GoFossilHunting

Jurassic · 201.4 – 145.0 Ma

Jurassic fossil sites

The Jurassic is the popular face of paleontology: Archaeopteryx, sauropod giants, abundant ammonites and belemnites, and the cliffs of the British Jurassic Coast. The period's marine sediments are especially fossiliferous and accessible.

An ichthyosaur skeleton laid out across a grey slab, ringed by golden Harpoceras ammonites
Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Jurassic is the period most people picture when they think of fossils. Pangaea broke apart, sea level rose, and shallow seas flooded much of Europe. Those seas laid down the clays and limestones that made Lyme Regis, Whitby, and Solnhofen famous. Dinosaurs dominated the land and reached very large sizes.

Ammonites are the signature fossil and the most useful one. They evolved quickly and spread widely, so a single species often marks a narrow slice of time. Belemnite guards, shaped like bullets, are equally common. Marine reptiles occur in the same clays, and ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs turn up as isolated vertebrae far more often than as skeletons.

Only the Cretaceous carries more entries than the Jurassic, which has fifty-three. Nine sit in the United Kingdom and four more in Germany. Twenty-two allow free collecting, the largest free-access group of any period here. The Dorset coast accounts for a substantial share, and its cliffs renew the supply with every storm.

53 fossil sites

Updated 4 August 2026

Life of the period

Three to know from the Jurassic

You will not find all of these yourself. They are the animals and plants that make the period worth reading about.

  • The Archaeopteryx fossil slab, showing the sprawled skeleton and the impressions of its feathers.
    Feathered linkArchaeopteryx

    Found in the Solnhofen limestone in 1861, two years after Darwin published. It has feathers and a wishbone like a bird, and teeth, a bony tail, and clawed fingers like a reptile. Few fossils have ever arrived at a better moment.

    Pescov, CC BY-SA 4.0

  • A large mounted ichthyosaur skeleton with a long toothed snout, displayed on a wall.
    Large-eyed ichthyosaurTemnodontosaurus

    Its eye sockets reach about 26 centimetres across, among the largest of any animal known. Eyes that size gather light at depth. Mary Anning found the first good skulls on the Dorset coast.

    Ghedoghedo, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • A full-size Stegosaurus model in a museum diorama, showing the double row of back plates.
    Plated dinosaurStegosaurus

    The plates are still argued over: display, heat exchange, or defence. The old idea of a second brain in the hips is wrong. That cavity held a structure also seen in birds, not a brain.

    Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

All Jurassic sites

Frequently asked questions

Where is the best Jurassic collecting in Britain?
The Dorset coast between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, and the Yorkshire coast around Whitby and Saltwick Bay. Both work the same way. Storms erode the cliffs, the sea sorts the debris, and you collect from the beach rather than the cliff face.
What is the difference between an ammonite and a nautilus?
Look at the suture lines where the internal walls meet the shell. Ammonite sutures are frilled and complex. Nautilus sutures are simple curves. The position of the siphuncle tube also differs, but the sutures are easier to see in the field.
Is it safe to collect under sea cliffs?
Only with care. Cliff falls kill people every few years on the Dorset and Yorkshire coasts. Stay well away from the cliff base, watch the tide, and collect from the open beach. Never dig into a cliff face.