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Fossils lost and found

Writer's picture: stevehomewood.comstevehomewood.com

Have you ever brought home an unusual looking stone from the beach? I have, and some are more than just stones, some are fossilised remains of creatures that lived there more than 50 million years ago. Every single flint pebble on the beach has fallen out of the chalk cliffs along the southern English coast and basically, is in fact the fossilised remains of rotten seaweed that settled on the bottom of an ancient sea in layers every few million years, along with long lost creatures such as Sea Urchins.

Let's go back a wee bit in time. 50,000,000 yrs is a long time for us bit in the vastness of time it's just a blip. What you are looking at in the photo below is a slice of the ocean floor that was pushed up and out of the water by earth quakes and tectonic plate movements as far away as The Himalaya's.

The bottom of this cliff is approx. 90 million years old and the top 50 million. The chalk is the remains of plankton that died and fell to the bottom of that primeval sea and as today's weather gradually erodes the cliff those lost fossils can be found. I'll show you some that I have bought home.


Here is a Scallop shell in chalk, two types of sea urchins in flint and an Ammonite in chalk. Let me show you some more urchins and a top tip you might like to try for display a collection...

So, let's look closely at the two urchins below.

Left is an example preserved in chalk and Right is one in Flint. The mail difference is that the one on the right has had its shell worn off by being accidently tumbled in amongst the other pebbles on the beach and the one on the left has been dug out of a fallen chalk block before the somewhat delicate 'shell' was destroyed by wave action. By the way, the pattern on the flint urchin is of course the pattern of the inside of the original shell.

There is something else interesting to see here, remember my grandads words;

"Don't just look at things, 'see' them"

What we are looking at here is the under sides of these two urchins. The holes at the top of both photos are the urchins mouths, At the bottom of the chalk example and the centre of the flint one are their 'bottoms'. ( Kids love this story ) So, what do we 'see' ?

The flint one has his bum closer to his mouth than the chalk one. These creatures were evolving from something similar to a starfish and over those millions of years, folded it's appendages in to become the urchins that exists today which accidentally drew it bottom closer to it's mouth. The flint example is the new kid in town, fallen from the top of the cliff, preserved approx. 50 million years go, the chalk fellow from the bottom of the cliff approx. 90 million yrs old.


My favourite type of sea urchin fossils are those partially preserved in the flint layers. Exactly what the flint layer is I'm not sure anyone truly knows but it can make great display pieces. on the left an example I found that had been in the inter-tidal area for a while and the outer shell had been worn off and the one on the right had freshly broken out of a block of chalk and flint in a rockfall with its shell 90% complete. If you prefer or want one of each in a display, there is a way to get that shell off.

And here's that same one after the magic trick.

Just leave it over night in a tupperware container in 80% acidity Vinegar - Acetic acid

Don't try this at home, please don't walk under the cliffs...and never take fossils from a SSSI or from it's original position in the rock face.

And, as my mother used to say; "Stop enjoying yourself"

Bye for now, Steve

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Oct' 2021

 I was invited by the Sussex group 'Greenhavens'  to have a stall at the their annual event in the Port of Newhaven to advertise my

guided natural history walks & talks and

to display some of the extraordinary

'Inside the wave view' photographs

that I took of the local Mackerel & Whitebait

migration/feeding frenzy... 

This one of a Mackerel (right) surfing the wave full of

Whitebait is my favourite. 

Christmas Eve 2021

 Volunteering  again for the Ouse and Adur Seatrout spawning watch team I was able to film a pair of these elusive fish spawning on the first day they were noted on my stretch, just before 'rain stopped play' and the river was in a spate again, thick with dirt runoff and the last chance of the year.

"Merry Christmas all"

 

 

                                                       CV 

( Natural History)

                                                        ---

1985 - My first Photo exhibition was in Shoreham by Sea.

 I was  highlighting the flora & fauna of a man made 'corridor'

The old railway line from Shoreham to Beeding cement works

   made a unique connection from the

South Downs chalkland habitat to the tidal estuary

adjacent to a SSSI shingle beach and brackish lagoon.

Consequently, I was invited by Adur District Council to form the

Adur District Conservation Society

and was voted chairman and task officer.

1987 - Having moved to the Cumbrian Lake District

I completed a course in Nature Conservation and Management

run by Newcastle University in Keswick.

-

After a second photo exhibition in Carlisle Museum on the colour variations of individual Adders on the Solway Peat Bogs,

I took a 'further education' course also via Newcastle university,

on Peat bog formation and Biodiversity

-

In the 1990's I hand reared and released Barn Owls into the wild.

The chicks were excess to requirements at the

Muncaster Castle Birds of Prey Centre.

I sourced, and was granted for the purpose,

a rough meadow habitat with

a healthy population of Short tailed voles

and an empty old barn and suitable owl nesting box

 by Lord Rochdale on his Lingholm  estate at Portinscale,

 on the western shore of Derwentwater, near Keswick.

-

2012 - I was invited by the South Devon Natural History Society to give a slideshow talk (my first of many),

on my lifetime's experiences nature watching.

