Try something new: palaeontology
Eve Ginn tells us about her new-found hobby of hunting for fossils and excavating dinosaur bones
‘I find it so exciting as you never know what you’re going to find as you peel back layer after layer’
For as long as she can remember, Eve Ginn has enjoyed day trips to the beach with one eye on the ground, looking out for some spectacular fossil find. But it was only when her own family were grown up and she’d retired from work that she decided to learn more about this interest she’d always had, when she spotted an advert on Facebook. The advert, from a small museum in Cambridgeshire called Fossils Galore, stated they were looking for volunteers to help excavate a 132-million-year-old dinosaur called an Iguanodon which had been recently found in a Surrey quarry.
Eager to help, Eve (76) wasted no time in volunteering and following an interview, was trained in the delicate and precise art of palaeontology. Once fully trained in how to excavate the fossils, she was then set up in a lab with other volunteers. Here she spends a couple of days a week using a scribe, a specialist tool, to gently etch away the layers around the skeleton to reveal the bones of the Iguanodon dinosaur underneath. “Myself and the other volunteers usually cut down to about half an inch around the bones and then the museum owner, Jamie Jordan, goes right down to the bone which is incredibly fragile work. “Some people think such work is tedious but I find it so exciting as you never know what you’re going to find as you peel back layer after layer,” says Eve. “So far I’ve uncovered vertebrae, some of which had teeth marks in, along with finger bones and limb bones. At the moment we’ve uncovered about a fifth of the skeleton so there’s still lots more work to do.”
As well as learning so much about our prehistoric past, Eve says one of the great joys of working on this project has been talking to the children who visit the museum about their work.
“I love seeing the children’s faces light up as we talk to them about dinosaurs and even give them the chance to touch the bones. As for my own family, it’s great to go home and tell them about what I’ve learnt and I’ve since had all of them – including the grandchildren – lying on beaches looking for shark’s teeth.”
When not working on the Iguanodon, Eve and the other volunteers at Fossils Galore also go on regular fossil-hunting trips to beaches and quarries. “I love the chance to spend time with people with the same interest as me,” says Eve. “My big ambition now is to one day find a woolly mammoth on one of these fossil finds!” she laughs. “Palaeontology has definitely enriched my retirement and I love that I’m learning something new all the time.”