What fossils to find
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.
The beds are rich in microfossils, including some very rare small mammals,. forams and ostracods. You can take back samples for sieving at home, but you will need a microscope and sieve at 500 micron mesh.
Where to look for fossils
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. |
