Fossil hunting: Hastings, East Sussex
Location: Hastings coast (Rock-a-Nore, Ecclesbourne Glen, Fairlight Glen), East Sussex, England
Formation: Ashdown formation
Age: Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian-Valanginian)
Grid ref: 50.85773°N, 0.60345°E
Status: SSSI (Site of Significant Scientific Interest)
As we all know, 2020 was the year when nothing much happened... So, with so much not happening around the world I decided to cancel my holiday in the south of France in favour of a few days on the English south coast.
I have been eager to get down to the beaches near Hastings ever since a description of abundant ichnofossils was published amongst a media flurry back in 2018. In their paper (published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology), University of Cambridge researchers Anthony Shillito and Neil Davis gave tantalising descriptions of dinosaur trackways which had been made in a muddy wetland environment: perfect for preserving the animals' footprints in beautiful detail!
So, I grabbed my geo-hammer & chisel and my bucket & spade and headed for the beach...
Prepping
I began by educating myself on the geography and palaeogeography of the site. I then marked on the map roughly where I thought I would need to spend most of my time if I was to maximise my chances of spotting anything interesting.
I happened to be heading out on two of the hottest days of the year, so I factored hefty water and sun protection into my load for the day. This meant I had to split out my camera equipment over the two days, with Day 1 earmarked for fossil hunting and research and Day 2 for photography. This meant I could take a lighter 50mm lens on Day 1 along with my hammer & chisel.
I noted the tide times on my phone to catch the tide at it's lowest when I was at the farthest distance from the entry/exit point at Rock-a-Nore. This is one of those details that can be easy to forget when you're eagerly hopping over rocks looking for dinosaur bits, but getting stranded on a boulder by the encroaching tide with a pack full of expensive camera equipment is a humiliation I would rather avoid.
I arrived in Hastings a day early with just enough time to come down and view the beach at high tide; this was useful as it gave me a chance to get a feel for the terrain and practice scrabbling over boulders without a heavy weight on my back. I also got to see just how far up the beach the waters would encroach if I were to become stranded.
I did not have to wander far to spot intriguing impressions in the boulders that line the cliffs:
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| Fig. 1: Not entirely sure what this was, but it looked cool enough to take a picture. |
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| Fig. 2: Many rocks on the beach have interesting little "bits" poking out of them |
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| Fig. 3: Possibly plant material...? It looks similar to a modern-day teasel |
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| Fig. 4: These orange striations were abundant along the westerly portion of the beach. |
If this was all lying just a few feet from the entry point, I should be in for a plentiful hunt!
Day 1
I started out from the entry/exit point at Rock-a-Nore, heading east up the beach. It was tempting to stop and investigate every now and then, but I had a schedule to keep: my plan was to strike out for Ecclesbourne Glen, where a waterfall trickles down the cliff. From there I could start getting my eye in for fossils, but the plan was to cover as much ground eastward as possible before lowest tide and then I could take my time a bit more on the return journey. By ten o'clock the sun was already unpleasantly hot to work in, so energy conservation was crucial.
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| Fig. 5: A waterfall cuts through the rocks at Ecclesbourne Glen. |
Having passed Ecclesbourne Glen, I started to cast my eye around and felt a happy flutter as dainty trace marks became visible on a nearby slab. The largest of these was no larger than 5cm long and all looked to be a mix of gracile ornithopods and both tridactyl and didactyl theropods.
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| Fig. 6: A number of tracks from various taxa. Poor preservation makes many traces hard to identify |
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| Fig. 7: Spotted this lovely trace marking as I rested to take my first water-stop of the day. I think it's the marks left by the radulae of a mollusc as it ate it's way around the algae? |
Only a few feet further up the beach I found an exquisite slab with the impressions of water ripples and two ornithopod tracks.
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| Fig. 8: Possible ornithopod prints in association with water ripples. |
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| Fig. 9: Detail of Ornithopod track in association with water ripple impressions |
From there on in, it just kept getting better, as dinosaur material of all shapes and sizes became visible as I made my way east, toward Fairlight Glen.
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| Fig. 10: Theropod tooth with clear carinae & denticle impressions. |
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| Fig. 11: Sauropod tracks in association with gracile ornithopod and possibly some thyreophora? |
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| Fig. 12: Ornithopod pes imprint. The shiny black charcoal in the bottom left of the image is prevalent all around the site. |
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| Fig. 13: I have to admit, I still have no idea what this is. It was found in association with the impression in the image below. The smoothness and grain suggested bone material, but I can't be sure. |
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| Fig. 14: Impression found in association with Fig. 13 |
(A word to the wise: the beach at Fairlight Glen is a nudist beach and this just so happened to be the most productive spot I found for fossils! While I was there the beach was almost deserted, but if you do go there, please bear this fact in mind and be respectful of other beach users.)
In the end, I didn't manage to make it as far as Lee Ness, largely because I was running out of water and I could feel my skin burning despite repeated application of sun cream. So I was forced to turn back early. I frantically scribbled notes on the locations of fossils I spotted on the route back, in the hope that I could locate them the next day to document them in more detail.
Day 2
With a later low tide, I aimed to cover some more ground eastwards on my last day despite the sun being no harsher than it had been on the previous day. However, I planned to make fewer stops along the way and conserved energy by moving along the boulders; avoiding trudging through heavy shingle as much as possible.
