Fossils from the UK
Featuring hundreds of fossil collecting locations, geological guides, and advice. Welcome to our fossil hunters community.
Fossils, rocks and minerals can be found easily with a little patience and the knowledge of where to look and what to find. The UK Fossils network covers a large number of locations that are suitable for fossil collecting, complete with what fossils you can find, thousands of geological and fossil photos, access rights and helpful hints and tips.
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UK Fossils also features a comprehensive geological ' timeline', covering detailed stratigraphy of all periods. We have a ' glossary' of terms, directory of societies, tide times and other useful resources.
Our events diary has a list of what's going on in your area, and you can keep up-to-date with the latest news
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Locations by county: Avon, Bedfordshire, Cornwall, Cleveland and Durham, Derbyshire, Dorset, Devon, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, East Riding, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, London, Norfolk, N. Scotland, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Sussex, N. Yorkshire, SW. Wales, S. Wales.Midland Valley/Grampian, South Scotland, Skye
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Please follow our national fossil collecting code
A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006
All recent finds 'emailed to us' get
displayed under our 'recent finds' page. |
A thousand Isle of Wight fossils given to the local museum |
Saturday, August 15, 2009 |
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| A local fossil hunter from the Isle of Wight has given 1,000 of his fossils to the Dinosaur Isle Museum, Andy Yule has spent his life collecting from around the island, but has decided that is hunting days are now over due to ill health. Sadly, most private collections are sold and split up, with important information being lost and many fossils can end up being sold all over the world. Andy’s collection includes turtle, crocodile and mammal fossils from Thorness Bay, where he lived during the 1960s. However, Mr Yule felt that, since the remains came from the Isle of Wight, they deserve to stay there. |
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New technique to age rocks, by recovering rare micro minerals |
Saturday, August 15, 2009 |
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| A new technique can now be used to date very early rocks. This should shed more light on how the Earth's continents were arranged 2.5 billion years ago. At present, we can only give guess at this. The method involves recovering rare micro minerals from rocks and looking at their composition (typically around 100 microns). Minerals, such as baddeleyite, have large amounts of uranium in their crystals, which can be used to date the rocks because this element has an accurate radioactive rate of decay, which gives a precise age. And, by aligning rocks that have a similar age and orientation, the early landmasses can be pieced together. Already, the first results have helped the discovery of new ore and oil deposits, helping the mining industry identify new areas for exploration. In addition, we now know that Canada once bordered Zimbabwe. |
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The word Fossil used to be defined as ‘something dug up’. Now-a-days it generally means ‘The remains or trace evidence of prehistoric life’. The study of fossils is called palaeontology; someone who collects and studies them is called a palaeontologist. Fossils can be as tiny as a grain of pollen or a seed or as huge as a limb bone from a giant dinosaur. For animal or plant remains to have become ‘fossilised ‘, they must go through a certain process that preserves them for up to millions of years after they have died.
Fossils abroad -
We have just started adding the first of a few fossil locations outside the UK. The first is for Elafonissi, Crete
Discuss Fossils -
Visit our active discussion board, its a community of its own! Discuss Fossils can help you learn and read about locations to hunt and even identify your own finds. Regular experts visit the forum to help answer some of the questions raised by members. This is also a great place to meet people also interested in collecting fossils.
Most Popular Fossil Locations: Charmouth Fossils , Whitby, Bracklesham, Burton Bradstock, Quantoxhead, Abbey Wood, Kettleness, Eastbourne, Hastings,Hope, Staithes, Whitehaven, Aberlady, Aust, Hunstanton, Fairlight, Seatown, Seven Sisters
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