Day 3 - Friday

Today we are joined on site by Owen – a palaeontologist and primary school teacher – who is keen to help with splitting the rocks, and crucially also has the knowledge and experience to know whether the rocks he splits contain anything of interest.

We also have another Emily with us today – this Emily is still at school, but has been involved in digs with Nev for over a decade and is interested in pursuing a career in palaeontology in the future. In order to give her the broadest possible experience she is put to work on all areas of the dig – picking nodules from the mechanical excavation, field walking, scrubbing and splitting rocks, documentation and David also takes the time to explain his extraordinary sieving and washing machine to her. He believes he will have processed around 200kg of sediment by the time we leave site.

We find more bits of ammonite and several bivalves, more blocks of ‘fish debris’, and a few more small fossil fish today – interestingly we’re finding more heads than bodies which leads to speculation about whether we’re seeing the remains of a larger creature’s lunch! Then, just after our lunch break, a cheer goes up from those splitting rocks up on the bank. Nev has split a rock containing an absolutely beautiful fossilised fish. The level of preservation is astonishing – scales, bones, fins and even the eyeball is visible – and there is a suggestion that under a microscope it is possible there will even be some evidence of the creature’s stomach contents when it died. The stone splitters continue their work with a noticeable upturn in enthusiasm and energy – everyone is hoping there are more fish to come.

NEv’s Fossil fish (C) Dean Lomax

By the end of the day we’re about 65 metres along the bank, but no more star finds have been made – still, tomorrow is another day and we’re all holding out hope for more substantial remains.

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer