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Fossils in t'Hills

@fossilsinthills.bsky.social
240 followers 140 following 88 posts

A non-profit group of palaeontologists and science educators telling the hidden stories of the fossils of northern England! fossilsinthills.weebly.com

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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
It's #FossilFriday, so here's a lovely fossil coral (Lithostrotion). It was found in the Carboniferous limestone which was deposited at a time when Yorkshire was underneath a tropic sea. 🏛️ Leeds Discovery Centre 📍 Norber, Yorkshire Dales
Fossil coral with long straight polygonal columns closely packed together
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
The weather is set for an icy blast here in Yorkshire - an ideal time to revisit the Ice Age faunas from the region. There aren't many wooly mammoth fossils from Yorkshire, however this enormous tusk was excavated from Leeds in the 1960s. #FossilFriday 🏛️ Leeds Discovery Centre 📷 Stuart Robinson
a large mammoth tusk in two pieces laid out on a table with glass-fronted cabinets to the left and draws of bones to the right
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
2025, that's a wrap! We've had a very busy year, particularly with talks - 7 in total across the region (Snainton to Clitheroe, Skinningrove to Huddersfield) on topics ranging from hyena dens to fossil forests.
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
You wouldn't want this star on your Christmas tree! Starfish, like crinoids, usually fall apart soon after death. This Middle Jurassic specimen is beautifully preserved suggesting it was buried alive! On that thought, Merry Christmas everyone! #FossilFriday 📍 North York Moors 🏛️ Manchester Museum
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Stick your neck out and have a guess at which animal this is! These bones were found in Dowkerbottom Cave, near Arncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales. This animal still exists in the UK, however you'll not find it roaming wild in the Dales anymore. 🏛️ Leeds Discovery Centre #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Ever been fossil hunting around Malton and Pickering? Chances are you'll have found one of these. This is Pseudomelania, a high spired gastropod that lived in the shallow carbonate lagoons of the Late Jurassic - a time when Yorkshire was altogether more tropical! #FossilFriday 🏛️ Yorkshire Museum
high spired snail shell in limestone block
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Since yesterday was Lancashire Day, here's a Lancastrian #FossilFriday post! This may look like an ammonite, but this is Gastrioceras, a chunky goniatite. Goniatites are often found crushed in mudstone, however this one is beautifully pyritized and preserved in 3D. 🏛️ Leeds Museums and Galleries
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
We had an excellent time yesterday at Otley Science Festival, talking to visitors about Pholiderpeton - Bradford's Carboniferous tetrapod! Lots of people successfully pieced back together the jumbled up skeleton of this incredible fossil and explored a range of other fossils from the Coal Swamps!
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
A busy couple of days for Fossils in t' Hills. This evening we'll be discussing Carboniferous fossil trees with GeoLancashire from 19:15 (geolancashire.org.uk/events/) Then tomorrow we're taking our Pholiderpeton puzzles to Otley Science Festival! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Friday 14th November, 19:15 at Hanson UK’s Ribblesdale cement works in Clitheroe. Come along to find out about the undisputed giants of the Carboniferous and the forgotten fossil forests of the North West! geolancashire.org.uk/events/
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
We're back at the Otley Science Festival! This year, we're unjumbling the bones of Pholiderpeton, Bradford's Carboniferous swamp monster! Come along on Saturday 15th from 10:00 to the Otley Courthouse and see if you can make head or tail out of these bones! #FossilFriday 🏛️ Cliffe Castle 📍 Bradford
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
A spooky fossil for Halloween! The Carboniferous swamps of the north of England were full of creepy crawlies... This is one of them, a spider-like creature called Mesotarbus. 📍 Westhoughton 🏛️ Manchester Museum 📷 GB3D Fossils #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
We're heading back to Cliffe Castle! Join us on October 28th from 11:00 for a day of Carboniferous activities. With your help we'll be reconstructing a coal forest and unjumbling the bones of Pholiderpeton. Don't forget to bring along your own fossils for identification! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Autumn has descended on Yorkshire this week, the leaves have started to fall. Most leaves rot away leaving nothing behind, but not this one! The leaf became encased in tufa, a carbonate mineral formed by springs, to leave a perfect impression. #FossilFriday 🏛️ Craven Museum
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
We post a lot about the Carboniferous swamp plant fossils - and for good reason, as these are incredibly important to both human history and science in Northern England! These swamps were also home to a range of other creatures, including lots of fish and sharks... #FossilFriday 🏛️ Gallery Oldham
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Tiny fossil cogs? Not quite, these are single segments (ossicles) of a crinoid stem. In life, soft tissues would have run through the central hole. The radial groves and ridges would have prevented the sections of the stem from twisting in currents. 📍 Wensleydale #FossilFriday
