The coastal section at Black Head, near Osmington, displays Jurassic rocks from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of 152-157 million years ago. Fossils to be found include ammonites, brachiopods, coral, worm tubes and bivalves, as well as marine reptile remains, especially vertebrae and fish bones and teeth.. This site is where the huge skull of the famous Weymouth Bay pliosaur, Pliosaurus kevani was discovered but expect to find a less sensational specimen!
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ A good selection of fossils can be collected, from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ Older children will enjoy the location. Younger children might find the walk to the site and the steps to the beach rather challenging.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦♦ Access is easy, with parking at the car park at Osmington Mills, or in the lane leading to the pub. Please be aware the steps down to the beach at the PGL Osmington Mills has subsided, and the steps are sloped at various angles.
TYPE: Fossils are found in the small section of Kimmeridge Clay. Fossils are found with more frequency in the winter months, when coastal erosion is at its peak.
DIRECTIONS
♦ The beach is best accessed by parking at the car park of the Smuggler’s Inn at Osmington Mills. The coastal path is accessed round the back of the pub, walk west (towards Weymouth) along the coastal path and then drop down onto the beach, via a series of metal steps, beneath the PGL Osmington Bay Centre (Adventure Centre) and walk along the beach, west to Black Head.
♦ Alternatively, walk from Bowleaze Cove, heading east along the coastal path and taking in the lovely scenery before reaching PGL Osmington Mills and descending to the beach.
♦ Smuggler’s Inn Pub: Postcode: DT3 6HF: Google maps link
♦ Bowleaze Cove, Parking: Postcode: DT3 6PW: Google maps link
♦ What3Words: location of site: ///arrived.glare.crescendo
VIDEO FILM
FOSSIL HUNTING
Fossil collecting at Black Head, near Osmington Mills, can be highly rewarding, though it often requires patience and careful extraction due to the nature of the material preserved here. The foreshore exposes fossiliferous mudstones that yield a diverse assemblage of Late Jurassic marine life, much of which is not seen at nearby Kimmeridge Bay. Fossils are most commonly collected from fallen blocks and slabs on the foreshore and from material weathered out close to the base of the cliff, where erosion regularly reveals fresh specimens.
By far the most abundant fossils found along the ledges between Black Head and Bran Point are bivalves, particularly Myophorella clavellata. These shells often occur in dense shell beds and are easily recognised by their strong ribbing and robust form. Although Myophorella is notoriously difficult to extract intact due to its firm attachment to the surrounding matrix, the shell banks at Black Head are frequently softer than at other localities, making this one of the better places to recover complete or near-complete specimens. Many examples are preserved as paired valves, though single valves are also common.
Oysters are also widespread and easily found, with Deltoideum delta being especially common. These typically occur as single valves and may be preserved either flattened within the matrix or weathered free on the foreshore. Other bivalves may also be encountered, including Camptonectes, Astarte, Pholadomya and Gervillia, often appearing as moulds or partially preserved shells. In places where material derived from underlying beds is present, bivalves such as Trigonia reticulata and Gervillia aviculoides can also be found, sometimes showing excellent surface detail.
Ammonites are less common than bivalves but remain an important and sought-after component of the fauna. Specimens are usually found flattened within shale slabs or as partial impressions, though occasional more three-dimensional examples occur in harder nodules. Typical ammonites from the area include Rasenia cymodoce, which is one of the more characteristic species, along with occasional finds of Aulacostephanus and Pictonia. Preservation quality varies, but shell ornamentation can be well defined when specimens are carefully prepared.
The mudstones at Black Head also yield occasional remains of marine vertebrates, adding to the scientific and collecting interest of the site. Fish material is encountered sporadically and includes isolated teeth, scales and bone fragments, often requiring close inspection of shale surfaces to spot. More significantly, remains of marine reptiles occur with some regularity, particularly those of ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs. Isolated vertebrae are the most commonly found elements, with the ichthyosaur Brachypterygius extremus being especially well represented. These vertebrae are often found loose on the foreshore or partially embedded within fallen blocks and can usually be identified by their distinctive disc-like shape.
Occasional fragments of ribs, limb bones and jaw elements from marine reptiles may also be encountered, though complete or articulated material is extremely rare and should be left in situ if discovered. Other fossils found less frequently include belemnite guards, trace fossils and indeterminate shell fragments, all contributing to a picture of a rich Late Jurassic marine ecosystem.