I was introduced by wildlife artist and author, Michael Loates,

who subsequently became a good friend.

 'Mickie' kindly illustrated my book 'Source to Sea'

with his spectacular paintings

2013 - I was invited to take part in an Environment Agency

netting and recording species survey in the R. Adur

 back at Shoreham- by sea.

2014 - I became a volunteer Sea Trout spawning recorder for

The Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust in Sussex 

which increased my fascination for photographing life

underwater rather than fishing.

2015/6 - I set about studying the mysterious annual spectacle of

Thin Lipped Grey Mullet at Lewes in the R. Ouse,

filming them underwater with a camera on a boom.

This lead to an appearance on BBC SPRINGWATCH

that I nicknamed  'A Murmuration of Mullet'

It was an unrecorded phenomena and lead to a series of

slideshow talks in the adjacent Railway Land Nature Reserve,

  for which I was awarded a honorary lifetime membership.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wwztx?msclkid=8f8a7001affe11ecadcc60150fa0a72a

2017 -  I was asked by BBC RADIO SUSSEX to teach

roving reporter Simon Jenkins how to

catch a Mackerel, live on air.  I succeeded and was then asked to chat on air about my book 'Source to Sea' which was serialised over a week from the BBC in Brighton. I am regularly asked to join live chats on BBC stations all over the UK 

2018 - I was invited to stage a photo exhibition in Lewes

to highlight the natural History and views along the newly opened Egrets Way cycle and footpath along the River Ouse from 

Lewes to Newhaven

in the South Downs National Park

 

2019 - Walks & Talks were requested by many individuals,

groups and organisation on a variety of subjects;

 

 

2020 - Covid restriction came into force but as they relaxed I was one of the first to arrange Covid safe Walks & Talks

and was employed by Newhaven, Seaford and Lewes Councils and the Group; 'Love Our Ouse'

during  festivals to take groups

out on Tidemills beach on the subject of 'The Living Shoreline'

2021 - Commissioned by PhD student Esmeralda Pereira

at the Marine and Environmental Research Centre in Portugal

 to obtain genetic samples, via catch and release,

of British catadromous Thin-lipped Mullet Chelon ramada 

for studies of the migratory dynamic.

-

I was very pleased to have been accepted as a member of

The Tide Mills Project, between Newhaven and Seaford.               From the shoreline to the railway line, the Mill and accompanying buildings were abandoned and destroyed ahead of the expected invasion of German forces in WWII

I have been asked to be a natural history guide alongside the historians during the celebrations in September.

Funded by the Lottery Heritage and the Southdowns National Park

-

 Newhaven Town council invited me to do a series of 

'Reconnect to Nature' Walk & Talks

for the public during the whole of September and October 

as part of their Newhaven Festival

and

Brighton Council have also invited me to do similar

'The Living Shoreline'

as part of their October 2021

'Homeward Bound'  Festival

-----

 I was invited as after business speaker

at Railway Land Wildlife Trust Lewes

Sea Trout spawning in Sussex
The Living Shoreline - Newhaven
Southdowns National Park
Walks and Talks Subjects
Michael Strachan
Railway Lan Wildlife Trust Lewess
Mackerel and Whitebait in Sussex

2022

Film maker Jack Perks & Cameraman Ross Birnie asked for my help in making a piece for their project;  'Britains Hidden Fishes'

Twitter -  @RiverFishUk  @JackPerksPhoto 

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March 2022

I was invited to take 4 walks & talks via 'Visit Lewes' commissioned by Lewes District Council

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April 2022

I was invited by the Sussex group

'Fire and Wild'

to take regular Walks & Talks proceeding their fabulous 

woodland feasts of game,

foraged fruit, vegetables and herbs.

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    - - -

August 2022

 

Perhaps my most unusual walk & talk was actually a request to Paddle & Talk for a kayak club who nature watched from the water in the Cuckmere valley in the Southdowns National park

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Sept 2022

I was invited to take out 3 back to back

illustrated Walks & Talks

for the 'Love our Ouse'

Festival.

As ever, I design my own posters

and photo packs for participants

Dec' 2022 

 

I was asked to take a Walk & Talk for the public and to advise the developers on ecological impact, around and adjacent to the new Eco housing development at Lewes in the Southdowns National Park.

The Pheonix Human Nature project is something unique to this area and I'm extremely grateful to be able to contribute my local knowledge.

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Feb' 2023

I was asked, by the editor of 'The Lewesian' magazine Sally Edwards,

to be their resident monthly Nature notes writer. 1st article Mar' issue

     I have always wanted to do that.

   Thank you Sally

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July 2023

I have been given an additional monthly Foraging page in the Lewesian magazine.

---

After giving a talk on

Wildlife Gardening

at the

Royal Horticultural Society partner 

'Bates Green Garden'

Sussex

I have secured bookingd for

 Spring, Summer and Autumn

Walks & Talks

2024

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2024

I attended a course in Lewes run by Love our Ouse www.loveourouse.org

To become a volunteer

Citizen scientist/River guardian

 recording and reporting

on all elements of

condition and pollution of

 waterways in the River Ouse

system in Sussex

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