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It might not look very exciting but flint gravel has a story to tell of a warm chalky sea that covered a lot of England about 90 million years ago. That’s when dinosaur were around although they were not living in this particular sea. Sometimes flint filles the holes made by borrowing animals and sometimes, if we’re lucky it enclosed the remains of sea creatures meaning it is great place to look for fossils.
Flint gravel is easy to find in back gardens, car parks and driveways and doesn't require any special tools to find the fossils. Look out for natural flint pieces about 2cm in size, any smaller and you are unlikely to find fossils. Well-rounded flint pebbles are not much good either, although sometimes this kind of gravel does have water worn fossils in it, especially belemnites and Gryphaea shells.
Have a look at the video and see what Team Sedgwick found in a local car park. Download the activity sheet and fossil identification sheets to join in.
Get in touch if you want to have your class finds on display in the Sedgwick Museum.
Extension activities for the classroom and home school