Dark grey rock with small wheel- or cog-like fossils scattered across the surfaceClose up view of the small cog-like fossils on the grey rock
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Some fossils leave an impression on you - or on the rock! We spotted this impression of a spiriferid brachiopod on our way up Pen-y-ghent over summer. If you look carefully you can also see a crinoid ossicle. We're hoping for the rain to stop so we can get back out into the hills! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Even in poor visibility on top of Ingleborough, we still found fossil plants! This is in the Millstone Grit at the very topmost part of the peak. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Today's #FossilFriday post is a Sea Monster and some Seashells... Why? Because tomorrow afternoon we are back at the fantastic Land of Iron Museum to take people on a tour of the Jurassic ocean! 🐬 The ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus zetlandicus from Loftus 🐚 A shell-bed of the bivalve Bositra
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Some fossils really stand out from the rock. We spotted this vibrant solitary coral in the Yoredale series of rocks near Pateley Bridge. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
This trilobite has a very cute name - Dindymene - at less than 1cm across it's more like Diddymene! At 440 million years old this fossil is from some of the oldest rocks in the Yorkshire Dales, and appears to have been slightly distorted over the years... #FossilFriday 🏛️ Sedgwick 📷 GB3D Fossils
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Picture in your mind a shark tooth... We bet this isnt the shape you were thinking of! The shark Ptychodus had a 'pavement' of these strange teeth for crushing hard-shelled prey. Ptychodus fossils have been found all over the world, including from Hessle near Hull. 🏛️ Sedgwick Museum #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Crinoidal limestone – limestone made of crinoids – what more needs saying? #FossilFriday 📍 Hebden, near Grassington
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
For #YorkshireDay and #FossiFriday we're celebrating the giant ammonites of Yorkshire! From the foreshores of Redcar with their monstrous Arietites, to the oolite of Malton with its mighty Perisphinctes - and beyond! Post your giant Yorkshire ammonite finds in the comments! 🏛️ Whitby Museum
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Lurking at the bottom of the limestone in the dales is a rather impressive conglomerate – a rock made up of pebbles of other rocks. This piece was pulled out of a cave by divers and contains a few gastropods in amongst the pebbles – can you spot them? #FossilFriday 📍 Austwick
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
This weekend is Lancaster Dino Fest! But it's not just dinosaurs that had scales! Come along tomorrow to St Nic's Arcade Lancaster to find out about the ancient scaly inhabitants of Lancashire and help us build a Carboniferous coal swamp! 🏛️ Manchester Museum #Fossil Friday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
With Lancaster Dino Fest just around the corner, we're highlighting fossils from Lancashire! Much of Lancashire is underlain by Carboniferous rocks, this lovely fern was found in one of the many coal mines from the area. #FossilFriday 🏛️ British Geological Survey 📷 GB3D Type Fossils
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Digging a railway in N England in the 1800s usually resulted in finding huge fossil trees! These pair of Sigillaria were unearthed in 1837 in the outskirts of Manchester. On July 12th we're exploring the fossil trees of the NW at Lancaster Dino Fest, come along to find out more! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
With this hot weather it seems appropriate to post about the tropical inhabitants of the Jurassic Seas of Yorkshire. This little chlamys (a scallop) was found in a stream near Kirkbymoorside, although during the Jurassic it would have been a shallow tropical sea. #FossilFriday
Fossil shell on a rock, there are trees in the background
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Heading to Redcar tomorrow for the Fossil Walks with the Yorkshire Fossils Festival team? Before you head down to the beach, cast your eyes to the pavements. The promenade along the front is paved with some incredible Carboniferous fossils in black limestone. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
This lovely fossil is a sapling of a giant plant similar to those in Bradford's parks. It's photographed upside down to clearly show the 4 branching roots that all of these plants have - unfortunately the one closest has broken off and is missing. #FossilFriday 🏛️ Gallery Oldham
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Some creatures are windows into the past - others are just windows... This fossil is a fenestrate bryozoan. The fenestrate part of the name derives from the Latin for window, and refers to the grid-like skeleton of these filter-feeding colonial organisms. 📍 Thorpe 🏛️ Gallery Oldham #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Last weekend Team Fossils in t'Hills (and friend) went on an adventure under the hills! We were thrilled to once again join Bradford Pothole Club at their winch meet at Gaping Gill.
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Heading out to a park this #FossilFriday? Be sure to visit Horton Park in Bradford, where you can see one of three huge fossil trees! These Carboniferous giants were excavated from Clayton in the late 19th Century and placed on public display to "inspire future generations of geologists".