As with all Kimmeridge Clay sites, specimens can be fragile and are best collected from loose blocks rather than from in situ exposures. Careful splitting of slabs and patient preparation often rewards the collector with well-preserved fossils that capture a snapshot of life in the Jurassic seas that once covered this area.
Some of the most significant fossil discoveries and scientific milestones from Black Head and Osmington Mills include the classic work on the Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay succession, the long use of the site in studies of the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary, and the recovery of the huge skull of the Weymouth Bay pliosaur Pliosaurus kevani.
1875 – Blake discussed the boundary beds of the Weymouth district, including the Black Head and Osmington Mills coast
J. F. Blake’s work on the Kimmeridge Clay and associated boundary beds helped establish the Osmington Mills to Black Head coast as an important Upper Jurassic section. This was one of the early scientific milestones in recognising the significance of the beds exposed here.
1877 – Blake and Hudleston further documented the Corallian and Kimmeridge succession of this coast
Later nineteenth-century work refined understanding of the uppermost Corallian beds and the passage into the Kimmeridge Clay along the Weymouth district coast. Black Head and Osmington Mills became part of this classic stretch for studying the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian transition.
1933–1947 – Arkell’s classic work fixed Black Head and Osmington Mills within the standard Upper Jurassic framework of Dorset
W. J. Arkell’s major studies and Geological Survey memoirs treated the Black Head and Osmington Mills section as part of the classic Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay coast of south Dorset. His work helped cement the locality’s reputation for fossiliferous Upper Jurassic beds and their structural complexity.
1978 – Birkelund and colleagues used the nearby Weymouth district succession in important work on Rasenia faunas
Work on Lower Kimmeridgian ammonites, especially Rasenia, drew on the wider Weymouth district succession that includes Black Head and Osmington Mills. This helped reinforce the importance of the locality in studies of the Cymodoce Zone and the basal Kimmeridge Clay faunas.
1981 – Cox and Gallois refined the basal Kimmeridge Clay succession of the Weymouth district
Detailed later twentieth-century work clarified the lithostratigraphy and faunas of the beds above the Corallian in the Weymouth area, helping place the Black Head and Osmington Mills succession into a more precise modern framework.
1999 – Black Head was formally treated as a Geological Conservation Review site
Modern review work recognised Black Head as a key GCR locality because it shows one of the most instructive sections through the upper Corallian and lower Kimmeridge Clay in southern England, as well as clear evidence of the Weymouth Anticline and associated structural disturbance.
2003–2009 – huge skull of the Weymouth Bay pliosaur Pliosaurus kevani recovered from Black Head / Osmington Mills by Kevan Sheehan
The huge skull of the famous Weymouth Bay pliosaur was collected over several years as pieces weathered from the cliffs at Black Head and Osmington Mills. Kevan Sheehan recovered most of the specimen, and its acquisition by Dorset Museum was publicly announced in 2009. The fossil was later named Pliosaurus kevani in his honour.
Modern understanding – Black Head and Osmington Mills remain important for Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay fossils
Today the locality is best known for its fossiliferous Upper Jurassic succession rather than for a long list of individual finds. The coast can yield oysters, bivalves, ammonites and other marine fossils from the Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay, together with marine reptile remains, while also remaining one of the best places to see the structurally disturbed Jurassic rocks of the Weymouth Anticline.
GEOLOGY
The coastline between Osmington Mills and Black Head displays some of the most structurally complex geology in Dorset and provides clear evidence of the Weymouth Anticline, a large dome-shaped fold formed as a distant consequence of the Alpine Orogeny around 20 million years ago. These earth movements, responsible for building the Alps, sent powerful compressional forces far beyond their point of origin. The outer effects of this “Alpine storm” buckled, folded and faulted the sedimentary rocks of southern Dorset, producing the Weymouth Anticline, a broad upfold that dominates the structure of the region.
Along the northern margin of the Weymouth Anticline, the structure becomes increasingly complex, with the main fold disrupted by smaller subsidiary folds and intersected by a major fault system. To the south, the strata rise out of the sea to form the distinctive wedge-shaped Isle of Portland, while to the north they dip steeply back beneath younger deposits. This structural arrangement gives rise to the characteristic landscape of alternating limestone ridges and clay vales that run broadly east to west, stretching inland from the Fleet Lagoon through to Osmington and beyond.
