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Check
out the local weather
conditions, courtesy of the isle of Sheppey sailing club
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I
have been asked on many occassions:- how do I find fossils on Sheppey?
where is the best place to go to find them? My reply is simple:- finding
fossils on Sheppey is hard work and at the end of the day you may not
find anything. Then I ask, what is it that you are interested in? Small
specimens or the larger rarer fossils like crabs and lobsters. The reason
for this is that the variety of forms of preservation determines the
way to look. For smaller fossils, look amongst the pyrite and gravel
accumulations on the beach. Fresh pyrite is to be sought out. It is
often of a greenish colour and where twigs and woody fragments still
retain some of their carbonacious coating. The older pyrite is always
brown and rusty. Most fossils found in the older pyrite are worn and
damaged.
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Pyrite
accumulation with log fragment
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Shark
tooth in graded gravel
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Nipa
husk in pyrite accumulation
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Sieving
for small teeth - field trip member
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The
best ways of looking for the smaller specimens is to either get down
on hands and knees and search the pyrite and wave sorted gravel very
carefully. The teeth are found throughout these accumulations and within
the fine gravel above the level of the pyrite. I have found that a reliable
method of identifying the level where the teeth are deposited is to
begin low down on the beach working my way to the top. When teeth are
encountered others will be more or less on the same level. Fish vertebra,
small fish skulls, very small crabs and ray plates are usually found
within the pyrite and are differentiated from the pyrite as they are
shihy black, the pyrite is dull. Small fossils can also be found washing
out of the soft wave washed clay at the base of the cliff, but although
fresh and of a better condition are more infrequent. Check the images
below.
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Worn
crab nodule as found
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Trace
fossil on septerian cement stone
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Gastropod
in situ in soft clay at base of cliff
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Bivalve
in septaria
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