Wednesday 19 March 2014

Seadragon bones found while fossil hunting with school

The two seadragon or Ichthyosaur
bones are top  right in the photo.
I took a Bristol school fossil hunting yesterday. In ten years of doing these trips, I have seen the backbones of seadragons or Ichthyosaurs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Ichthyosaur) found only twice before (once by a teacher).

Yesterday, I found one while talking to one of the teachers (it was just there by my foot!), and then one of the girls suddenly showed me a fossil - it was another backbone of an Ichthyosaur! These sea-faring reptiles lived around Bristol 200 million years ago and lived in the warm, tropical seas that existed back then.


The backbone found by the pupil
They are rare to find here so something to shout about. Along with these the children found lots of different shelly fossils (oysters, spiky cockle-like shells, curly whirly shells), fossilised poo (coprolites), and tiny teeth from ancient fishes. 

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