At beach level beneath Black Head, the Kimmeridge Clay forms imposing dark cliffs that show surprisingly little obvious internal variation at first glance. The cliff face often appears as a near-continuous mass of black mudstone, with few easily recognisable marker horizons. However, closer inspection reveals the presence of two important cementstone beds that stand out from the surrounding softer clay. One of these is the Virgula Limestone, a distinctive pale band composed almost entirely of the small oyster Nanogyra virgula, which can form dense shell concentrations. This bed often weathers proud of the surrounding clay and can be traced intermittently along the cliff and foreshore.
The second notable cementstone is the Nano cardioceras Cementstone, a nodular limestone horizon that is particularly significant due to its fossil content. This bed contains ammonites of the genus Amoeboceras, specifically Amoeboceras (Nanocardioceras), which are preserved in uncrushed calcite rather than being flattened as they usually are in the surrounding mudstones. These nodules provide an important marker within the Kimmeridge Clay succession and are among the few horizons here that resist weathering.
The Kimmeridge Clay at Black Head frequently develops a thick crust of weathered clay during warmer and drier periods. This surface layer can obscure fresh exposures in the lower part of the cliff and along the foreshore, giving the impression that little detail is visible. Beneath this weathered skin, however, the clay is often much fresher and better preserved. While loose material on the foreshore may be examined, the cliff itself must not be disturbed, as this stretch of coastline lies within a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Digging into the cliff face is both unsafe and prohibited.
Running parallel to the shoreline is a series of prominent rock ledges that form a stark contrast to the softer Kimmeridge Clay. These ledges are composed of the Nothe Grit and the Upton Member of the Osmington Oolite Formation, both of which are extremely hard, well-cemented limestones. Their resistance to erosion creates the stepped profile of the foreshore in this area. Although these rocks are largely unfossiliferous and too hard to yield collectible material, they play an important role in shaping the coastal platform and influencing wave action and erosion patterns along this stretch of coast.
Recent coastal change has been highlighted by a significant landslide event at Black Head during 2024, following prolonged periods of heavy rainfall and storm activity. A large volume of Kimmeridge Clay slumped from the lower cliff, adding fresh debris and blocks to the foreshore and further reshaping the undercliff. Such events are typical of this stretch of coast, where weak, water-saturated clays are prone to failure, and they serve as a reminder that the cliffs here are highly unstable. While landslides can expose fresh geological material, visitors should keep well clear of the cliff base and avoid lingering beneath active or recently slipped sections.
This is a detailed stratigraphic breakdown of the Upper Jurassic succession at Black Head, Dorset, west of Osmington Mills. The locality is one of the most important sections on the Dorset coast for the basal and lower Kimmeridge Clay, exposing the Corallian–Kimmeridge transition and much of the lower Kimmeridgian succession in landslipped but repeatedly refreshed cliffs.
CORALLIAN GROUP
Osmington Oolite Formation (Upper Jurassic — Oxfordian)
Upper Oolitic Reef And Foreshore Limestones
Bed BH1 — Middle White Oolite And Associated Reef Limestones
Hard oolitic limestones and sandy limestones forming reefs on the foreshore at Black Head and west of Osmington Mills. These resistant Corallian rocks make the wave-cut platform at low tide and underlie the dark Kimmeridge cliff behind. The limestones are shallow-marine carbonate deposits laid down in a warm Oxfordian sea, and they commonly show rhythmic bedding, shell debris and local cementation. Much of the lower Corallian is not easily accessible in the cliffs, but the foreshore reefs provide a good view of the general lithology.
Typical Fossils
Oolitic shelly limestones with bivalves, brachiopods and other shallow-marine Corallian fossils, together with ex situ ammonites and reef-derived material from nearby higher beds.
Clavellata Formation (Upper Jurassic — Oxfordian)
Upper Corallian Clays, Ironstones And Trigonia Beds
Bed BH2 — Upper Clavellata Beds And Red Beds
Ferruginous and locally reddish sandy limestones, oolitic ironstones and clayey beds representing the upper part of the Corallian succession at Black Head. These beds are much more mixed in lithology than the uniform mudstones of the Kimmeridge Clay above and preserve the last clearly Corallian shallow-marine fauna beneath the Kimmeridgian transgression. They are best seen in the low cliff and loose foreshore blocks at the foot of the main headland.
