Charmouth (Black Ven) Fossil Hunting

1811–1812 – Joseph and Mary Anning’s first major ichthyosaur discovery
Joseph Anning found the skull in 1811, and Mary Anning returned to the same site and excavated the rest of the skeleton in 1812. By early 1813 it had become the first largely complete ichthyosaur to be uncovered and scientifically studied, helping transform understanding of extinction and ancient life.

1814 – Mary Anning’s ichthyosaur entered the scientific literature
After its excavation, the specimen was studied by Sir Everard Home and became one of the fossil discoveries that brought ichthyosaurs to the attention of the scientific world. This was one of the most important early scientific milestones for the Charmouth–Lyme coast.

1820 – the Anning ichthyosaur was recognised as an extinct marine reptile
By 1820 the strange animal found by the Annings had been recognised as an extinct marine reptile rather than a crocodile or fish. This was a major change in interpretation and part of the wider scientific impact of the Charmouth coast discoveries.

1823 – Mary Anning discovered the first complete Plesiosaurus skeleton
In December 1823, Mary Anning discovered the first complete Plesiosaurus skeleton from the Lower Jurassic coast. It became one of the most celebrated fossil finds of the nineteenth century and helped establish the Charmouth–Lyme coast as one of the world’s great marine reptile localities.

1828 – Mary Anning discovered Britain’s first pterosaur
In December 1828, Mary Anning uncovered the remains of the first pterosaur found outside Germany, the fossil later known as Dimorphodon. This added flying reptiles to the already remarkable fossil record of the area.

1829 – coprolites were recognised as fossilised dung
Work by William Buckland on material from the Lyme Regis and Charmouth coast led to the recognition that certain curious stony objects were fossilised dung, or coprolites. This was another major scientific breakthrough linked to the fossil discoveries of this coast.

1858–1859 – Scelidosaurus discovered at Black Ven near Charmouth by James Harrison
Fossils found by James Harrison while working the Black Ven cliffs near Charmouth were sent to Richard Owen, who recognised their importance. This discovery made Charmouth one of the classic British dinosaur localities.

1861 – Scelidosaurus harrisonii formally described by Richard Owen
Owen formally described Scelidosaurus harrisonii in 1861. It became one of the most important early ornithischian dinosaurs ever discovered and remains central to discussions of armoured dinosaur evolution.

1959 – the later “second specimen” of Scelidosaurus was already known from Charmouth
A second important Scelidosaurus specimen from the Charmouth area had already been reported by 1959. This showed that the dinosaur was represented by more than the original nineteenth-century material.

1968 – second partial skeleton of Scelidosaurus described from the Charmouth area
The second partial skeleton, found by Charmouth geologist James Frederick Jackson, was formally described in 1968. It came from slightly younger beds than the original specimen and helped expand knowledge of the dinosaur’s anatomy and occurrence.

1985 – important new Scelidosaurus skeleton excavated by Simon Barnsley, David Costain and Peter Langham
In 1985, Simon Barnsley, David Costain and Peter Langham excavated another major Scelidosaurus specimen near Charmouth. It included a very complete skull and preserved skin impressions, making it one of the key later discoveries of the dinosaur.

December 2000 – David Sole found the most complete Charmouth Scelidosaurus specimen yet discovered
The first parts of this specimen were found in December 2000 by local collector David Sole. Over the following months and years, more pieces were recovered by David and fellow collectors Peter Langham, Jo Anderson, Andrew Sole, Christine Endecott, Rick Taylor and Bernie Abbott. The specimen proved to be over 85% complete, with exceptional preservation including skin and apparent stomach contents.

2000s–2010s – the David Sole Scelidosaurus became recognised as Britain’s most complete and best-preserved dinosaur
The Black Ven Scelidosaurus found by David Sole came to be regarded as Britain’s most complete and best-preserved dinosaur found to date. The specimen also showed that major dinosaur discoveries were still being made on the Charmouth coast in modern times.

