A gallery of photographs of the fossil-rich limestone pavement at the western end of Ringstead Bay in Dorset, England. The more-or-less horizontal strata form a stepped rock pavement that extends from the cliff at the top of the shore out to a ledge which projects seawards like a peninsula at low tide, between Bran Ledge and Perry Ledge. The fossils are almost all seashells, mostly bivalves, and predominantly Myophorella clavellata. This type of shell used to be known as Trigonia clavellata and it is this old name by which the particular rock beds are known – Trigonia clavellata Formation or Beds; or simply Clavellata Beds.
The Clavellata Formation comprises a series of layers: Sandy Block, Chief Shell Beds, The Clay Band, and Red Beds – each with a different composition but all in the upper part of the larger Corallian Formation belonging to the Upper Jurassic Period dating from over 155 million years ago.
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Jessica's Nature Blog 
Fascinating post and great pics! I pulled up the following link to help orientate myself; http://www.ukfossils.co.uk/timeline/jurassic.html
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Thanks. There are lots of sites on the web about the rocks and fossils of this special World Heritage Status Jurassic Coast in Dorset. A lot of them are a bit thin on detail, I find. I have been trying to go direct to source as far as possible and have just been ordering up geological maps and memoirs from the British Geological Survey to get more accurate information on this my local stretch of shoreline. The Jurassic Coast is similar to the Bay of Fundy coast in Canada with its Joggins Fossil Cliffs.
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I love the beautiful texture of the fossils. Great photographs!
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Thank you very much. Like yourself, I am a self-taught photographer wanting to capture my ‘happy moments’ communing with, and trying to understand, Nature.
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I’m with you there. It’s nice to find the blogosphere to share this journey with like-minded individuals.
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Amazing
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Thank you. It was great to see the fossil pavement without a thick layer of pebbles and sand over it – all had been temporarily washed away by the storm waves.
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Time to revisit Ringstead, with a camera! Now on my Dorset to-do list. RH
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That seems a good idea.
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