Typical Fossils
Myophorella clavellata and allied trigoniid bivalves are characteristic, together with other shelly Corallian faunas. The topmost Corallian also includes the ironshot muddy limestone facies traditionally known as the Osmington Mills Ironstone.
Bed BH3 — Osmington Mills Ironstone
A shelly oolitic ironstone at the top of the Corallian, replacing the Ringstead Coral Bed in the Black Head–Osmington Mills area. This bed lies immediately beneath the base of the Kimmeridge Clay and marks the final mixed-lithology Oxfordian shelf deposition before the abrupt switch into dark grey Kimmeridge mudstones. The contact above is an important minor erosion surface and faunal break.
Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic — Kimmeridgian)
The Black Head section is one of the key Dorset localities for the lower part of the Kimmeridge Clay. In contrast to Kimmeridge Bay, where the section begins much higher in the Lower Kimmeridge, Black Head exposes the basal Kimmeridgian beds and much of the lower zonal succession. Dips are steep, commonly around 80° near the base and 50–60° higher up, and landslip plus camber mean that some intervals are easier to examine in fallen blocks and freshly cleared slip faces than in a simple continuous cliff face.
Basal Lower Kimmeridge Clay (Baylei Zone)
Bed BH4 — Inconstans Bed (Published Bed 1)
The basal bed of the Kimmeridge Clay and the base of the Kimmeridgian Stage in the Black Head section. It is a dark grey, intensely bioturbated clay, up to about 0.4 m thick, with wisps and burrow fills of silt and fine-grained sand and scattered limonite ooids derived from the underlying Osmington Mills Ironstone. Phosphatic pebble beds occur at the base and about 0.3 m above the base. This is the critical boundary bed at Black Head and marks the abrupt change from mixed Corallian lithologies into relatively uniform Kimmeridge mudstone sedimentation.
Fossil Content
Goniorhynchia inconstans, Pictonia, Goniomya, Pholadomya, Pleuromya, phosphatised serpulids and the gastropod Pleuromaria. These fossils occur both in the pebble-rich lag levels and through the intervening clay.
Bed BH5 — Nana Bed
A thin but important shelly bed just above the Inconstans Bed, rich in the small oyster Nanogyra nana. It provides an immediate marker above the Kimmeridgian boundary and is useful in tracing the lowest Kimmeridge Clay across Black Head, Osmington Mills and Ringstead Bay.
Bed BH6 — Dark Grey Mudstones With Abundant Deltoideum Delta
Dark grey mudstones overlying the Nana Bed, characterised in the Black Head graphic section by abundant Deltoideum delta. These beds represent early fully marine Kimmeridge shelf mud deposition and form the first substantial mudstone interval above the boundary beds.
Bed BH7 — Pale Grey Mudstones With Thin Red-Weathering Tabular Clay Ironstones
A paler calcareous mudstone unit with thin red-weathering tabular clay-ironstone bands. This interval is typical of the rhythmic sedimentation in the lower part of the Lower Kimmeridge Clay, where siltstone or calcareous mudstone may alternate with darker mudstones in repeated packages.
Zone Significance
These basal beds belong to the Pictonia baylei Zone and make Black Head one of the most important Dorset sections for the lowest Kimmeridgian, because this interval is not seen at Kimmeridge Bay.
Lower Kimmeridge Siltstones And Lower Cymodoce Beds
Bed BH8 — Wyke Siltstone (Published Bed 5)
A prominent hard band and line of seepage in the lower part of the Kimmeridge Clay. The Wyke Siltstone consists of intensely burrowed, finely cross-laminated, muddy quartz silt, crowded in its lower part with bivalves, particularly myids in growth position. Common phosphatic pebbles occur in the lowest part and the bed rests on an irregular interburrowed contact. It is one of the most useful lower Kimmeridge correlation beds in Dorset.
Bed BH9 — Black Head Siltstone (Published Bed 8)
A second prominent siltstone bed above the Wyke Siltstone, named from this locality. It is shelly throughout, with small oysters and Thracia, and contains abundant Amoeboceras (Amoebites) preserved in calcite ghost preservation. Like the Wyke Siltstone, it contains phosphatic pebbles in its lowest part and rests with an irregular, interburrowed base on the mudstones beneath. This bed is especially notable at Black Head because dinosaur bone has been found part-way up the cliff in the Black Head Siltstone.
