WHY LYME REGIS

Lyme regis is a charming seaside resort on the South coast of England and is world famous for Jurassic fossils. These were derived from sea-creatures that lived about 200 millions of years ago when dinosaurs ruled the land.
The maritime fossils of Lyme Regis are released from unstable cliffs which form a backcloth to its beaches. The cliffs are grey and made up of sediments laid down in muddy Jurassic seas. The mud has hardened to form shale which is often interlaced with bands of pale limestone. This gives rise to the laminated pattern of the vertical base of the cliffs which makes up a formation called the Blue Lias.
Reefs of limestone belonging to the Blue Lias form the base of the sea shore and one them is studded with the fossilised shells of ammonites and is nicknamed "The Graveyard of Ammonites”. These were tentacled shell-fish related to octopuses and their kin. They went extinct about the same time as the dinosaurs, some 65 millions of years ago. Most of the fossils in limestone show as white impressions made up of calcite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate that has replaced the original shells. Other lines demarcate walls that separated air chambers within the shell. These walls crinkled up as they met the internal rim the shell giving rise to a pattern called sutures.

English folklore about the origin of ammonites is firmly centred on Whitby where tradition has it that Saint Hilda fashioned them out of snakes that infested her abbey. However, for the holiday-maker with a passing interest in fossils, Lyme Regis might have the edge on Whitby simply because of its warmer location! He would also be following the footsteps of Mary Anning (1799 -1847) perhaps the world's best known fossil hunter. Of humble origins, Mary was born in Lyme Regis where she spent her life collecting fossils which she then sold to the gentry. Her clients included the leading geologists of her day.

For the serious student of the Jurassic Period the beaches around Lyme Regis are a natural starting point because they were the subject of detailed research by William Dickson Lang (1878 -1966). His studies have never been surpassed and are superb examples of what can be achieved with a good pair of eyes and the judicious use of a geological hammer.