34/365 Beachcombing

03 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, geology, molluscs, nature, seaside

Tags

#365DaysWild, beach fossick, beachcombing, fossilised seashell, fossils, Penarth Head, seashell

As part of this morning’s local meander, I went for a beachcomb at the base of the cliffs at Penarth Head – not too close to those cliffs as they’re continually shedding small stones and occasional larger boulders but it’s safe enough nearer the water’s edge when the tide’s going out. I didn’t linger long as people arrived to run their dogs, sending sand and stones everywhere. However, I did find this little beauty before they arrived – a fossilised seashell I think.

p.s. My fab Facebook friend Mark says that the only ‘Jurassic bivalve with that pattern in my books is something called Oxytoma inequivalvis’, so now we have a name. Thanks, Mark.

190203 fossil

Aliens at the seaside

07 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by sconzani in molluscs, nature, seaside

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

barnacle, barnacle as aliens, beachcombing, finds at the seaside

During a bimble along my local beach on Thursday, I found these little molluscs clinging on for dear life to a piece of seaweed. Initially, I assumed they were some kind of barnacle, but then I looked closer.

181007 aliens at the seaside (1)

And saw their ‘faces’!

I wonder if this is where the idea for the movie Aliens came from?

Fossils from the Jurassic Coast

06 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by sconzani in geology, nature, seaside

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ammonite, beachcombing, belemnite, Charmouth, fossil hunting, fossils, Jurassic Coast, pyrite ammonite

Yesterday a living fossil fungus, today fossicking for fossils on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast – I’m on a roll with the old stuff!

180106 Charmouth fossils (1)

Part of one of my Christmas break days was spent at Charmouth, on England’s south coast, where my friend Sarah and I enjoyed a wonderful long beach walk, much of the time with our eyes down, searching the rocks and pebbles for fossils. Though you’re not allowed to chip away at the cliff face – and you’d be foolish to try, as it can be rather unstable and is subject to frequent mud slips, you are allowed to take fossils from the beach itself.

Sarah spotted one enormous fossil in a big boulder, but that was rather too big to pop in my pocket and bring home.

And, though it took a while to get my eye in, I did eventually find two small pieces of pyrite ammonite and another small rod-shaped rock, which looked very like the belemnite fossils being sold in the local shop. Result!