2017 – marine crocodylomorph specimen discovered by Paul Turner and Lizzie Hingley
A remarkable crocodylomorph fossil was discovered in 2017 from the Charmouth Mudstone Formation by Paul Turner and Lizzie Hingley. The specimen included parts of the skull, jaws, backbone and limbs, making it one of the best early examples of its group from the Jurassic Coast.

2023 – Turnersuchus hingleyae formally described
The 2017 Charmouth specimen was formally described in 2023 as Turnersuchus hingleyae. The genus name honours Paul Turner, while the species name honours Lizzie Hingley. It is one of the oldest diagnostic thalattosuchians known and one of the most important recent discoveries from the Charmouth coast.

February 2024 – “Gonzo”, the mummified ichthyosaur, found by Chris Moore
In February 2024, local collector Chris Moore found an exceptionally preserved ichthyosaur nicknamed “Gonzo”. During preparation, associated shark teeth were also recognised, including teeth said to represent a new species of hexanchiform shark and the earliest known evidence of that kind of shark in the fossil record.

September 2024 – “Enzo”, a complete ichthyosaur, discovered by Chris Moore
Chris Moore discovered and excavated this complete ichthyosaur in September 2024, with special permission from the landowners to remove the specimen. The fossil is thought to represent an undescribed new species, with several unusual skeletal features including a pronounced overbite and an unusual hind paddle.

March–May 2025 – Enzo scanned and publicly presented as a likely new ichthyosaur species
In March 2025 the unusual skull was digitally scanned, and in May 2025 the specimen was publicly named “Enzo” in a Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre competition. Although not yet formally described in the scientific literature, it has been presented as a probable new species-level find from Charmouth.

LIAS GROUP

Blue Lias Formation (Uppermost Part Only)

Top Blue Lias

Grey Ledge

The highest persistent limestone of the Blue Lias at Black Ven. It forms the hard top of the Blue Lias bench and is capped by a prominent bioturbated erosion surface that marks the base of the overlying Shales-with-Beef Member. This is the last major limestone platform before the sedimentary regime changes into the dark mudstone-dominated Charmouth Mudstone succession above.

Charmouth Mudstone Formation (Lower Jurassic — Sinemurian to Pliensbachian)

Shales-with-Beef Member

The Shales-with-Beef Member forms the lowermost part of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation at Black Ven and is about 28–30 metres thick in the Lyme Regis–Charmouth area. It consists of thinly interbedded medium- to dark-grey mudstones, paler blocky calcareous mudstones and darker organic-rich laminated mudstones, with numerous bedding-parallel fibrous calcite seams or “beef”. The member contains several persistent limestones and concretion horizons that provide the real field framework for the Black Ven lower cliff.

Basal Erosion Surface And Lower Shales-With-Beef

The base of the member rests sharply on Grey Ledge along a prominent burrowed and bioturbated surface. The lowest beds are thinly interbedded grey mudstones and organic-rich mudstones, locally with crushed Arnioceras and early pyritisation, recording the start of the post-Blue Lias muddy shelf regime.

Fish Bed Shales And Fish Bed

The Fish Bed interval comprises lower fissile shales, then the Fish Bed itself as a strikingly laminated calcareous siltstone, followed by more dark shales and in places an “upper” Fish Bed siltstone. These beds are some of the most useful markers in the lower member and record episodic silt influx into otherwise muddy, organic-rich marine sedimentation. Fossils include fish debris, shell fragments and ammonites in adjacent shales.

Table Ledge

A pale, muddy limestone lens-bed with nests of iridescent rhynchonellid brachiopods. Table Ledge is one of the most important marker beds in the member and can be traced widely in the Black Ven–Charmouth area. It forms a resistant bench within the lower Shales-with-Beef succession and marks a brief interval of stronger cementation and clearer-water carbonate accumulation.

