Folkestone is surely one of the top ten places to look for fossils in Britain. The variety of fossils that can be found there is truly staggering. For centuries geologists have visited Folkestone, mainly attracted by the beautiful Gault Clay ammonites that are so abundantly found along the beach. Aside from ammonites and other invertebrate fossils, a rich variety of vertebrates has been found, including rare dinosaur remains. There is no doubt an untapped potential for new and exciting discoveries at Folkestone.
Fossils of Folkestone, Kent aims to showcase the spectacular fossils that can be found at Folkestone in a series of 100 full colour plates, illustrating approximately 200 different species from the Chalk, Gault Clay, Lower Greensand and also the Pleistocene mammal fauna. It is designed as a user-friendly identification guide for anyone collecting fossils there and hopefully will encourage more people to collect there and report any new rare finds.
Lower Greensand plates 1 & 2: Trace Fossils
Lower Greensand plate 3: Brachiopods
Lower Greensand plate 4: Bivalves
Lower Greensand plate 5: Gastropods
Lower Greensand plates 6-9: Ammonites
Lower Greensand plate 9: Barnacles
Lower Greensand plate 10: Lobsters
Lower Greensand plate 11: Echinoderms
Lower Greensand plate 12: Fish
Lower Greensand plate 13: Dinosaurs
Gault plates 1 & 2: Trace Fossils
Gault plate 3: Corals
Gault plate 4: Bryozoans
Gault plate 5: Serpulids
Gault plate 6: Brachiopods
Gault plates 7 & 8: Bivalves
Gault plates 9-12: Gastropods
Gault plate 13: Scaphopods
Gault plate 14: Nautiloids
Gault plate 15: Belemnites
Gault plates 16-44: Ammonites
Gault plate 45: Crustaceans
Gault plate 46: Lobsters
Gault plates 47 & 48: Crabs
Gault plate 49: Echinoderms
Gault plate 50: Vertebrates – Sharks
Gault plate 51: Vertebrates – Chimaeroids
Gault plates 52-56: Vertebrates – Bony Fish
Gault plates 57-59: Vertebrates – Reptiles
Chalk plate 1: Sponges
Chalk plate 2: Coral & Serpulid
Chalk plate 3: Brachiopods
Chalk plates 4-7: Bivalves
Chalk plate 8: Gastropods
Chalk plates 9-13: Ammonites
Chalk plate 14: Crustaceans
Chalk plate 15: Echinoderms – Starfish
Chalk plate 16: Echinoderms – Sea Urchins
Chalk plates 17-20: Vertebrates – Fish
Chalk plate 21: Vertebrates – Reptiles
Pleistocene mammals plate 1 – Mammoth
Pleistocene mammals plates 2 & 3 – Woolly Rhino
Pleistocene mammals plate 4 – Red Deer
Pleistocene mammals plates 5 & 6 – Hippopotamus
Pleistocene mammals plate 7 – Auroch
Philip Hadland has been collecting fossils at Folkestone for around a decade and has been involved with curating various collections containing Folkestone specimens, including at Canterbury Museum, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and most recently he has been involved in establishing the new Folkestone Museum.
The book includes a foreword by well-known palaeontologist Dean R. Lomax, author of Dinosaurs of the British Isles and Fossils of the Whitby Coast.