My first stop was at Ecclesbourne again, where I had found some sizeable (if somewhat wonky) ornithopod footprints the previous day. The location was a challenging mix of jutting boulders and rocky slabs covered with a viscous slurry from the waterfall (at that point just a steady trickle down the cliffs, although I expect it can get quite fearsome in wet weather). This made setting up the tripod rather difficult, but I managed to get a few half-decent shots for posterity.
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| Fig. 15: Large Iguanodontid prints are abundant in the area immediately around the waterfall at Ecclesbourne. |
As I made my way eastwards I stopped to take better photos of tracks I'd found on the previous day. Along the way I made a few new discoveries, including two particularly beautiful examples of tridactyl impressions; one set in a large sandstone boulder near the waterfall and another further eastwards right in the middle of a big, square mudstone slab sunk into the shingle.
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| Fig. 16: Tridactyl prints in sandstone, located just westwards of Ecclesbourne Glen. |
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| Fig. 17: A cleft in the rock has caused some deformation of the leading footprint |
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| Fig. 18: Detail of following footprint, showing possible ungual/claw impressions. |
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| Fig. 19: Tridactyl footprint in mudstone slab just east of Fairlight Glen, found in association with indeterminate prints. |
My first instinct was that these were theropod impressions, based on the slenderness of the digits and the length of digit III compared to digit II (with digit IV partially missing from the mudstone specimen it was difficult to calculate exact dimensions), but the absence of clear pad or claw impressions meant these could be Iguanodontid.
Upon arriving home, I did some research to see if there was some method that might help identify my mystery ichnotaxa. Help came in a 2016 paper by J. Lockwood, in which the author cites a number of ways to tell theropod footprints from ornithopod. This arsenal includes a handy rule cited from a previous study, which dictates that if the length: width ratio of a dinosaur footprint is >1.25 there is an 80% chance that it's a theropod fossil.
My estimated length:width ratio of the sandstone prints came out at 0.86 and 0.87, indicating that these are very probably ornithopod in origin.
Estimated length:width ratio of the mudstone print came out at 1.13, placing it squarely in the "probably ornithopod, but not quite sure" bracket.
Measurements for other ornithopod prints I did feel confident in identifying (e.g. Fig. 15) came out at <1, very much in the expected range.
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| Fig. 20: This Iguanodontid print is roughly as wide as it is long, giving a length:width ratio of 1 |
Lockwood concedes in his study that theropod and ornithopod tracks are just generally very similar, so there will often be a degree of uncertainty with many fossils. In addition to this, the morphometric traits listed don't always scale as you might expect them to and varying quality of preservation make many tracks hard to diagnose, even with the methods cited.
I continued eastward to a point where the recent rockfall spread out over the beach, forming a spit extending out into the sea. I wanted to press on at this point, but the heat was making progress hard going and I was aware of a blister troubling my left foot, so once again I was forced to turn back.
I was unable to find any fossils in amongst the large, chalky boulders on this portion of the beach, so I made a mental note to come back another time when the English weather was more its usual self (i.e. cool and cloudy) to explore further. By this point, my thoughts were turning to a light lunch and a tall, cold pint of cider...
On my way back westwards I managed to find the rock with the footprints I had taken a picture of on Day 1 (Figs. 8 & 9). However, the surface was now so encrusted with sea salt baked dry by the searing heat that the prints were by now sadly indiscernible. Had I not spotted them yesterday, I would have walked right past the rock today and never know that they were there.
I took note that this was a lesson to take even poor pictures whenever you can, as you never know what the environment may do in your absence, even overnight! It is easy to think that fossils are immutable things, but rock itself changes constantly, especially in coastal regions where uncovered cliffs are blasted daily by wind, rain, sun and sea.
I paused again near Ecclesbourne to take shots of a lovely conglomeration of small ornithopod and theropod tracks. These were also showing signs of the elements, with salt densely encrusting the rock. However, because these impressions were deeper, the salt crystals that had formed in them clung to the silhouettes in glorious shards, making them even more striking. Nature gives, just as it takes away!
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| Fig. 21: Trackway of gracile ornithopod and possibly some theropod dinosaurs, encrusted with sea salt. |
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| Fig 22: Detail showing ornithopod footprint alongside indeterminate traces. |
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| Fig. 23: Distinctive shards of salt crystals transform fossils into exquisite art. |
Reflections
The beaches at Hastings promised me ornithopod footprints and they certainly delivered! Even despite the sunburn and blisters, I had an immensely fun time clambering over rocks and seeking out traces of dinosaurs.
I hope I never cease to be amazed and humbled by the deep connection that fossils give us to the prehistoric world: there is something profound about running your fingers down the inside of a footprint and knowing that around a hundred million years ago a big, snorting, honking, smelly animal placed it's foot there without a moment's thought.
That Iguanodontid could never have any way of knowing that tens of millions of years in the future its footprint would still be there; much less that a funny-looking hairless primate would someday see it and know anything of its maker.
References:
Dinosaur-landscape interactions at a diverse Early Cretaceous tracksite (Lee Ness Sandstone, Ashdown Formation, southern England), Anthony P. Shillito, Neil S. Davies, 'Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology' 514 (2019) 593–612 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.018
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