Beds Between Table Ledge And Devonshire Head Limestone

Mainly thinly interbedded medium and dark grey mudstones with organic-rich brownish-grey laminated mudstones and numerous thin seams of beef. This interval is one of the thickest parts of the member and records persistent low-energy, oxygen-poor marine deposition punctuated by early diagenetic calcite growth.

Devonshire Head Limestone

A laterally persistent limestone horizon in the middle part of the member. It is a very useful field marker west of Black Ven and below The Spittles, and the top of the bed locally carries phosphatic nodules, suggesting a break or condensed phase. It helps divide the lower and upper halves of the member.

Middle Shales-With-Beef

Dark grey mudstones, laminated brownish-grey bituminous mudstones and numerous thin seams of beef, with septarian concretions in places. This interval contains many of the classic fossil mudstones and contributes greatly to the instability of the lower Black Ven cliff.

Spittles Limestone

A tabular muddy limestone, passing locally into septaria coated with beef or into a thick multiple layer of beef. It is one of the most prominent resistant markers in the upper part of the member and is especially useful in the Spittles–Charmouth area.

Upper Shales-With-Beef And Birchi Nodules

Thinly interbedded grey mudstones and organic-rich mudstones with several thin beds of beef and one or two lines of septarian nodules. The Birchi Nodules are especially characteristic and may enclose Microderoceras birchi. These beds form the fossil-rich upper part of the member immediately beneath its top limestone.

Birchi Tabular Bed

An almost continuous dense muddy limestone, 0.15–0.30 m thick, capping the Shales-with-Beef Member. This is the upper boundary marker of the member throughout the outcrop and forms a strong reef or ledge on the foreshore where exposed.

Total Thickness Of Shales-with-Beef Member At Black Ven: Approximately 28–30 Metres

Black Ven Marl Member

The Black Ven Marl Member above the Birchi Tabular Bed consists of dark grey thinly interbedded mudstones and organic-rich mudstones with several important cementstone and nodule horizons. In the modern Dorset framework, the lower part up to the Coinstone is retained as Black Ven Marl Member sensu strictu, while the higher pyritic beds above the Coinstone are separated as the Stonebarrow Pyritic Member.

Bed 80 — Lower Cement Bed / Lower Cementstone

A conspicuous argillaceous carbonate horizon described by Lang and Spath as black conchoidal marl with several indurated bands. At Black Ven and east toward Charmouth it forms a key marker in the lower Black Ven Marls. It varies laterally from limestone to ferroan dolostone and preserves uncrushed ammonites more readily than the surrounding mudstones.

Bed 81 — Inter-Cement Mudstones

Dark fissile mudstones and paper shales between the Lower Cement Bed and the Pavior. These beds continue the organic-rich, pyrite-prone sedimentation of the lower member and yield pyritised ammonites and other fossils where freshly exposed.

Bed 82 — Pavior / Upper Cement Bed

A second important cementstone horizon above Bed 80. It forms a useful datum bed and, together with the Lower Cement Bed, brackets one of the main lower fossil intervals in the Black Ven Marls.

Bed 83 — Obtusus Shales / Stonebarrow Flatstones

Bituminous paper shales with the classic flatstone nodules. This is one of the most famous horizons in the Black Ven succession, notable for uncrushed ammonites such as Asteroceras obtusum, insects in nodules and, regionally, vertebrate remains. It forms a strongly recessive but palaeontologically important interval.

Beds 84–86 — Middle Black Ven Marls

Dark mudstones and shales with nodular limestone development in parts, forming the less easily subdivided middle of the member. These beds continue the ammonite-bearing, organic-rich marl deposition and have yielded pyritised fossils, marine reptiles and dinosaur material in the broader Black Ven–Charmouth area.

Bed 87 — Limestone With Brachiopods

A thin limestone marker bed with brachiopods and shell debris. This is one of the best marker bands high in the Black Ven Marl Member and helps place the upper part of the member on the cliff face.

