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Good weather is bad for fossil hunting !

It is strange that most people wish to go fossil hunting when the weather is good warm and sunny but this probably the worst time to go. So many people on the beach with very little movement in the cliffs and competition from the number of visitors.

The ideal weather is rain (lots of rain) stormy seas and very high tides. The cliffs contain the fossils to be found on the beach and the cliffs need storms and rain to crumble. The fossils found on the beach continually fall from the Jurassic cliffs. The Jurassic cliffs at Lyme Regis and Charmouth erode at a very fast rate.

Four year ago an archaeological dig was conducted on the top of Golden Cap (the highest point on the south coast of England). At the summit of Golden Cap (192m above sea level) was a neolithic burial mound which was about to go over the edge and permission was give to excavate this ancient feature. The archaeaologist who conducted the dig estimated that during the Roman period of Britain’s occupation (AD 43 to AD 410) Golden Cap extended out into the sea by a further 3 miles……………….

Peter Langham in his workshop
at Charmouth

Charmouth Fossil Hunter Peter Langham. 

In a small cottage on the outskirts of Charmouth, lives local palaeontologist Peter Langham.
Peter is a leading fossil hunter and has been collecting and cleaning Jurassic fossils for over
50 years. His knowledge of and his fossils finds are startling. In the basement of his cottage
is a studio workshop. At this well equipped studio and on every spare surface can be found
fossils and rocks awaiting the methodical and skilled cleaning undertaken by Peter. Each
fossil is laboriously chiselled out of the matrix of hard limestone. The fine details of the fossil
are carefully exposed by the use of tiny air chisels. A large fossil, such as an ichthyosaur, can
take months of careful work and will sometimes need acid etching, to improve the definition
of the find.

A collection of local Dorset ammonites
“Stephanoceras & Parkinsonia,
all cleaned and prepped by Peter

Peter is a dedicated and active fossil hunter. Included among his major discoveries are
several new species to science:

Ichthyosaur: (Kimmerosaurus lanhami)
Dinosaur: (Stokesisaurus langhami)
Dinosaur: (scelidosaurus). A plant eating dinosaur. The complete fossil was found on Black Ven and is an anomaly, as it is a terrestrial dinosaur, (which resembled a hippopotamus) found in a marine environment.

One of Peter’s best finds was a 2 meter long ichthyosaur, found in the ledges below the cliffs
of Black Ven, at Charmouth. This was a unique fossil and one which has a complete
embryo. The ichthyosaur is now on public display at Bristol City Museum.

A cleaned and prepared collection of fossils
found in this large nodule. Ammonites-Belemnites 

Peter is a leading restorer and cleaner of fossils and has undertaken work for many of the
leading museums and collectors. In addition, Peter is a dealer and supplies to both
collectors and leading fossil retail establishments in many countries.