In case you missed the recent news, a huge and rare fossil has been discovered on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight.
Jack Wonfor from Wight Coast Fossils made the important (and very heavy) discovery at the beginning of November and over the course of eight days, aided with tools from Glenn Martin and support from many others (see below), managed to retrieve the huge ammonite.
“Maxed out the scales”
The Epicheloniceras ammonite was recovered from a fallen block from the Lower Greensand and is so big (more than 25 stone/158+kg), that Jack says it “maxed out the scales”.
Jack told News OnTheWight that once the weather is bit warmer he’ll get the ammonite out to start removing more of the excess rock from the fossil, and once fully cleaned up, it’ll have a new home at Dinosaur Isle in Sandown.
Eight days to extract
Over the course of eight days, it took many many hours to extract the fossil from the boulder, and then several attempts to recover it from the beach due to its size and weight (see photos below).
In fact, Jack had to rebury the fossil three times, before returning for other attempts.
He explained,
“It’s definitely the biggest ammonite I’ve ever recovered, we’re all super happy to have it off the beach safely and saved from the destruction of the sea! (Even if the first attempt caused Megan to badly sprain her knee!).
“This ammonite recovery wouldn’t have been possible without the help of friends and fellow fossil collectors all coming together so thank you all! Glenn Martin for lending his tools to extract the ammonite in the first place, as well as Scott Cade, Meg Jacobs, Andy Jacobs, Paul Berry, Isaacs Roberts, Miles Taylor, and I’m especially grateful to James Blake who spent all afternoon dragging, lifting and hauling this ammonite back to the car.”
Jack and Megan from Wight Coast Fossils created a photo diary of the adventure, which they’d kindly shared below.
Well done to you all.
