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The Etches Collection

@tec_kimmeridge

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Modern museum & centre for learning in Kimmeridge housing amazing marine fossils that tell the story of life & death in Dorset’s Jurassic seas….

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Look where Steve is! Thats right, we have been back on the cliff to rescue some more of the one and only Sea Rex. Erosion is rapid, and we are doing our best to rescue what we can while we continue to fundraise for our major excavation. More news to come....Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/searex by @tec_kimmeridge

K455 is Camptonectes morini, an extinct scallop that lived in the Jurassic seas. It belonged to the pectinids, the same broad group of bivalves that includes modern scallops.

Scallops are unusual among bivalves because they are capable of swimming. By rapidly opening and closing their valves, they can force water through the shell and propel themselves through the water. This gives them a very different lifestyle from many other bivalves, which remain attached to the seabed or burrow into sediment.

The shell of Camptonectes records the hard parts of an animal that would have lived on the Jurassic seafloor, alongside ammonites, crustaceans, fish and marine reptiles.

K455 was collected in Dorset in 1988. by @tec_kimmeridge

K1634 is a coprolite, a fossilised piece of faeces, and it contains the remains of an Aspidorhynchus fish. Preserved within it are vertebrae and scales, giving us a rather unusual glimpse into what was being eaten in the Jurassic seas.

Aspidorhynchus was a long-bodied, predatory fish with a distinctive elongated snout and sharp teeth. The genus lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and fossils are known from marine deposits across Europe and beyond.

Finding the remains of a fish inside a coprolite gives palaeontologists a direct clue about ancient food webs. The bones and scales survived the digestive process and were preserved within the faecal material. We cannot necessarily tell which animal produced the coprolite, but we can see what it had been eating.

K1634 was collected in Dorset, November 2003. by @tec_kimmeridge

One of the questions we hear most is, "Is Big Sara real?"

She certainly is, but like most dinosaurs, she isn't completely preserved.

Around 70% of the skeleton is genuine fossil bone, making Big Sara an exceptionally complete Allosaurus. Many dinosaur species are known from just a handful of bones, and complete skeletons are incredibly rare.

Where bones were missing, palaeontologists carefully reconstructed them using other Allosaurus specimens, allowing us to see the animal as it would have looked in life.

The real challenge is spotting where the fossil ends... and the reconstruction begins. Even palaeontologists have to look closely.

📚 Further Reading

Madsen, J.H. Jr. (1976). Allosaurus fragilis: A Revised Osteology. Utah Geological and Mineral Survey Bulletin 109.

#Allosaurus #dinosaurs #bigsara by @tec_kimmeridge

Book of the Week:

DK Ocean: The Definitive Visual Guide

This wonderfully illustrated book, introduced by Fabien Cousteau, the son of famous French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, tells the story of the oceans of our world. With a wide range of topics, from ocean life to ocean geology, this is a book for all ages and interests. This book is jampacked full of information with some amazing photographs and diagrams to help explain the complex ecosystems that live in our oceans today!

Our particular favourite part of this book is the section on the Nautilus. One of the only cephalopods ‘with an external shell that protects them from predation’ when swimming in the open waters of the Indo-Pacific. We love learning about the Nautilus, and have our very own on display in the museum!

https://www.theetchescollectionshop.org/products/dk-ocean-the-definitive-visual-guide?_pos=1&_sid=4fc87124a&_ss=r by @tec_kimmeridge

It’s time for a new entry into our weekly ‘Design-o-Saur’ gallery; this week, we have this fabulous design! #art #dinosaurs #drawings

Don’t forget to check out our "Design-o-Saur" wall at the museum. by @tec_kimmeridge

K212 is a cervical vertebra from Pliosaurus, one of the large marine predators that lived in the Jurassic seas. Cervical vertebrae are the bones of the neck, forming the connection between the skull and the rest of the vertebral column.

In a pliosaur, the neck was relatively short compared with the enormous head and powerful body. The vertebrae had to support the weight of the skull while also allowing the animal to move its head as it hunted. Pliosaurus had a huge skull armed with large teeth, making it one of the top predators in the Jurassic marine ecosystem.

Although a single vertebra may not look as dramatic as a skull or tooth, its shape and structure form part of the evidence palaeontologists use to understand the anatomy of these enormous marine reptiles.

