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

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!