King’s Dyke Pit fossils and fossil collecting

A pick and knife are very handy when looking in the clay, although, (mostly), all you really need is a good eye. Fossils are found either scattered on the surface or poking out of embankments and dykes. Fossils from King’s Dyke Pit can be placed in small containers and any fragile fossils, such as shells and ammonites, should be carefully wrapped in tissue (some of the ammonites are extremely fragile).

Other Locations similar to Kings Dyke

Other locations where fossils can be found in the Oxford Clay are, Grafham Water and Yaxley in the Cambridgeshire region, or in Dorset, try Weymouth, Bowleaze Cove. In North Scotland you can also try Brora which also has Oxford Clay. In Yorkshire, you can try Cayton Bay. Gristhorpe.

Both the working pit and disused 'special fossil hunting area' contain Oxford Clay, which is extremely rich in fossils. The most common find is the bivalve Gryphaea. Belemnites are also plentiful, including the most common large type, which is Hibolithes. You are also likely to find worm tubes, crinoids and ammonites (especially, Kosmoceras).

Reptile remains are surprisingly quite common here, with ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs being most commonly found. In fact, complete skeletons have been found in the past at the working site. Occasionally, crocodile remains (Steneosauraus) and sharks’ teeth also turn up.

The best area to search is the slopes were fossils have been washed out of the clay. And the best time to visit is after heavy rainfall, when the rain washes fossils down the slopes.

If you can visit the working pit with a geological society (such as the Stamford and District Geological Group), you will have a much higher chance of finding fossils and much better specimens.

Peterborough is famous for brick making and, at one time, had clay pits all around the city. Today, only a few remain open and one of them is the famous King’s Dyke Pit. The remaining pits have now closed and have naturally filled with water. Most of these have been turned into nature reserves, or walks. Some are currently being filled in, with new housing estates being, or have been, built in them.

It is the Oxford Clay that makes an excellent material for bricks. This clay also happens to be extremely rich in fossils. It has been reclassified and now falls within the Peterborough Formation. It is mainly brownish-grey, fissile, organic-rich (bituminous) mudstones, with a shelly fauna dominated by crushed aragonitic ammonites and bivalves. There are subordinate beds of pale-medium grey, blocky mudstone, with several bands of cement stone nodules/concretions. The basal beds are commonly silty, with shell beds rich in the bivalve, Gryphaea....[more]