Bracklesham Bay’s Eocene sands and clays yield shells, shark and ray remains when low tide and scour expose the beds. The guide centres on Bracklesham Lane and the nearby Earnley fossil horizons. The broader four-formation Bracklesham Group succession is spread along the bay, rather than exposed together by the car park.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦♦ – Low tide and scour improve the chance of finds, but exposure varies.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦♦♦ – Supervise children around soft clay, tidal channels and water-sports activity.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦♦♦ – The seafront approach is short; the fossil beds are tidal.
TYPE: Loose fossils on wet sand and intermittently exposed Eocene sediments.
DIRECTIONS
♦ Follow the approach to Bracklesham Lane and its seafront car park, PO20 8HP.
♦ The council lists charged parking and public toilets nearby. Follow current posted terms rather than relying on old tariff information.
♦ Search the nearby shore only within a suitable low-tide window. The scientific coast extending from West Wittering to Selsey is not a recommended continuous collecting walk.
♦ Ref: SZ 80235 96309 – 50.76083°N, 0.86379°W
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FOSSIL HUNTING
Bracklesham rewards slow, close searching rather than digging. Begin with loose material on the foreshore near Bracklesham Lane, working eastwards towards Earnley as the tide falls. Check the wet sand, the foot of the shingle and, especially, small concentrations of broken shells. Waves sort this material by size, so fine shell patches are worth examining for little teeth that are easily missed while walking. A low tide does not guarantee exposed fossil beds: shifting sand can conceal them, yet fossils washed from offshore exposures may still be scattered across the beach.
The main collecting interest here is the Earnley Sand Formation. Its familiar Cardita Bed (E3), Turritella Bed (E4) and Palate Bed (E5) supply many beach finds. Exposures may occur roughly a kilometre east of the car park, but their position and extent change with beach cover. When the clay is scoured clean, examine the shell-rich surfaces and naturally detached pieces around the low, eroded clay pedestals. Do not assume that a loose tooth beside an outcrop came from that particular bed: waves can mix material from different horizons.
Shark teeth. Learn the glossy crown, cutting edges and root before relying on colour. Many teeth are dark brown or black, but flint chips and lignite can look similar. Striatolamia macrota is a well-documented Bracklesham shark and a useful first comparison for long, slender teeth. Its front teeth commonly have a curved, narrow crown, fine lengthwise ridges on the inward-facing surface and small side cusplets; teeth from farther back in the mouth are shorter and broader. Wear can remove the ridges and tiny cusplets, so a damaged pointed crown alone is not a secure species identification.
Other sharks recorded from the bay include Odontaspis winkleri, Brachycarcharias lerichei, Physogaleus secundus and the cow shark Notorynchus kempi. In well-preserved Odontaspis winkleri, look for a slender main cusp flanked by conspicuous needle-like cusplets, sometimes with a second, smaller pair. Lateral teeth of Brachycarcharias lerichei can have a broader triangular crown and broader side cusplets. Lower side teeth of Notorynchus kempi are strikingly different: several backward-leaning cusps form a low, comb-like cutting blade. These are comparisons to investigate, not a complete identification key; the root, both crown faces and tooth position matter. The illustrated specimen catalogue is useful, but check each specimen’s locality because that page also includes other Bracklesham Group sites.
The bay also yields the megatoothed shark Otodus auriculatus, listed as Carcharocles auriculatus in many older references. Its broad crown, serrated cutting edges and lateral cusplets distinguish a good specimen from a typical narrow, smooth-edged Striatolamia tooth. Large, complete shark teeth are much less usual beach finds than smaller or broken teeth; do not plan a visit around finding a trophy specimen. At the other end of the scale, the recorded cookiecutter shark Isistius trituratus has tiny teeth that underline how much diversity a casual beach walk can overlook.
Rays and other vertebrates. Ray teeth are another realistic target. Recorded forms include Myliobatis dixoni and Aetobatus irregularis, although many worn fragments are best labelled simply as ray dental material. Their broad crushing teeth have a smooth working face and a ridged root beneath; separate teeth and broken pieces are more likely than an entire joined palate. The Palate Bed takes its name from such remains, without guaranteeing a complete plate. Finely barbed tail-spine fragments are different structures. Fish vertebrae, turtle shell and crocodilian teeth broaden the possibilities, while sea-snake vertebrae identified as Palaeophis typhaeus are documented from E3. An unusual bone deserves careful recording and specialist advice.
