Giant Ammonite

Steve took a day off from running a sea kayak trip on the Dorset coast to go on a fossil hunting walk among the Jurassic rocks of this world heritage site.  Starting at Lyme Regis we soon found ourselves with plenty to look at including giant ammonites, corals and crinoids.  The Jurassic period lasted from approximately 200 to 145 million years ago and followed the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period.  The sedimentary rocks along England’s south coast have captured and  fossilised the remains of the abundance of creatures as they fell to the sea bed and were covered in silt.  The rock this later formed and which was raised by tectonic movement, has provided a palaeontologist’s delight charting the recovery of marine life following this 4th extinction event.  This was most likely caused by an increase in atmospheric CO2 over an 18 million year period as a result of much increased volcanic activity; it contrasts markedly with the current, incredibly rapid rise in CO2 which is driving the present human-induced climate emergency and 6th mass extinction.