THE Isle of Skye has become a mecca for palaeontologists from around the world – ever since the first major fossil find on the island 30 years ago.
Last month a new dinosaur species was discovered called Ceoptera evansae, with the flying reptile thought to have existed between 166 and 168million years ago in the Middle Jurassic period.
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It’s also made Skye a hotspot for amateur fossil hunters, who flock to the island’s rugged North East coast hoping to stumble across another amazing dinosaur discovery.
In Day Two of our dino series, Chief Features Writer MATT BENDORIS joins expert Dugald Ross from Staffin Dinosaur Museum to find out how to find fossils.
DUGALD recalls his amazement when a six-year-old girl came into his museum last year and produced from her pocket a fossil asking: “What is this?”
He says: “I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was a tooth from an ichthyosaur — a marine reptile. That was very, very rare. I had never seen one before.
“It was the first time she and her family had been fossil hunting and she found a tooth.”
So the bar was set high when Dugald took The Scottish Sun team on our first fossil-hunting expedition to the appropriately named Digg Beach, near Staffin, on Skye’s North East coast.
Armed with a bag for life from Lidl and a handy pocketknife I was ready for a Dino-tour of the sedimentary rock layers that the isle was created from, making the perfect hunting ground for fossils from 160-170million years ago.
Dugald says: “Due to conservation issues, I advise people not to take too many tools — a small pocket knife is all you should use for retrieving fossils.”
A sign also warns trophy hunters will be breaking the law by chiselling out fossil finds after the Nature Conservation Order was passed in 2019, to “prevent damage to, and removal of, Jurassic vertebrate fossils on Skye”.
Dugald says: “That specifically regards the collection of invertebrate fossils, namely dinosaurs, which means legally you have to declare what you find. But we can still collect loose fossils like ammonites and belemnites.”
Ammonites are the classic coil-shaped marine molluscs while belemnites, knows as “fossil bullets” are the remains of a 6ft-long squid-like creature. And our prehistoric seas must have been full of them as there are belemnites everywhere along Digg beach.
Dugald says: “Belemnites were definitely prolific in our seas.”
There’s no doubt Dugald has been a lucky collector, making his first major discovery at the age of 11 when he unearthed six near perfect flint Neolithic arrowheads — around 4,500 years old — from a spot near his croft.
By the age of 15, he convinced his parents to allow him to rebuild one of the ancient ruins on the family’s 50-acre farm and open his first museum dedicated to crofting life.
But all that changed with the dinosaur rush created in 1994 when BP geologists found a large fossil at Valtos beach, which turned out to be part of the leg bone from a 50ft-long Sauropod.
The original fossil sits in pride of place in the dad-of-three’s Dinosaur Museum in Staffin.
So what are Dugald’s best tips for finding fossils?
He explains: “First, you’re best with a shingle-type beach, where you have a mix of geology. The grey lava rocks that have been pounded by the sea and are usually rounded can be ignored as you won’t find fossils in them.
“What you are looking for is brown sedimentary boulders. You should notice evidence of fossils on them, like oysters from the mid-Jurassic era.”
He adds: “You should also look for something that stands out. Because if it’s bone that tends to fossilise to a very dark wood like colour. That’s what the BP geologists thought they had found – fossilised wood, when it was a Sauropod leg bone.
“And if you do find what you think is bone, then leave it, record where it is, preferably by GPS, or take a photo with a recognisable background then tell an expert. Because any mid-Jurassic finds of this kind are still very rare and of international importance.”
In 2002, at the nearby An Corran beach, local hotelier Cathy Booth was walking her dog when she spotted a dinosaur footprint after a violent storm.
Dugald, along with Dr Neil Clark from the Hunterian Museum, later found 18 footprints in total belonging to the three-toed Megalosaurus — a slightly smaller carnivore cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
But they can be surprisingly hard to spot, as myself and Scottish Sun snapper Andy Barr discovered as we stepped on them without noticing.
Dugald says: “It’s common. You will get schoolkids looking for them and they can’t find them because they can just look like cracks in the bedrock.”
Our fossil search continues with nothing but belemnites to show for our troubles when suddenly Dugald spots a 20-pence piece-sized white ammonite.
Under his expert supervision I prise out this little creature that once swam in our prehistoric seas, from where it’s been embedded for the last 170million years.
Ok, it’s not as impressive as a dino tooth but it was still a throwback from another era.
Dugald says: “I get families visiting from all over to go on fossil hunts. It’s proved really positive, as over the years children have come into my museum and handed over significant fossils — like that little girl who donated her ichthyosaur tooth.”
But there’s another thing about fossil hunting you won’t discover until you try it — just how addictive it is.
I even ploughed on through the rock pools as the heavens opened up, only retreating when rain became hail.
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Dugald, 67, who collected his first fossil while fishing along these shores as a primary-aged schoolboy, smiles: “You don’t have to tell me how addictive it is. I started over 60 years ago and I’m still doing it. Time does fly when you’re fossil hunting.”
*The Staffin Dinosaur Museum opens from the end of March. Adults £4, children £2 and a family ticket, £10. For more information visit staffindinosaurmuseum.com
