Hordes of visitors armed with shovels, chisels and rock picks are heading to the Jurassic Coast, all on the prowl for one thing – fossils.
The area stretches for 95 miles from Dorset to East Devon and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its fascinating geology and 185 million years of history.
Social media is shaping the fossil hunting scene, with accounts on TikTok amassing millions of views on videos of hobbyists uncovering impressive ammonites and other specimens.
Professional fossil hunter Martin Curtis explained how Instagram and TikTok have made the activity more difficult.
‘It’s really changed the scope of fossil hunting down here,’ he told The Guardian.
‘It’s now making it a lot harder because it’s introducing a lot more people to fossil hunting. I’ve been running walks here for 10 years now and the change [during that time] is quite significant.’
Social media is drawing more people into the fossil hunting hobby along the Jurassic Coast
One video, posted by @yorkshire.fossils, has 1.4 million views of an expert uncovering a specimen on the Jurrasic Coast
But with large crowds scouring the beaches, in places such as Charmouth, Lyme Regis and Kimmeridge Bay, fresh fossils aren’t being exposed fast enough to meet the demand.
‘The erosion rate is struggling to keep up with the amount of people on the beach, because of the conditions,’ Mr Curtis said.
When a new pile of material is revealed, the news is quickly shared on social media and it is soon picked over.
A recent video posted by @yorkshire.fossils, a TikTok account with more than 3.3 million followers, showed a hunt for intriguing specimens on the Jurassic Coast.
It has attracted 1.4 million views and thousands of comments in awe of the impressive finds he chisels out of rocks.
Another clip, posted by @sams.natural.habitat, has 20.4 million views and shows him discovering a rock containing a large ammonite on Charmouth Beach.
‘A lovely one the dog found the other day on the beach in Dorset. A few hours of prep today and it’s out to see the sunlight again for the first time in nearly 200 million years,’ the video caption reads.
Meanwhile @charmouth.fossils shared footage of a 160-million-year-old clam shell they found in Dorset.
Likewise, Instagram is also full of videos of fossil hunters showing off their finds and tips. One expert, @mikeharrisonfossils, shared a clip of ‘an amazing fossil’ discovered at Lyme Regis in Dorset.
He explained how the partial skull came from an ichthyosaur and penned: ‘It displays a great set of teeth in the partial upper and lower jaws.
‘Also part of the eye orbit and nostril. This ferocious predator terrorised everything it came across in the Jurassic sea some 195,000,000 years ago!’
@charmouth.fossils shared footage of a 160 million-year-old clam shell they found in Dorset
But professional fossil hunter Martin Curtis has warned ‘The erosion rate is struggling to keep up with the amount of people on the beach, because of the conditions’
While many may be picking up old rocks as a hobby, a mammoth money-making industry has formed around fossil hunting too.
The Guardian revealed a huge collection of 318 Jurassic fossils from Charmouth, Lyme Regis and other parts of the West Country were sold to a museum in Abu Dhabi by private collector Chris Moore.
The finds were originally offered to the Natural History Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru (Museum Wales) but neither could afford them. A source told the publication the price was ‘an eight-figure sum’.
But for novice fossil hunters jumping on the trend and hoping to find the next big exceptional specimen, there are guidelines and laws to follow.
The UK Fossil Collecting website outlines a code of conduct and advises people to plan their visit and come fully prepared with the correct equipment, understand the legal circumstances of their search, prioritise safety and protect any fossils they find.
It also urges people to record important data about the fossil while still on the site and report any significant finds.
Storing fossils carefully once home is important, and collectors are also advised to leave large specimens in place, as well as fossils they have already collected in large numbers from the same area.