K212 was collected in Wiltshire in 1985. by @tec_kimmeridge

K461 contains a tooth and several bones belonging to Geosaurus, a marine crocodile relative that lived in the Jurassic seas. Unlike modern crocodiles, Geosaurus was fully adapted to life in the ocean, with a streamlined body and limbs modified for swimming.

Its teeth were also highly specialised. Geosaurus had laterally compressed, blade-like teeth with fine serrations along their edges. Rather than simply gripping prey, these teeth were suited to cutting through flesh, helping Geosaurus take on other marine animals.

The specimen includes a tooth, three vertebrae, part of a neural arch and other bones. It was originally identified as Dakosaurus, but our understanding of these Jurassic marine crocodiles has changed as their anatomy and relationships have been studied in more detail. K461 is now considered to belong to Geosaurus.

K461 was collected in Dorset, November 1988. by @tec_kimmeridge

Believe it or not, palaeontologists haven't always got dinosaurs right.

Early dinosaur reconstructions included upside-down skulls, tails dragging on the ground, and one famous animal that was accidentally given a thumb spike on its nose!

Today, scientists compare skeletons, study muscle attachments and examine living relatives like birds and crocodiles to work out where each bone belongs.

Turns out, building a dinosaur is a bit easier when you've learnt from 200 years of mistakes.

📚 Further Reading

Gilmore, C.W. (1920). Osteology of the Carnivorous Dinosauria in the United States National Museum, with Special Reference to the Genera Antrodemus (Allosaurus) and Ceratosaurus. United States National Museum Bulletin 110.

#dinosaurs #allosaurus #bigsara by @tec_kimmeridge

Book of the Week:

Frozen in Time: Fossils of Great Britain and Where to Find Them by Rhys Charles

In this fantastically written book by the Natural History Museum, Rhys Charles takes us on a tour of Great Britain, mapping out fossil hunting spots by region. The book opens with a geological timeline, to assist us with framing the context for the age of fossils found around Britain. Our world famous Jurassic Coast features its own section within this book, particular attention is given to Lyme Regis and Charmouth, naturally with the famous story of Mary Anning. Rhys states that the Jurassic Coast is so rich in fossils, like the neighbouring Isle of Wight, that it warranted its own chapter. Rhys further explains that both the Jurassic Coast and the Isle of Wight combine a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions to form fossils; which is, a ‘shallow marine environment swarming with life, with a modern coastline that ensures maximum exposure of the fossil-bearing rocks.’

When reading this book in the museum, we were delighted to read that we feature! When reading, you can learn about the famous Kimmeridge oil shale and the establishment of the ‘nodding donkey’, and Rhys discusses the famous examples of fossils that have been found and collected by our very own Steve Etches, where he displays them at The Etches Collection!

https://www.theetchescollectionshop.org/products/frozen-in-time-fossils-of-great-britain-and-where-to-find-them?_pos=1&_sid=54b0a47cf&_ss=r by @tec_kimmeridge

Join us October 24th when palaeontologist Megan Jacobs will be exploring the Isle of Wight in her new talk "Buried Secrets: Unearthing the Isle of Wight's Prehistoric Past"

The Isle of Wight is Britain’s dinosaur capital, a landscape where cliffs and beaches reveal a lost world beneath our feet. While dinosaurs once dominated this ancient landscape, they are only a small part of a much bigger story.

The island’s coastlines preserve around 130 million years of Earth’s history, recording changing climates, vanished seas, and extraordinary ecosystems, yielding a remarkable fossil record including dinosaurs and fossils found nowhere else on Earth!

Tickets available now!

Tickets: £6.00 per person (adults and children).
Talk starts at 6pm - Please arrive from 5pm to enjoy a glass of bubbles, chat with the museum team, meet the speaker and purchase snacks and merchandise.

https://www.theetchescollectionshop.org/collections/gift-vouchers/products/buried-secrets-with-megan-jacobs by @tec_kimmeridge

Designed by Ariana, aged 11

Bright, colourful and completely unforgettable — this is Rainbowsaurus!

This 10-metre-long meat eater has a very special ability. It has rainbow powers. Which we suspect would be used to ward off bigger predatory marine reptiles. by @tec_kimmeridge