Shells and coin fossils. Shells are often easier to find than teeth. The thick, strongly ribbed bivalve Venericor planicosta characterises E3. Smaller Claibornicardia carinata, familiar in older guides as Venericardia carinata, has more sharply defined ribs; the oyster Cubitostrea elegans also occurs. Tall spiral shells traditionally called Turritella include Haustator and Ispharina: compare the shape of the whorls and spiral ornament instead of giving every tower-shaped shell one species name. E3 also has documented wing-lipped gastropods Hippochrenes amplus and Hippochrenes fissura, whose delicate extensions make intact examples especially worth protecting. Small disc-shaped Nummulites laevigatus are the tests of large single-celled foraminifera, not shell fragments or coins. They can be abundant; their namesake E7 bed lies farther towards Selsey. Occasional corals add another group to watch for.
Collect modestly from loose material and leave intact exposures undisturbed within this SSSI. A small sieve can help sort loose sandy shell debris, but is not a reason to excavate the beds. Use a hand lens and separate rigid boxes for fragile shells; no hammer is needed for beach finds. Record the date, precise location and whether each specimen was loose or associated with an identifiable bed. Photograph unusual finds before moving them, and retain adhering matrix rather than forcing it away. Work within a safe falling-tide window, avoiding soft clay and leaving time to return before the water rises.
A chronological record of fossil discoveries and geological research at Bracklesham Bay.
1822 – Early fossil account
Mantell published an early account of the bay’s fossils, then treated within London Clay.
1847 – Bracklesham distinguished
Prestwich separated the Bracklesham succession from London Clay in the developing stratigraphical scheme.
1862 – Coastal observations recorded
Fisher introduced the numbered bed framework, recording outcrop lengths in paces.
1977 – Foreshore mapping published
Curry and colleagues published detailed foreshore mapping accumulated mainly during 1969–1973.
1987 – Local stratigraphy revised
The modern four-formation framework used Bracklesham Bay as a partial reference section for each formation.
1996 – Correlations refined
King’s update and Bone and Tracey’s mapping refined the local stratigraphic framework.
GEOLOGY
The Bracklesham Group comprises four formations distributed along the coast from West Wittering to Selsey. Around the visitor entrance the Earnley succession is especially relevant; the wider bay provides context rather than four stacked beds beside the car park.
The sediments record repeated changes between open marine and more restricted, lower-salinity conditions during the early to middle Eocene. Wittering Formation contains fossiliferous mud, silt and sand, with lignite recording accumulated plant material. Its upper regressive interval is followed by a marine transgression: glauconitic sand and silt of the Earnley Sand Formation rest on a locally pebbly surface. The green mineral glauconite is a useful part of the description of these marine sands, although colour alone will not identify a loose fossil’s source bed.
Within the Earnley succession, the E3 Cardita or Venericardia Bed contains robust Venericor planicosta shells, including paired valves preserved in life position as well as disarticulated shells. It is followed by the E4 Turritella Bed and the E5 Palate Bed, named for ray crushing teeth. Together these form the historically named Barn Bed interval, not a separate formal member. The higher E7 Nummulites laevigatus Bed lies farther towards Selsey than the main visitor-beach focus; its coin-shaped foraminifera should not be used to assign every loose shell or tooth to that horizon.
Above Earnley, the Marsh Farm Formation comprises thin clay and silt beds with glauconitic sandy laminae. Its mixed marine-to-brackish assemblages contrast with the renewed marine conditions of the Selsey Sand Formation, where burrowed glauconitic sand, silt and sandy clay overlie a sharp surface. The resulting succession is a record of changing environments as well as a sequence of fossil beds. Modern sand and shingle cover it intermittently, so the named horizons are exposed in patches rather than as a complete section on every visit.
Published thickness schemes differ: one plotted composite is a little over 93 m, while summing older divisions gives about 120 m. Fisher’s early measurements were in paces, not feet. These accounts cannot be combined into a single exact scaled section.
