Visiting for one week only, a real Dinosaur footprint fossil and an impressive ammonite!

This amazing specimen is an example of an Iguanodon footprint, preserved in mud, then rock: Extracted from Pett Level Near Hastings. It is from the Wealden, Lower Cretaceous period and is approx 125 million years old, It is an ‘outie’ meaning that it is the sediment that infilled a dinosaur footprint. When the layers of rock split this came out of the ‘innie’ or the mould.

The ammonite is called Acanthoceras. It is from the Cretaceous Lower Chalk (from the time of the dinosaurs) and is approx 95 million years old. Found near Samphire Hoe, near Dover. It is big but by no means the biggest that can be found there!

Students will have a week to come to Mrs Shimmin’s office and view these amazing specimens. Learning how fossils are formed is part of the GCSE Biology course, and seeing these specimens helps our students better understand the content. But, they also serve as a wonderful reminder of our small place in the Geographical timeline of life.

Mrs L Shimmin,  Assistant Headteacher – Head of KS4