Ammonite Fields Forever: from the Jurassic Coast to collecting on the beaches of North Yorkshire, England.
On February 20th, four club members – Marie Angkuw, Rhonda Gates, Deborah Lovely, and Andrew Young – will host a slide presentation on their March 2020 fossil-collecting adventure to North Yorkshire, England. Based in the historic harbor town of Whitby (where the famous Abbey ruins inspired Irish author Bram Stoker to write his 1897 Gothic horror novel, Dracula), they explored seven coastal localities over nine days. The area has sometimes been affectionately called "The Dinosaur Coast" for its 185-million-year-old fossils, including marine reptiles, belemnites, crustaceans, and ever-abundant ammonites. Whitby Jet, a precious form of lignite once popular in jewelry making, can also be found along the shoreline at low tide.
In recent years, ESCONI members have been on collecting trips to England’s southwestern Jurassic Coast where Mary Anning made her remarkable discoveries in the early 19th Century. This latest excursion was the first to the northeastern part of the country and the finds were amazing – “spanking good,” as the locals might say.
Rhonda Gates, Deborah Lovely, Marie Angkuw, and Andrew Young after a full day of collecting.
Tapping open ammonite concretions on the shore at Port Mulgrave.
A Hildoceras lusitanicum ammonite found by Rhonda Gates at the Sandsend cliffs and later prepared.
