Durlston fossils and fossil collecting

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.

Towards the middle of Durlston Bay, the Mammal Bed reaches the foreshore, this bed can be seen sandwiched between two hard limestone layers. There is a thin black layer, followed by a gray layer, then a very think second black layer and a lighter grey resting on top of the lower limestone.

Mammal remains can be found within the harder limestone, but these are much rarer, it is easier to search through the shale.

The bed can be easily recognised by the colour and the number of freshwater shells present. The beds suddenly dip in the middle of Durlston Bay and run for a while along the foreshore, this is the point at which the mammal bed reaches the floor.

To the west side of Durlston Bay, mammal remains are more common within the hard limestone rocks on the foreshore. Sharks Fish remains can also be found along with crustaceans and reptiles.....[more]

The top beds at Durlston are from the Purbeck, large boulders can be seen all over the foreshore. These are the Marble Beds and these dig at Peveril Point. At this point, the Broken Shell Limestone can often be seen on the foreshore. This is a hard, massive limestone with fragments of fish and turtles along with Neomiodon, Viviparus and Unio. This bed forms part of the Cypridea setina bed and continues at the Hotel Grosvenor. Below the Broken Shell Bed, the Middle Purbeck Chief Beds, there is approximately 8 meters of this bed, limestone's separated by shale. The first meter of this bed is full of gastropods of Promathildia, Hydrobia and Procerithium. The Scallop beds follow this.

Below the Chief and Scallop beds follows the Intermarine Beds, these are over 15m thick and include many limestone's and thinner alternating shale. The Shale yields fish and turtle remains. Below this, the Cinder bed forms the base of the Durlston Formation, full of oyster shells and bivalves. Below this, the Cherty Freshwater beds from the Lulworth formation yields many gastropods and beneath this the Marly Freshwater beds mark the location for the Mammal Bed. This freshwater bed which is 4m thick is full of gastropods of Valvata and Hydrobia, the mammal bed is in the middle of this section where turtle crocodile and fish remains can be found. Insects have also been recorded. The Soft Cockle Bed follows, there is some 22m of this bed with a large amount of Gypsum. The Hard cockle Bed follows, 4m of this, cockles here and tightly compacted. ...[more]

Marly Freshwater Bed

Within the dark banded freshwater mammal shale beds, Fragments of bone are common, compacted within the soft black and grey layers. Fragments of Crocodile, Fish and Turtle are very common, other mammals can also be found here. The bones are extremely fragile, it is best to keep them within the shale and preserve at home. An ideal way to collect here is to take several bags home and wet sieve. Small teeth can also be found, but make sure you sieve at 0.5mm since many of the teeth will fall through anything wider than this mesh.

At the west side of Durlston Bay, the hard limestone rocks yield crocodile, turtle, mammal, fish and reptile remains and occasional crustaceans. Although less common than the freshwater shale's, fossils within the limestone are much more well preserved. Fossils also tend to be more complete and less fragmented....[more]

Large 6cm Crocodile Tooth....[more]

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