Bed 88 — Upper Black Ven Pyritic Marls And Stellare Nodules

Dark pyritic marls and mudstones with the classic Stellare Nodules, which may contain beautifully preserved Asteroceras stellare. These beds are among the best known pyritised ammonite-producing levels in the Black Ven succession and represent increasingly condensed upper-Sinemurian deposition.

Bed 89 — Coinstone

An irregular bed of bored, encrusted and partly pyritised hiatus nodules forming the top of the Black Ven Marl Member sensu strictu. This bed marks a major non-sequence in the Dorset Lower Jurassic and is the key upper boundary of the classic Black Ven Marls.

Total Thickness Of Black Ven Marl Member sensu strictu (Beds 80–89): Approximately 27 Metres

Stonebarrow Pyritic Member

The Stonebarrow Pyritic Member comprises Lang’s beds 90–102 above the Coinstone. Although best observed east of Black Ven toward Stonebarrow, it is present at Black Ven and represents the pyrite-rich upper continuation of the traditional Black Ven Marls. These beds lack the large nodules typical of the lower Black Ven Marl Member, apart from isolated stone bands, and are dominated by dark pyritic mudstones with abundant ammonites.

Beds 90–94 — Lower Pyritic Marls

Dark pyritic mudstones and marls immediately above the Coinstone non-sequence. These beds yield abundant pyritised ammonites, especially Promicroceras, Echioceras and related forms, and represent the restart of sedimentation after the upper Black Ven hiatus.

Beds 95–98 — Middle Pyritic Marls, Including The Lymense Bed

Highly pyritic, locally beef-bearing mudstones and marls. The lymense Bed is a pyritic ammonite-rich horizon within this part of the succession and is one of the best fossil-producing levels of the upper pyritic sequence. Pyrite was formerly collected from this part of the Black Ven succession for sulphuric-acid manufacture.

Beds 99–101 — Upper Pyritic Marls

Dark pyritic marls continuing upward beneath the top stone horizons. Fossils are dominated by pyritised ammonites and associated marine invertebrates, with fewer large nodules than in the lower member.

Bed 102 — Watch Ammonite Stone

An isolated limestone horizon near the top of the pyritic member, known for ammonites of the Echioceras raricostatum type. It forms one of the few conspicuous harder bands in the upper pyritic sequence below the Belemnite Marl boundary.

Total Thickness Of Stonebarrow Pyritic Member: Approximately 16–17 Metres

Belemnite Marl Member

The Belemnite Marl Member forms the pale, higher Jurassic cliff at Black Ven and consists of alternating pale and dark grey calcareous marls and mudstones with abundant belemnites. Although the member is much better exposed eastward toward Stonebarrow and Golden Cap, it is present at Black Ven and is capped by the Cretaceous unconformity at the eastern end of the cliff. The full Lang et al. bed numbering runs from 103 to 121.

Bed 103 — Hummocky Limestone

The basal limestone of the Belemnite Marls, with irregular hummocky surfaces and nodular development. It marks the sharp base of the member above the pyritic Black Ven beds and is a condensed, fossil-rich horizon.

Bed 104 — Clays Above The Hummocky Limestone

Dark marls with small nodules resting directly above Bed 103. These form the darkest basal beds of the Belemnite Marls and lead up into the main lower limestone marker.

Bed 105 — Apoderoceras Limestone

A pale marly limestone forming the first strong limestone band in the member. It is associated with Apoderoceras leckenbyi and allied early Jamesoni-zone faunas and is one of the best lower Belemnite Marl markers.

Beds 106–109 — Lower Paler Marls And Gemmellaroceras Interval

A succession of pale marls and indurated pale bands with the characteristic lower pale–dark alternation of the Belemnite Marl Member. The interval includes the Phricodoceras indurated band and the Gemmellaroceras marls, and forms the first clearly striped part of the member above Bed 105.

