Visitors from Surrey made a spectacular fossil discovery at Helwell Bay, near Watchet this Tuesday 15th August. Although large ammonites are often seen in the Jurassic shales and limestones exposed at Fossil Beach, this particular ammonite fossil, a type of arietitid, is relatively uncommon, especially in such a complete condition.
Unfortunately, the ammonite is very fragile and badly cracked and there was no practical way it could be extracted whole or in a reasonably good enough condition for it to go into a local museum for display. Geologists from Geckoella, who were leading a fossil walk from Watchet Visitor Centre that day, were on hand to properly record the find, its exact geological and geographical location and photograph it in situ so that the scientific and heritage information associated with the fossil is conserved.
The ammonite has fossil oysters attached to its surface showing that the shell had laid on the sea floor for some time before it was buried by the marine mud about 197 million years ago. Dr Andy King, Principal Geologist with Geckoella said: “We’d encourage people who find such impressive fossils on the beach not to try and hammer them out of the rocks themselves, but to leave them for others to see and enjoy. We’ve decided to leave this specimen exposed on the beach for everyone to admire, but eventually of course it will be naturally eroded away by the tides.”
“The visitors from Surrey were great, and they certainly appreciated their fossil find. They also commented how helpful it would be if a signboard on the way into Fossil Beach could explain more about the fossils on the site and how they could be safely collected without hammering the rocks. We agree absolutely and will be taking this idea up with various groups in the town”.
Large arietitid ammonite fossil at Fossil Beach, Helwell Bay. Its diameter is about 50 cm.
Carefully brushing away debris to view the Ammonite
