are visible. You can see the groove where the spinal cord was positioned. These are big vertebrae, probably from an ichthyosaur called Temnodontosaurus platyodon. The final pic shows a line of prepared Temnodontosaur vertebrae (collected by Mike Harrison). These clearly show the groove for the spinal cord and also the neural arches that protected it.
This is part of an animal that has been coming out for some time. I know of at least two other collectors with bits of this animal.
A big secret to collecting is recognising what you see, that's one great way to improve your odds! Congratulations to the family concerned, a brilliant find. I hope to see pictures of it when it has been prepared!

The beach has been very sandy over easter but still having some great walks. However it requires more effort to find thi...
03/04/2026

The beach has been very sandy over easter but still having some great walks. However it requires more effort to find things. Here's a nice little Microderoceras ammonite from Wednesdays walk.

For general small finds the beach at Lyme isn't brilliant at present. Despite this there are still great things to find ...
22/03/2026

For general small finds the beach at Lyme isn't brilliant at present. Despite this there are still great things to find and see. Yesterday we met someone on the beach who had found a section of ichthyosaur jaw with teeth. It was great to confirm there find for them. There are also several large and as yet undamaged ammonites to see (please don't hammer bits off them) . Happy hunting!

I've not been well recently (flu! ) and my elderly dad's been taken into hospital, so I've been even more rubbish than u...
10/03/2026

I've not been well recently (flu! ) and my elderly dad's been taken into hospital, so I've been even more rubbish than usual with posts! Here are some Harpoceras falciferum ammonites from the junction bed Beacon Limestone formation) of Ilminster. These specimens nicely show sexual dimorphism (males and females with different shaped shells) . The three small specimens are all microconchs, these are small male shells. They are fully grown and have a diagnostic mouth border with a constriction. The second pic shows a detail of them. The really big specimen (not brilliant preservation) is a Macroconch. These are the large female shells. The arrow shows the position of the last chamber wall (the final suture line). The last chamber contained the ammonites body, so it has no suture lines. Many ammonites at Ilminster have preservation issues or get hit by a plough. The nicer medium sized ammonite shows suture lines right to the end of the shell, so we can't tell exactly how big it was. It is the centre of a Macroconch (female) shell. Most larger ammonites at Ilminster are not complete.
Hope that made sense and was of some interest! 🙂

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