Fossils and Geology of Durlston, Dorset. Fossil Collecting & Geological Guides

Fossils and Fossil Collecting in Durlston
Your Dorset Geological Guide and Geology Info

If you are interested in microfossils, tiny mammal remains, turtle shell fragments, crocodile skin fragments and fish remains, Durlston Bay is ideal. It is also a good location to take samples for wet sieving. Don't forget your field lens when visiting.

Durlston - Dorset
Last updated: [13/10/07] last visited 2006

Jurassic

Written by Alister and Alison Cruickshanks

(Durlston Bay Freshwater Mammal Beds) - 2004

Location Information

Durlston does yield many fossils, but most of these are very small and are for the fossil enthusiast rather than beginners.

(Not Suitable)

This location can have unpredictable time conditions, double tides frequently occur and the sea can be very powerful at this location. The foreshore is also very rocky and access is difficult to get on the beach, this location is not suitable for families or children.

Although there is a good car park, toilets and cafe at the top of the cliff, it is not only a long walk down to the shore, but there is no current official access down to the beach, access can only be made down a recent large landslide which can be very dangerous especially after heavy rain due to possible further subsidence.

Foreshore, Cliff

Most of the fossils can be found on the foreshore especially after storms but fossils are also commonly found in the cliff especially from the mammal bed, which is at the base of the cliff, so samples can easily be taken for analysing.

ACCESS
RIGHTS

This site is part of the Jurassic World Heritage Coastline. Please follow the
Fossil Code of Conduct.

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of the tide times should always be noted,. care should be especially taken at the two headlands. The sea nearly always hits the cliff here and reaches high levels, the rocks can be very slippery.

Care should also be taken of falling rocks and access down to the beach, landslips are always active here and the ground beneath could give way at any time.

Other locations similar to Durlston

If you enjoy Durlston, you could also try Hastings and Fairlight (Pett Level) in Sussex, both are very similar to Durlston.

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)

Microscopes

Test Sieves for Particle Analysis

Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.

Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.

These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.

Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.

We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.

We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.

Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.

High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements.

Fossils and Fossil Collecting in Durlston Your Dorset Geological Guide and Geology Info

Fossils and Fossil Collecting in Durlston
Your Dorset Geological Guide and Geology Info