Detailed geology and stratigraphy of Bracklesham Bay.
The visitor guide centres on Bracklesham Lane and the Earnley beds nearby. The full scientific reference coast extends from West Wittering (SZ 765984) to Selsey (SZ 845926); its four formations are geographically distributed along the bay, not four beds exposed together beside the car park.
BRACKLESHAM GROUP
Wittering Formation
Early to middle Eocene, Ypresian–Lutetian in the BGS range. The partial reference section extends from SZ 765984 to 808961 and comprises beds W9–W17 in the modern correlation. Fossiliferous mud, silt and sand record marine and reduced-salinity settings, with lignite in the lower and upper portions.
Older W1–W8 and the formation boundary. The historical figure retains W1–W8 labels, but its modern formation column assigns these lower strata to London Clay, below the Bracklesham Group. They lie outside the modern Wittering Formation. The chart marks gaps of about 5.4 m and 10 m in the lower succession; these are exposure gaps, not homogeneous sediment beds.
W9 and lower exposure gap. The regional foreshore log includes a substantial exposure gap at this part of the succession. This is an exposure gap rather than a known uniform sedimentary bed.
Nipa Bed and Cakeham Beds A. Lower Wittering horizons contain palm fruits and other plant material; the published log places the Nipa-bearing part within the lower numbered succession. Exact bed-to-bed subdivisions require the original measured mapping rather than inference from a compressed figure.
Cakeham Beds B. A younger named part of the Wittering succession, shown around W13 in the published log. It is distinct from the lower Cakeham interval.
W14 fossiliferous interval. Calcareous nannofossils establish an important lower Eocene correlation. GCR corrects an older misidentification of this sampled bed as immediately below Earnley E3.
Figure 6.20 correlation W10. The lower Wittering interval beside the Nipa Bed/Cakeham A labels; plant-bearing mud/silt occurs in this lower formation.
Figure 6.20 correlation W11. An overlapping bracket in the Curry numbering beside the lower Wittering package. It is not an additional bed to be added to the adjacent W10–W12 intervals.
Figure 6.20 correlation W12. A thin marked interval above W10 in the lower Wittering chart, within the Cakeham A part of the succession; arrowed contacts are retained as correlation markers.
Figure 6.20 correlation W13. The interval aligned with Cakeham Beds B, above the lower Cakeham A package.
Figure 6.20 correlation W14. A separately boxed marker above W13, below the questioned Whitecliff Bay Bed correlation.
Figure 6.20 correlation W15. A bracketed marker at the lower part of the upper regressive Wittering interval; the nearby Whitecliff Bay Bed correlation is explicitly questioned in the figure.
Figure 6.20 correlation W16. Shown together with W17 in the finely horizontally patterned upper Wittering interval; the published chart does not define a separately measurable boundary between them.
Figure 6.20 correlation W17. The highest numbered Wittering part, co-labelled with W16 beneath the basal Earnley pebble surface; no independent thickness is inferred.
W15–W17 upper regressive interval. Lignite and low-salinity sediments represent a regressive phase. Correlation with the Whitecliff Bay Bed/Coal Bed is discussed in the literature, but its precise placement and the associated hiatus are not resolved into an exact local physical surface in the published summary.
Earnley Sand Formation
Middle Eocene, Lutetian. The reference section SZ 808961–823950 contains E1–E8. Marine glauconitic sand and silt rest above a transgressive surface, locally pebbly, on Wittering strata. This is the main source of familiar fossils near Bracklesham.
E1–E2 basal interval. Lower numbered Earnley beds precede the main shell-rich horizons. The basal transgressive surface is supported; no individual thicknesses are inferred here.
E3 — Cardita or Venericardia Bed. Packed with the robust bivalve Venericor planicosta. Disarticulated valves occur alongside paired shells in life position. Colonies of Cubitostrea elegans may occur on one another.
E4 — Turritella Bed. Rich in high-spired gastropods historically grouped as Turritella, including forms now assigned to Ispharina and Haustator. Predatory drill holes can be visible; species should be identified individually, not all labelled with one binomial.
