Day 2: Yaverland

Yaverland

In day two of our LIVE week, we visited Yaverland, unfortunately for the second year running, the beach was covered up and so most of the best beds were obscure. However, apparently a recent cliff fall last week had yielded an Iguanodon Tooth to a lucky couple. Due to difficult tide times this week, there was limited time to examine this location. We didn't find much today, apart from a few shells, fish fragments etc. Alison did manage to find a sharks' fin spine, but this will need a lot of preparation before we can photograph it.

Day 6: Yaverland

Today, Alister and Alison decided to examine the Upper Greensand and chalk at Yaverland and Ian decided to visit Hamstead for a second time. During the first trip to Hamstead, the tide was too high and it made collecting difficult. Ian decided to get up VERY early (before 4.00am ) to catch the morning low tide at Hamstead. That's fine for a postman who's used to getting up at those times! But for those of us at UKGE and UK Fossils, the thought of getting up early after going out late in the night, the previous day was too much to even think about!

Therefore Alister and Alison took the easy option of re-visiting Yaverland. When they first arrived, it was clear that the recent change in wind direction to a South West direction had already started some scouring of the clays on the foreshore. Since this location is not affected so much as tides as other locations, and since you can see clearly to be able to keep an eye on the incoming tide, we could visit this at a more sensible time of 9.00am !

With scouring in progress, our first searching was on the foreshore. Here, beds of lignite could be seen in patches. We searched the areas of shingle which had now appeared and that was not present on our previous trip, and found nothing. We continued to search the clay with Lignite. Often, a sign of lignite indicates a bed of possible remains. This occurs frequently throughout various formations. Alister came across what appeared to be a bone, after careful examination it was part of a Dinosaur Bone. This was in the Wessex Formation.

The dinosaur bone will need preparation and preservation, and the photo below only shows the bone sticking out of the clay (and the top worn away by the sea.

After carefully cutting around the clay using a trowel, and wrapping it well, it was back to the car since the bone was fragile and walking further would have risked it breaking. Then back down to the beach again to examine the Greensand and chalk. There was little in the way of any finds. Fossils from the Upper Greensand are uncommon but oysters of Exogyra obliquata and Pycnodonte are quite common. Fossil worms can also be seen. Most of the fossils found at this end are from the Chalk. This is broken down into Glauconitic Marl, which appears directly after the Upper Greensand. Trace fossils can be found in this Marl . The Chalk Marl follows this and is full of the fossil sponge Exanthesis. This marl is also full of Bivalves of Pycnodonte, Inceramus, Plicatula and ammonites of Schloenbachia, Acanthoceras and Mantelliceras . Echinoids of Holaster can also be found and Brachiopods. The Grey Chalk which follows and the White Chalk Formation are also full of fossils, but the tide was coming in so this sequence was not examined.

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