Fossil Field Guides & Identification Books

Here we have a variety of books all to do with finding and identifying fossils, and occasionally the odd second-hand book that we feel may be of use to our customers. Most of these books cover a wide range of our local British fossils. 

If you're looking for a compendium of British fossil hunting sites, try A Guide to Fossil Collecting in England and Wales by Steve Snowball and Craig Chapman. For more site or regional specific books we stock many of the Palaeontological Association field guides (some of which are now out of print) which are famous for their comprehensive approach to the biodiversity of particular British fossiliferous geological formations.

If you collect the Dorset Coast (the 'Jurassic Coast') try A Guide to Fossil Collecting on the West Dorset Coast and A Guide to Fossil Collecting on the South Dorset Coast by Steve Snowball and Craig Chivers for beautifully illustrated local guides, and Fossils from the Lower Lias of the Dorset Coast by Alan R. Lord (ed.) and Paul G. Davis (ed.) if you're keen on the Lyme Regis/Charmouth section. 

If you collect the Yorkshire Coast, have a look at Fossils of the Whitby Coast: A Photographic Guide by Dean Lomax and Fossils from the Lias of the Yorkshire Coast by Aland R. Lord (ed.). 

If you collect either the London Clay or Gault Clay in the South East of England, have a look at the gorgeously put together London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex by Rayner, Mitchel, Rayner and Clouter, Fossils of the Gault Clay by Young, Gale, Knight and Smith (eds.), and Fossils of Folkestone, Kent by Philip Hadland.