Lyme Regis – Fossil Ammonites and Belemnites

I couldn’t finish off my Dorset series of posts without the promised look at the numerous in situ fossils that can be found along the Jurassic coast. Walking west from Lyme Regis you soon arrive at several large expanses of flat rock that are absolutely rammed full of fossil Ammonites. It is an area rather aptly known as the Ammonite Graveyard and is one of the best places in the country to see these 250 million year old marine invertebrates. Sizes vary from only a few millimetres all the way up to a couple of foot across, so in some photos a rather handy pair of feet should give a good sense of scale.

Further along the coast at Seatown it is fossil Belemnites that are the most obvious with a hugely abundant layer being exposed on every retreating tide. Resembling bullets they were in fact squid-like animals, although all we see preserved today are their hard outer shells.

Ammonites and Belemnites are only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to the variety of fossils that can be found along the Jurassic coast. If you’d like to read up on what else is present then I highly recommend following this link. Be warned though, once you start hunting its not long before you become completely addicted.