Bed BH10 — Lower Cymodoce Mudstones And Concretionary Shelly Beds
Dark grey mudstones with more shelly interbeds and common concretions above the Black Head Siltstone. The graphic section shows intervals rich in shelly material, septarian concretions and ammonites including Rasenia and Xenostephanus. These beds represent continued lower Kimmeridge mudstone deposition after the siltstone influxes had waned and more typical soft shale facies returned.
Bed BH11 — Xenostephanus Beds (Published Bed 14)
A named lower Kimmeridge horizon in the Black Head succession, lying above the Black Head Siltstone and within the lower cymodoce succession. It marks one of the characteristic shelly and ammonite-rich levels in the lower Kimmeridge mudstones before the more uniformly dark mutabilis-zone shales above.
Ammonites
Rasenia cymodoce, Xenostephanus and associated lower Cymodoce faunas.
Middle Lower Kimmeridge Clay (Mutabilis And Eudoxus Zones)
Bed BH12 — Mutabilis-Zone Dark Mudstones And Calcareous Bands
Dark grey mudstones and bituminous shales with intermittent pale calcareous mudstones and thin cemented bands. This part of the succession is less obviously divided into single striking lithological beds when seen from a distance, but repeated calcareous and shelly horizons can be cleared in dry weather from the weathered clay crust. These beds yield ammonites of the Aulacostephanus mutabilis group and show the characteristic Kimmeridge alternation of darker organic-rich mudstones and paler, more calcareous intervals.
Bed BH13 — Supracorallina Bed
A pale calcareous mudstone horizon with abundant Neocrassina extensa (formerly referred to as Astarte supracorallina) and Aulacostephanus eulepidus. It is one of the recognised marker beds in the Black Head–Osmington Kimmeridge succession and helps tie the mutabilis-zone strata into the wider Dorset framework.
Bed BH14 — Eudoxus-Zone Shelly Mudstones
Shelly dark mudstones and calcareous mudstones yielding Aulacostephanus eudoxus and allied faunas. These beds are particularly important because the Black Head succession continues well below the level reached at Kimmeridge Bay, where the cliffs descend no lower than about 10 m into the eudoxus zone. At Black Head, the lower zones beneath eudoxus are fully represented, making the locality one of the most valuable lower Kimmeridgian reference sections on the Dorset coast.
Fossil Content
Aulacostephanus eudoxus, oysters, shelly mudstone faunas, lucinid bivalves such as Lucina minuscula, small Protocardia, and marine vertebrate remains including plesiosaur and ichthyosaur material in fallen nodules and blocks.
Bed BH15 — Virgula Limestone
A soft muddy limestone composed largely of the oyster Nanogyra virgula. This is one of the most conspicuous tabular marker bands in the higher part of the Black Head lower Kimmeridge sequence and divides the shale succession into major field packages. It records a brief, shell-rich calcareous phase within otherwise mud-dominated sedimentation.
Bed BH16 — Nannocardioceras Cementstone
A nodular cementstone horizon preserving Amoeboceras (Nannocardioceras) in uncrushed translucent calcite. This is one of the classic higher marker beds in the Black Head succession and demonstrates how early cementation locally protected ammonites from compaction within the Kimmeridge mudstones.
Total Thickness Of The Kimmeridge Clay In The Black Head–Osmington Mills–Ringstead Area: About 244 Metres
Higher Kimmeridge Marker Beds In The Black Head–Osmington Landslip Succession
Bed BH17 — Blake’s Bed 42
A higher recognised marker bed in the Black Head–Osmington Kimmeridge succession. It is not always easy to isolate in the field on the main ridge, but it is part of the established Dorset correlation framework and lies above the Nannocardioceras Cementstone in the higher Kimmeridge shales.
Bed BH18 — Grey Ledge Stone Band
A more resistant stone band higher in the succession, useful as a local datum where present in slipped or partially obscured cliff sections. It represents another calcareous or cemented phase interrupting the soft mudstone-dominated sequence.
Bed BH19 — Blackstone
A darker, more organic-rich stone band in the upper part of the Kimmeridge Clay succession. In the wider Dorset Kimmeridge it is associated with highly organic facies, and at Black Head it forms part of the upper marker-bed succession recognised in the landslipped cliff and debris.
