Free Admission.

Open to all

Fossils are all around us. If you look in the gravel on a path, you can often find the fossils of oysters and belemnites – the remains of squid-like animals which lived in the tropical seas which covered the area which is now Peterborough. If you live near the coast, and where the rocks under your feet are chalk you are walking on billions of shells of tiny organisms which lived in an ancient sea.

Some places are famous for the fossils found there, Many of you know the story of Mary Annning and the amazing finds she made on the Dorset coast. What is less well known is that the largest ever collection of the great sea dragons of the Mesozoic, the plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and marine crocodiles comes from the brick pits in the area around Peterborough. Several can be seen in Peterborough Museum, including a wonderful specimen of a small plesiosaur called Cryptoclidus found and excavated by members of our Peterborough Geological and Palaeontological Group.

Every fossil is unique. It is the remains of an animal or plant which lived in the distant past. Each one represents a tiny slice of time – a few years, months, days,  hours, minutes or even seconds telling the story of an individual, how it lived and died. This talk is about some of those fossils and their stories.

If you come to the talk you will also get the chance to see some of the fossils the group has found. Some of them are a bit fragile and need special care when handled, but other can be touched and held. We even have a box of fossils from which you can chose some to take home with you.

This will be the first of a regular series of talks about fossils, geology and all that goes with it we are planning to hold each month at Flag Fen.