Fossils from the United Kingdom

Some of the most well known sites in the UK are listed here.

The Aust Cliff, in Gloucestershire, is a classic Triassic site best known for its fish remains, marine reptiles, and occasional early dinosaur material. The site also marks the Triassic–Jurassic boundary and includes the so-called Rhaetic bone bed.

The Bracklesham Bay deposits, also Eocene, are rich in marine fossils — particularly gastropods, bivalves, fish vertebrae, and shark teeth. The beach is still popular with amateur collectors.

On the Isle of Wight, the Wessex Formation preserves terrestrial ecosystems from the Early Cretaceous. It’s rich in dinosaur remains, including iguanodontians, theropods, and sauropods, as well as plant fossils and vertebrate trackways.

Lyme Regis and Charmouth, located on the famous Jurassic Coast in Dorset, are the most famous localities on the World Heritage-listed coastline. These sites are best known for their marine reptiles, ammonites, and the legacy of Mary Anning, who collected many of the first scientifically described ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

The London Clay is Eocene in age and found across southeast England. It preserves a subtropical marine ecosystem with a wide variety of molluscs, sharks, fish, and plant material. Warden Point, on the Isle of Sheppey, is particularly well known for its nodules containing fossil crabs and seeds.

The Limestone Coal Formation, part of the Clackmannan Group, has yielded Carboniferous fossils of plants, amphibians, and invertebrates. It represents swampy, coal-forming environments that were once widespread across the UK.

The Oxford Clay, found widely in southern England, dates to the Jurassic and is especially famous for its marine reptiles — including ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pliosaurs — as well as ammonites and other invertebrates. Some excellent fossil material has come from Peterborough and other clay pits.

The Rhynie Chert, in Scotland, is one of the oldest and most remarkable fossil sites in the UK. Dating to the Early Devonian, it preserves an ancient terrestrial ecosystem in fine silica, including early land plants, fungi, and arthropods — some of the earliest examples of life on land, preserved with cellular-level detail.

Further north, Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay, on the Yorkshire coast, are well known for their Jurassic ammonites, belemnites, marine reptiles, and the dark shales which preserve plant material and pyritised fossils. The black ‘Jet’ found here is a form of petrified wood, becoming coal.

The Wrens Nest, near Dudley in the West Midlands, is a well-known Silurian reef site, with beautifully preserved corals, trilobites, and brachiopods. It’s an important location for understanding early marine ecosystems and is accessible to the public.

Finally, West Runton, in Norfolk, is Britain’s most famous Quaternary site. It has produced remains of the West Runton mammoth (a very complete Steppe Mammoth) along with other Ice Age fauna and associated sediments. The Norfolk coast generally has good exposures of Pleistocene and Holocene material, including marine molluscs and vertebrate remains.

The UK’s fossil sites are historically important and scientifically rich, offering a wide range of marine and terrestrial material across nearly the full span of the Phanerozoic. Many are still active collecting areas and continue to contribute to palaeontology today.

United Kingdom