Bed BH20 — White Stone Band
A conspicuous white coccolith limestone in the higher Kimmeridge sequence. Field guides note that the Black Head cliffs extend upward nearly to the level of the White Stone Band, though the upper part of the succession is more obscured and landslipped than the lower reference section. It is therefore best treated as a higher marker horizon in the broader Black Head–Osmington landslip complex rather than as a continuously exposed bed in the main lower cliff section.
Higher Zonal Interpretation
The lower Kimmeridge succession at Black Head runs upward from the Pictonia baylei Zone through the Rasenia cymodoce, Aulacostephanus mutabilis and Aulacostephanus eudoxus zones, with higher beds in the landslip complex extending toward younger upper Kimmeridge levels. This is why Black Head is so important: it supplies the lower zonal succession that is absent from the better-known Kimmeridge Bay cliffs.
Reworked Cretaceous And Superficial Beach Debris (Not In Situ At The Main Black Head Section)
Upper Greensand Boulder Field And Mudslide Debris
Bed BH21 — Reworked Upper Greensand Boulders And Flint Pebbles
East of Black Head, and locally along the route from Osmington Mills, the beach carries abundant large boulders derived from major mudslides involving Lower Cretaceous rocks. These include Upper Greensand “cowstones” with serpulid worm tubes such as Rotularia concava, echinoid fragments, burrows and occasional ammonites. These are not part of the in-situ Jurassic cliff section at Black Head, but they are an important part of the collector’s locality because they add a second, transported fossil assemblage to the beach material.
Depositional Environment
Black Head records the passage from warm shallow Oxfordian carbonate shelves of the Corallian Group into the more uniform dark mudstones of the Kimmeridge Clay, deposited in a deeper, quieter marine basin prone to low oxygen at the sea floor. In the lower part of the Kimmeridge Clay, rhythmic alternations of silty mudstone, dark mudstone and pale calcareous mudstone are common, and several marker siltstones, limestones and cementstones can be traced across the Dorset type area. Landslip and camber complicate the cliff profile, but marine erosion continually refreshes the lower section, which is why Black Head remains one of the best places to study the basal and lower Kimmeridge Clay.
Total Thickness Covered Here: Approximately 250 Metres Of Oxfordian To Kimmeridgian Stratigraphy In The Wider Black Head–Osmington–Ringstead Coastal Section, Though Only Part Of This Is Continuously Accessible In Any One Exposure
References
Cox, B.M. & Gallois, R.W. (1981). The stratigraphy of the Kimmeridge Clay of the Dorset type area and its correlation with some other Kimmeridgian sequences.
British Geological Survey Lexicon: Kimmeridge Clay Formation; Osmington Oolite Formation.
Geological Conservation Review: Black Head and Osmington site accounts.
Ian West, Wessex Coast Geology field guide for Osmington Mills–Black Head.
House, M.R. (1993) for the Xenostephanus bed framework in the Dorset Kimmeridge succession.
SAFETY
The site is generally safe but be aware of incoming or rough tides, particularly during the winter months. Be aware also of any potential slippages on the cliff.
EQUIPMENT
A pick and small trowel is ideal for removing fossils from the matrix of the Kimmeridge Clay. You will need a geological hammer and chisels to extract bivalves and ammonites from fallen blocks of the Cementstone beds or Myophorella clavellata blocks on the foreshore. Leave sufficient matrix around the fossil, to enable finer preparation at home.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Begin by removing any loose sediment very carefully using a soft toothbrush. Take your time, as many fossils are fragile and easily damaged. Do not soak bones as this can make them fragile and crack, if bones are already wet, slowly dry out slightly using a wet cloth on top to keep moisture in and clean carefully using a small brush and needle.
Once fully dry, we recommend sealing fossils with Paraloid B-72, dissolved in acetone. This is a museum-grade consolidant that is widely available in pre-mixed bottles. Paraloid B-72 is stable, long-lasting, and does not yellow or react chemically over time. Importantly, it is also fully reversible, making it suitable for scientifically important or display-quality specimens.
ARTICLES
- From Ringstead Bay to British Cenozoic fossils: A collector’s journey into fossil field guides
- DVD review: Fossil Hunting along the Jurassic Coast, by Dr Colin Dawes BSc PhD
ACCESS RIGHTS
This site is an SSSI and forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast. This means you can visit the site, but hammering the bedrock is not permitted. For full information about the reasons for the status of the site and restrictions please download the PDF from Natural England – SSSI Information – South Dorset
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘
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