dinosaur & fossil hunting

There are several species of dinosaur for which virtually intact skeletons have been found on the Island. Under the Ornithischia order – consisting of herbivorous dinosaurs with a pelvic structure similar to that of birds – these fall either under the suborder Ornithopoda (“bird-footed”, bipedal herbivores) or the suborder Thyreophora (“shield-bearers”, armoured herbivorous dinosaurs). Under the Saurischia order – consisting of “reptile-hipped” dinosaurs – these dinosaurs fall under the suborders of Sauropodomorpha (“sauropodlike”, giant long-necked herbivores) or Theropoda (“beast foot”, bipedal carnivores). On top of these more intact skeletons, bones of many more dinosaur species have been found on the Island; do get in touch with the museum if you believe to have found a noteworthy item. Compton Bay and Brighstone Bay generally offer the best chances of finding dinosaur remains.

Pterosaurs are small, flying reptiles that existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period (228 to 66 million years ago). Remains of these flying vertebrates have been found on various occasions: in 2008, a five-year-old girl called Daisy Morris uncovered a fossil which Palaeontologists from the University of Southampton later identified as belonging to a 115-millionyears-old pterosaur, and in 2015, fossil enthusiast Will Thurbin found the world’s oldest example of a coloborhynchus – a type of pterosaur not previously found on the Island.

The early Oligocene beds at Hamstead and Yarmouth are known for yielding crocodile remains including teeth, jaws, vertebrae and skulls. In 2014, a new species of tiny crocodile was discovered when two different families who found part of a tiny skull and a snout, respectively. After reporting their finds to the Dinosaur Isle museum, scientific study showed the skull represented a formerly unknown species.

Bouldnor and Hamstead are excellent locations for finding relatively large turtle shell fragments of both the Trionyx and Emys species. A recent fossil discovery even uncovered a turtle the size of a small car, which is believed to have feasted on animals including crocodiles!

Various types of reptile remains can be uncovered amongst the fossil beds of Brighstone Bay, as well as in locations such as Yaverland, Sheperds Chine, Whale Chine and Brook Bay. In 2016, experts from the Dinosaur Isle museum identified the bone belonging to a Plesiosaur, a large predatory reptile that swam the seas in the Jurassic period, over 150 million years ago. The bone belonged to a juvenile reptile of only four metres long, but experts estimate that a fully-grown specimen would have grown to up to 10 metres in length.

Mammal fossils of Entelodon (pig-like animals), Bothriodon and Brachyodus (grazers), and Caenotherium (small and deer-like mammals) who lived 65 million to 2.58 million years ago are occasionally found around the foreshore in the middle of Hamstead and Yarmouth.

From the prehistoric times in which the grounds of the Isle of Wight were covered in swamps, ponds and rivers, a wealth of sea animal fossils remain. As you roam locations such as the Lobster Beds, the Crioceras Beds and the Perna Bed, you will find the petrified remains of underwater creatures such as oysters, fish, lobsters, ammonites, brachiopods, bivalves, sponges and crustaceans.