Highly recommend Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier.
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I spent New Year's Eve in 2001 in Lyme Regis. I was escaping the months-long stink from living downwind from the smoldering Ground Zero pile. My hotel had a midnight spontaneous group "Auld Lang Syne" sing, all of us holding hands.
It was magical.
The local fossils and the surrounding towns were an added bonus.
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My first thought when I saw the book list was the same as that of the commenters below: How could "Remarkable Creatures"by Tracy Chevalier have been left off the list?
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How could the author fail to mention Tracy Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures?" This novel motivated me to see the Anning fossils at London's Natural History Museum.
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I strongly recommend Tracey Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures: A Novel," which is based on the inspiring life of Mary Ann Anning, a kindred soul of Maria Mitchell, the groundbreaking Nantucket astronomer of the mid-1800s.
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Also read: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
www.tchevalier.com/remarkablecreatures/background/maryanning/index.html
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Nice article But I was disappointed to find no reference to Tracy Chevalier's historical novel, Remarkable Creatures. I've done my share of fossil hunting, and Mary Anning, her main character, has always been an inspiration.
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A well-researched piece would have at least mentioned, if not celebrated, Tracy Chevalier’s wonderful Lyme Regis/Anning novel, Remarkable Creatures. Highly recommended.
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I live here. So weird to see it in the NYT! We sometimes have breakfast at Charmouth, or stroll along the beach looking for bits and pieces for my Mum’s artworks (sea glass mostly). I studied geology in my student years, so often pick up stray belemnites or other interesting samples, though I tend to leave the hammer at home. The local collections are magnificent. The cliffs here are dangerous and the state of which cliffs and where is often a topic of local gossip (“Have you seen the big crack in the cliff at Charmouth? That’s going to go soon...”). A few years ago a girl was killed down the coast at Burton Bradstock by a cliff collapse. The cliffs are eroding at an alarming rate, so scrambling up them and digging out samples will bring the local coastguard down on you, as well as disapproving tuts from passers-by. But it is a beautiful place to live, and I would hate to move.
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Closer to home, there is a UNESCO world heritage fossil site at Joggins in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is the leading global fossil site relating to the Pennsylvanian Coal Age. Fossils cannot be removed from the site as at Lyme Regis but there is a museum and the guided tours are excellent. I highly recommend it for anyone travelling in the Maritimes.
Also, the book "The Dinosaur Hunters" by Deborah Cadbury is a fascinating look at many of the historic paleontologists mentioned in the article and how their rivalries pushed (and hindered) scientific discovery.
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Very nice story. In the Western US, for two or three months a year the Green River formation in Wyoming is a great place to fossil quarry. I’ve done it twice, once with kids. It’s high desert, and you mostly split rocks, but you will find fish fossils, lots of them, some of them very impressive.
Kemmer is the closest town, it’s where JC Penny started his retail business. There are a few quarries, Warfield is the one I have visited. Some of the driving is on dirt roads.
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I have visited Lyme Regis twice and planned on going this year but my plans changed. The book “Remarkable Creatures” was the inspiration for my first trip here with my sister. It is definitely a bit of a challenge to get there, train and bus, but worth the travel time! I have never been so charmed by any place prior to or since my visits there. I can’t wait to return some day soon. It is a must see as a fossil hunting trip or for the charm of the Jurassic Coast! The people we met were delightful and make you feel right at home, even though we had travelled from the U.S.
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This same book, "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracey Chevalier totally charmed my imagination and gave me new insights into how the science we take for granted today didn't exist 2 hundred years ago.
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Thank you for mentioning "Remarkable Creatures," by Tracy Chevalier, which I found to be a compelling read. I also noted a lovely tie-in, via Cuvier (Director of the French National Museum of Natural History, with whom Anning does some business) and the charming novel by Anthony Doerr, "All the Light We cannot See." One thing leads to another ...
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"for its remarkably rich geological history that stretches back 185 million years."
If the earth is 4.5 billion years old wouldn't it follow that this region has a geological history of equal age? In some iteration of land mass either above or below sea level over time and constantly undergoing change and movement? Is it not true that most all matter on this planet has been here since it's formation? Or are we saying that large chunks of it come and go?
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Yes, large chunks of it come and go.
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Chill dude!
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Two words: plate tectonics. Also, sea level rise and fall, the flooding of the North Sea as the glaciers melted, and of course, erosion, volcanic activity -- Bath, with its hot springs, is fairly near -- and numerous other factors mean that the Earth is not static or immoveable.
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It easy to find fossils without resorting to hammers. I found a large vertebra of a dinosaur (12 inches at its widest) lying on the beach. The most impressive fossils where the ammonites exposed in the large rocks , some of these were two foot across. The action of the waves and tide always bring new fossils onto the beach.
A word of warning - don't climb the cliffs as they are unstable!
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Loved this article! Eight years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Chris as he led a fossil hunting walk with some British geologists. As the sole Yankee, I did get a bit of ribbing; but I found a bunch of small fossils and thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was a wonderful highlight to my summer of wandering in the south of England! Glad that Chris is still sharing his knowledge with visitors to Charmouth/Lyme Regis.
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I’ve never been to England but I’ll certainly add this little town to my Bucket List. I “accidentally” read this lovely piece because when I saw the word “Dinosaur” in the heading and the other references to “fossils”, I assumed it was about the GOP. Nonetheless, it was a happy accident.
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The novel "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracey Chevalier is a fictional account of the friendship between Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, a genteel woman constrained by her unmarried status and the strictures against women. It is a fascinating and well-written look at the very early fossil hunters and the struggles and dangers encountered when the fossil-laden coast could collapse on the hunters. Certainly stimulated my interest in the area, and would love to see it one day.
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If heading North East, do try Whitby and the region (eg; Robin Hood's Bay). Coastal erosion provides a great source of fossils along the beach and you will also find the best Cod and chips in the country (The magpie cafe is stupendous).
Take your wellies. :)
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Mrs Poulteney, formerly of Lyme Regis and now translated to a far more tropical abode, must be looking up from her griddle there, wiping her eyes and thanking David Shaftel for this sendup...
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Bucket List!
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A lovely town accessible by bus from Axminster station. I once walked with my (pregnant) wife from Seaton, further west, to Lyme. A bit of an overstretch in the tangled woods of the Undercliff but we made it. For a beautiful village not far to the west I recommend Beer.
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Ah, Lyme Regis! Well worth the three hour drive from London for fossils and fish and chips. One of my first visits when I moved here and it remains a favourite of mine.
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