IS IT BOLLOCKS?

Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.

Is Ammonite a relic, or are fossils that easy to find?

THIS MONTH AMMONITE Q

In Ammonite, Victorian palaeontologist Mary Anning finds numerous fossils in Lyme Regis. Can you really dig up dinos this easily?

A

JAMES WITTS

LECTURER IN PALAEONTOLOGY, SCHOOL OF EARTH SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL.

200 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, the UK was a lot closer to the equator and mostly covered by a warm, shallow sea – full of life, from giant marine reptiles like Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus to ammonites. Organic remains of animals and even plants that died on land and drifted out to sea were preserved in the mud and clay that accumulated on the seafloor, being buried and turned into rock over millions of years. Mary Anning was not only a great fossil hunter and preparator, but also one of the first people to become an expert at interpreting fossils from these rocks as the remains of organisms that lived together in an ancient ecosystem – a true pioneer.

While the chances of finding the spectacular skeletons of giant marine reptiles that made Mary Anning world-famous are probably low, thanks to coastal erosion, there are still a lot of great fossils to find at Lyme Regis and along the Jurassic Coast Tides. Hammering at the cliffs or places where lots of fossils are embedded in rocks exposed on the beach (like the famous ‘ammonite pavement’ at Lyme Regis) is unsafe, and in some places illegal. There are plenty of fossils to be found just by searching on the beach or looking at boulders that have fallen out of the cliffs. In this way, amateur fossil hunters can make significant discoveries. You don’t need anything more than a good pair of eyes and a bit of luck! VERDICT NOT BOLLOCKS Want us to investigate if a movie scenario is bollocks? Ask us at totalfilm@futurenet.com