E5 — Palate Bed. Ray crushing teeth give the bed its field name. Isolated teeth are much commoner than intact dental plates; shark teeth and other vertebrate remains also occur.
E6 intervening interval. A separate numbered horizon between the Palate and main nummulite beds in the measured reference framework. The cited summary does not give a separate detailed lithology or thickness.
E7 — Nummulites laevigatus Bed. A concentration of large coin-shaped foraminifera, Nummulites laevigatus, farther towards Selsey, with corals, molluscs and shark teeth. It is distinct from the younger Nummulites variolarius beds.
Figure 6.20 correlation E1. An arrowed basal Earnley marker beside the lower E2 interval, at the pebble-bearing transgressive contact. It is not an extra equal-thickness layer.
Figure 6.20 correlation E2. The lower Earnley package below E3, above the basal pebble horizon.
Figure 6.20 correlation E3. The shell-rich Venericardia/Cardita Bed, corresponding to Fisher 1 in this figure and containing Venericor planicosta.
Figure 6.20 correlation E4. The Turritella Bed, corresponding to Fisher 2, a thin gastropod-rich horizon within the Barn Bed collective interval.
Figure 6.20 correlation E5. The Palate Bed interval beside Fisher 3–4, within the collective Barn Bed. One Curry label therefore spans more than one Fisher number.
Figure 6.20 correlation E6. A separately numbered interval beside Fisher 5, above the Palate Bed and below the main nummulite concentration.
Figure 6.20 correlation E7. The Nummulites laevigatus Bed beside Fisher 6, above E6.
Figure 6.20 correlation E8. The highest Earnley interval, aligned with Fisher 7–8 in the comparison column; it precedes the E9 marker at the change to Marsh Farm.
Barn Bed collective interval. The figure groups the shell-rich E3–E5 interval as the Barn Bed, encompassing the Cardita/Venericardia, Turritella and Palate beds. This collective label is not a separate formal member.
E8 upper Earnley interval. The highest numbered Earnley bed precedes the change to the thinly bedded mud/silt facies of Marsh Farm. “E” numbering alone does not make E9–E12 part of Earnley.
Marsh Farm Formation
Middle Eocene, Lutetian. The reference foreshore SZ 823950–825946 contains E9–E12 despite the inherited E prefix. Thinly bedded clay and silt with glauconitic sandy laminae overlie Earnley sand.
E9 — Ostrea tenera Bed. An oyster-rich named horizon in the published correlation. The bed retains its historical name in the stratigraphic literature.
Figure 6.20 correlation E9. The Ostrea tenera horizon near Fisher 9 at the base of the Marsh Farm succession; the inherited E prefix does not place it in Earnley Sand Formation.
Figure 6.20 correlation E10. An arrowed/bracketed correlation in the lower Marsh Farm part, overlapping the neighbouring E11 subdivision rather than adding a separate serial bed.
Figure 6.20 correlation E11. The lower boxed Marsh Farm interval above E9, within the broad Fisher 10 division.
Figure 6.20 correlation E12. The upper boxed Marsh Farm interval, also within Fisher 10, below Selsey Sand.
E10–E12 upper intervals. The numbered succession contains mixed marine to brackish assemblages, with more restricted conditions near the top. The published summary does not provide individual bed thicknesses or separate species lists.
Selsey Sand Formation
Middle Eocene, Lutetian. The reference section SZ 825946–845926 contains S1–S11; it lies towards Selsey rather than directly at Bracklesham Lane. Bioturbated glauconitic sand, silt and sandy clay rest sharply on a burrowed surface, with some basal pebbles.
Lower Selsey and Campanile Bed. The lower numbered succession includes the historically named Cerithium or Campanile Bed. The label is a useful correlation term, not proof that giant gastropods are common on the visitor beach today.
Little Bed. A distinct named marker in the lower-middle Selsey log, above the Campanile interval.
Miocardia Bed. A named middle-Selsey shell horizon retained in the published correlation.
Cypraea Bed. A younger molluscan horizon in the Selsey succession. The bed name is retained from the historical stratigraphic literature, irrespective of later shell taxonomy.
Beloptera or Hard Bed. An indurated upper-Selsey marker. Defence works at Selsey have altered access to some younger beds; this does not close or bury the Earnley collecting ground at Bracklesham.