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Looks like we're in for more glorious weather here in Yorkshire! With extremely low water levels it's a great time to head out to a stream to see what you can find! We recently spotted this lovely little Siphonodendron amongst the cobbles in a dry stream near Horton in Ribblesdale. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Some beds are so distinctive we can use them to work out where we are in the sequence. One such bed is the Clayton Shell Bed. Found in the Harrogate area this shell bed contains a wealth of marine species including these beautiful spiriferid brachiopods. #FossilFriday 🏛️@leedsmuseums.bsky.social
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Anyone for fossils and chips? After work we had a takeaway sitting by the riverbank, followed by a quick look along the river beach - where we found this lovely little Stigmaria! 📍 Gargrave #Yorkshire #YorkshireFossils #ukfossils #fossilplant #carboniferous #geology #gargrave #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Not long until the Geology Rocks event @ncmme.bsky.social Come along to meet Edestus - Huddersfield's mysterious ancient inhabitant! How will you interpret this fossils? What was its function? Come by our stall to create your own reconstruction! #FossilFriday 🏛️@britgeosurvey.bsky.social 📷 GB3D
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
It's been so warm in Yorkshire this week you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Carboniferous, when tropical corals like this Lithostrotion were alive... ...Ok, so it's not really been tropical here this week, but it's been beautiful weather! #FossilFriday 🏛️ @galleryoldham.bsky.social
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Reposted by Fossils in t'Hills
London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
If you like this account please do give it a share! We are really struggling to get engagement on this platform. London’s geology is more varied than you think and we are here to spread the word, look after and promote London’s geosites #londongeology
A series of photos from Gilbert’s Pit in Charlton. A pair of hands holds a slab of the Woolwich Shell Bed, an iron oxide rich clay packed with white fossil shellsA series of photos from Gilbert’s Pit in Charlton. The Blackheath Beds, pavked with well rounded, black flint pebbles forms the top of the section at Gilbert’s Pit
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Pendle Hill rises like the prow of a ship over Lancashire - famous for its witches but less so for its fossils! Most of the rocks of Pendle Hill are un-fossiliferous. You can however find a few fossils including these small bivalves (Posidonia) in scree on the flanks of the hill. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
We always do a #FossilFriday post on a fossil, but this week the fossil is on the post! (...groan...) Keep your eyes peeled for fossil plants in the Millstone Grit, they're everywhere! We spotted this piece of fossil plant in an old gate post near Keighley.
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
These shells are looking a bit bored! These circular drill holes were made by a predatory sea snail, which bored into the shell to feed on the creature inside. The fossil shell on the left is from the Jurassic of Grosmont. You can still see modern evidence of this behaviour today! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
There was an earthquake this morning in the Yorkshire Dales! Did anyone feel it? Shout out to the @britgeosurvey.bsky.social - if you are interested in British earthquakes or real-time seismograph monitoring, this is the website to go to... earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/.../20250318....
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
In honour of William Buckland's birthday earlier this week, here is one of his hyena fossils! Buckland borrowed a live hyena in order to study its poo and the gnaw marks it left on bones. He then compared these with fossils from Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire #FossilFriday 🏛️@morethanadodo.bsky.social
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Happy 241st birthday to William Buckland! 🎂 Buckland's most famous link to Yorkshire was his investigation on the fossil bones of Kirkdale Cave, which led him to conclude the cave was an ancient hyena den!
Kirkdale Cave, roughly rectangular cave opening part way up a cliff. The cliff is within a woodland, there is ivy growing on the left of the cave and a tree in the foreground to the right.
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
As the weather improves, we're looking forward to getting back out into the hills to uncover more fossils and their stories. In the meantime, here is a lovely Stigmaria we found last autumn in the most Yorkshire sounding place of all the dales: Arkengarthdale! #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
You wont find any pearls in this shell - but it's filled with calcite crystals! Brachiopod shells typically stay together after the animal dies, meaning when they are buried on the sea bed they become a pocket of space into which crystals can precipitate from mineral-rich water. #FossilFriday
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Our goal is to celebrate Yorkshire's inland geology, but we have a confession: we're also experts on coastal fossils... If you're interested in the coast's palaeoheritage or are a palaeoart fan, check out this new book! Our team members Becky & Jed were scientific advisors for some of the artwork.
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Fossils in t'Hills @fossilsinthills.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
On this #FossilFriday in 1822, a significant event in the history of UK palaeontology occurred! William Buckland presented his study on fossils from Kirkdale Cave, providing evidence that hyenas once lived there rather than their bones being washed by a great flood. 🏛️ @leedsmuseums.bsky.social
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