Special ammonite find for cousins

Fossil hunters on a South Wight beach hit the jackpot with the discovery of a 100million-year-old ammonite.

Jack Wonfor, 24, from Ventnor, who runs Wight Coast Fossils, has been collecting fossils since he was just four. He recently took out his cousin, Amelie, 12, on her first hunt along St Catherine’s Point.

It was quite an adventure for Amelie, as Jack explained: “She’s more into horse-riding, but wanted to come along
because of my interest. We went to St Catherine’s Point, which isn’t a famous place for fossils, but if you know the
geology of the area, they can be found.

“This particular one has come from Upper Greensand rocks – a rock group which typically doesn’t contain many fossils
in comparison with other rock groups on the Island.

“The Upper Greensand rocks were laid down in a marine environment at a stage of the Cretaceous period called the Albian, meaning it’s roughly between 100-105 million years old.”

The pair almost missed out on the find, with Jack admitting: “Initially, we walked past it, but it was visible on the way
back and you could see the tip of it on the surface of the rock.

“We started chipping away, and we were eventually able to prise it off the rock. What makes this specimen so special
is that the rostrum, the curved portion, is complete.

“The rostrums are rare and usually very thin and weak, so they don’t often survive the fossilisation process. In the
small chance they do, they are often broken off and destroyed during extraction.

“It weighs around 10kgs [22lb] and took eight hours to clean up and will ultimately end up in the Dinosaur Isle’s
collection in Sandown.”

Ammonites are marine invertebrates belonging to the class Cephalopoda, the same class which includes cuttlefish,
octopus, squid and nautilus.