Figure 6.20 correlation S1. The lowest boxed Selsey interval beside Fisher 11; the Campanile/Cerithium label extends across the lower Selsey beds.
Figure 6.20 correlation S2. An arrowed lower-Selsey subdivision beside S1 and the lower Campanile interval, not a separately measured added thickness.
Figure 6.20 correlation S3. A bracketed correlation through the lower Selsey interval beside S4 and the underlying Campanile-bearing portion; the overlapping notation is retained.
Figure 6.20 correlation S4. The boxed lower-Selsey subdivision beside Fisher 13, immediately below the Little Bed marker around Fisher 14.
Figure 6.20 correlation S5. The broad interval aligned with the Miocardia Bed and Fisher 15–16.
Figure 6.20 correlation S6. A thin separately labelled subdivision above S5 and below S7.
Figure 6.20 correlation S7. An upper-Selsey subdivision aligned approximately with Fisher 17 and below the Cypraea-bearing upper interval.
Figure 6.20 correlation S8. The narrow numbered interval above S7 within the Cypraea-labelled part of the composite.
Figure 6.20 correlation S9. A larger upper subdivision beside Fisher 19–20, below the Beloptera/Hard Bed around Fisher 21.
Figure 6.20 correlation S10. An overlapping bracket alongside the S9–S8 portion in the correlation columns; it is not a further independent thickness above S9.
Figure 6.20 correlation S11. The uppermost numbered Selsey interval beside Fisher 22, with Nummulites variolarius above the Hard Bed.
Upper Nummulites variolarius interval. Small nummulitids characterize the upper part. Its foraminiferal assemblages supported regional and international correlation; this is not the same horizon as Earnley E7.
The Bracklesham Group here comprises four geographically distributed formations, with fossiliferous beds exposed intermittently by beach scour.
Local molluscs include Venericor planicosta, Venericardia carinata and Cubitostrea elegans; the large foraminifer Nummulites laevigatus is characteristic of Earnley E7.
Published estimates of the complete foreshore thickness disagree: a plotted composite gives a little over 93 m, whereas summing older divisions yields around 120 m. Fisher’s 1862 measurements were in paces, not feet. Those older measurements cannot support an exact composite thickness scale.
The 2013 Medmerry/Selsey defence changes affected some upper Selsey exposures (notably S7–S9 in the collector report). The 2017 report cannot establish today’s exact exposure condition, but it does prevent copying old Selsey access instructions into this guide.
References
Bone, D. (2016). Fossil collecting at Bracklesham, Sussex. Deposits.
Bone, D. (2017). All change at Selsey, West Sussex. Deposits.
SAFETY
Leave ample time before the returning tide covers the exposures. Avoid soft clay, keep clear of water-sports users and do not assume low water gives unrestricted access across the bay.
Changing sand and shingle can conceal hazards. Keep children supervised and choose a return point based on tide and sea conditions.
EQUIPMENT
Take a hand lens, small rigid boxes, soft wrapping, a camera and tide information. No hammer is needed for loose fossils on sand; do not excavate fixed reefs or in-situ beds.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Handle delicate shells with firm support and pack them individually. Loose robust teeth usually need little treatment; gentle cleaning is preferable to aggressive scrubbing or routine hardening.
Avoid acids, bleach and indiscriminate PVA coatings. Test the stability of shell and matrix before using water; seek specialist advice for fragile or potentially important specimens.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Fossil collecting at Bracklesham, Sussex
All change at Selsey, West Sussex, UK
Daley and Balson, British Tertiary Stratigraphy: Bracklesham Bay, pp. 195–201 and figure 6.20
BGS Lexicon: Selsey Sand Formation
BGS Lexicon: Earnley Sand Formation
BGS Lexicon: Marsh Farm Formation
BGS Lexicon: Wittering Formation
Dineley and Metcalf, Fossil Fishes of Great Britain: Bracklesham Bay, pp. 520–521
ACCESS RIGHTS
Follow current coastal byelaws and protected-site guidance. Low-impact collection of naturally loose material does not justify digging into beds or routinely sieving intact protected strata. Seek permission before intrusive work.
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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