A fossil hunter's paradise
It was the attraction of finding fossils, especially those of dinosaurs, which drew us to our Isle of Wight holiday cottage. The geological structure of the island makes it ideal for fossil hunting because the rocks on the island are like slices through geological time, going all the way back to the time of the dinosaurs.
The Isle of Wight is one of the best places in Europe for discovering dinosaur remains. 25 types of dinosaurs are thought to have lived on the area that is now the Isle of Wight, all from the earliest part of the Cretaceous period (145 – 65 million years ago).
Other fossils you can find include fossilised wood, fir cones, ammonites, lepidotus fish (lots of scales and teeth to be found), sharks teeth, crocodiles, turtles, reptiles, mammoths and even 115 million year old lobsters.
Anyone can find fossils on the beach – all you need is patience and knowledge of what can be found and where to look!
You can find out more by visiting:
They all have good local fossils on display and run guided fossil trips on the beach. Wight Coast Fossils also offer fossil trips.
Red Funnel have a downloadable “Guide to Dinosaurs & Fossil Hunting on the Isle of Wight“ and DinoWight is a great online resource.
There is an element of luck and patience to finding fossils. There are no ‘Hot spots’ littered with bones! Whale Chine can be good for very large ammonites (usually best after a cliff fall and can now only be accessed from the beach – keep an eye on the tides). Atherfield point has yielded several significant dinosaur finds and is also the location of the lobster beds. Many of our beaches are now difficult to access due to soil erosion and landslips so please be careful and check tide timetables and footpath closures.
At the end of January 2021 a giant humerus from a straight-tusked elephant or mammoth was found on Brighstone beach. And the remains of 2 types of 3 toed dinosaurs in the spinosaurid group have been recently identified from 55 bones discovered over a period of several years. The latest discovery, Brighstoneus simmondsi, was discovered by researchers amongst existing Isle of Wight Iguanodon bones within collections held at the Natural History Museum and Dinosaur Isle Museum.
Hanover point near Compton is probably the best location to find small parts of dinosaur and other prehistoric creatures – worn bones, vertebrae, and teeth etc. It is best to look amongst the shingle on the beach and in rock pools at low tide. At low tide it is also possible to see the three toed footprints of iguanodon on the exposed flat rock strata (probably best to be shown the first time – they can be hard to spot). Also at the base of the cliffs around Hanover are numerous ‘Foot casts’ – these are the solidified material which once filled the deep foot prints left by these massive creatures. Bone fragments near Hanover are generally black on outer surfaces with obvious speckled ‘honeycomb / aero chocolate bar’ internal cell structure. Other good locations are Hamstead (near Yarmouth) and Whitecliff Bay.