Bed 110 — Lower Darker Marls

The great lower dark marl division of the Belemnite Marls, making up much of the lower half of the member. These bluish-grey marls yield abundant belemnites and form one of the thickest single bed groups in the entire member.

Beds 111–115 — Middle Pale And Dark Bands

A characteristic striped interval of alternating very pale indurated marls, softer pale marls and darker marl bands. These beds include the Lower Pale Band, Lower Dark Band, Middle Pale Band, Middle Dark Band and Upper Pale Band, and are among the most visually distinctive parts of the member in fresh cliff sections.

Beds 116–118 — Upper Dark And Pale Marls

Dark and pale marls forming the upper middle part of the Belemnite Marls, including faunal levels with Uptonia, Tropidoceras and Acanthopleuroceras. These beds continue the pale–dark rhythmic marl deposition but become increasingly fossiliferous toward the top.

Bed 119 — Belemnite Shales

Brown marly shales with impersistent crinoid limestone lenticles near the top. This is one of the classic upper Belemnite Marl divisions and leads into the highly fossiliferous pyritic beds below the Belemnite Stone.

Bed 120 — Pyritic Marls And Crumbly Bed

Pyritic marls with flattened sulphide nodules, capped by the crumbly belemnite-rich bed traditionally known as the old Belemnite Bed. This interval is highly fossiliferous and forms the rough-faced upper part of the member immediately below its top stone.

Bed 121 — Belemnite Stone

A persistent nodular limestone weathering creamy white. This is the top marker bed of the Belemnite Marl Member and the highest Jurassic bed clearly identifiable beneath the Cretaceous unconformity at the eastern end of Black Ven.

Total Thickness Of Belemnite Marl Member At Black Ven: Approximately 20–27 Metres, Though The Upper Part Is Locally Slipped And Truncated Beneath The Cretaceous Unconformity

Gault Formation (Lower Cretaceous)

Basal Cretaceous Unconformity

The Jurassic succession at Black Ven is cut by a marked erosional unconformity and overlain by dark grey Gault clay. At the eastern end of Black Ven, the Belemnite Stone and a limited thickness of weathered grey mudstone remain beneath this unconformity. The Green Ammonite Member is therefore not preserved here as a full cliff section.

Upper Greensand Formation (Lower Cretaceous)

Foxmould And Chert Beds

The cliff top above Black Ven is capped by Upper Greensand sands and cherts, which drive much of the modern landslip behaviour by feeding debris onto the Gault and Jurassic benches below. These Cretaceous units are not part of the Lower Jurassic fossil section but are an essential part of the Black Ven cliff profile.

Depositional Environment

The Black Ven succession records a long transition from carbonate-mud shelf deposition in the top Blue Lias, into organic-rich oxygen-poor mudstones with frequent early diagenetic calcite seams in the Shales-with-Beef Member, then into darker ammonite-rich marls and cementstones of the Black Ven Marl Member, followed by the pyrite-rich upper Sinemurian Stonebarrow Pyritic Member and the paler belemnite-rich marls of the lower Pliensbachian Belemnite Marl Member. The whole Jurassic section is finally cut by a major Early Cretaceous erosional surface.

Total Thickness Covered Here: Approximately 90–115 Metres Of Jurassic And Basal Cretaceous Stratigraphy Across The Main Black Ven Cliff Profile

References

Gallois, R.W. (2008). The lithostratigraphy of the Shales-with-Beef Member of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation, Lower Jurassic.
Lang, W.D. & Spath, L.F. (1926). The Black Marl of Black Ven and Stonebarrow, in the Lias of the Dorset coast.
Lang, W.D., Spath, L.F., Cox, L.R. & Muir-Wood, H.M. (1928). The Belemnite Marls of Charmouth, a series in the Lias of the Dorset coast.
British Geological Survey Lexicon: Shales-with-Beef Member, Black Ven Marl Member and Belemnite Marl Member.
British Lower Jurassic Stratigraphy (JNCC GCR volume) and west Dorset coastal field guides.