Social media and soaring prices are fuelling a fossil-hunting boom, with rare discoveries worth thousands of pounds<\/p>\n
Bent double at the waist, Martin Curtis combs a stretch of a Dorset beach with the concentration of a man searching for a lost cufflink or wedding ring.<\/p>\n
The search is meticulous \u2013 and with good reason. What he hopes to find could be far more valuable than an errant piece of jewellery. Curtis is searching instead for the telltale spiral of an ammonite, the star-shaped rod of a crinoid or rocks of a particular shape and colour that suggests there is something very special inside. He is hunting fossils.<\/p>\n
Along Charmouth beach and elsewhere on the Jurassic Coast, families with children, seasoned collectors and lone day-trippers peer intently at the ground in search of traces of creatures that lived 190m years ago. While some are here for fun, a growing number are here for business.<\/p>\n
That growing professional interest reflects the rising popularity and value of Jurassic fossils, creating a thriving marketplace that has made some collectors social media celebrities and others very wealthy.<\/p>\n
A Guardian investigation this week revealed that one of Britain\u2019s most significant collections of Jurassic fossils was recently sold to a museum in Abu Dhabi for what is believed to be an eight-figure sum.<\/p>\n
The collection, amassed by the private fossil collector Chris Moore, included 318 specimens, some of which may represent species previously unknown to science. The sale was described by some experts as a loss for the nation.<\/p>\n
Yet while British museums lacked the funds to acquire Moore\u2019s collection, wealthy institutions in the Gulf did not. For the fossil hunters combing Charmouth beach, it is another reason to scrutinise every promising item of unusual shape, colour and texture.<\/p>\n
Fossil hunting \u2013 and the industry that has grown around it \u2013 is not a modern pursuit. Perhaps England\u2019s best-known fossil hunter and dealer, Mary Anning, was born at nearby Lyme Regis in 1799 and made breathtaking discoveries along this coastline, including the first complete plesiosaur skeleton \u2013 a huge long-necked marine reptile that lived during the Jurassic period before becoming extinct alongside most dinosaurs 66m years ago.<\/p>\n
Anning has not been forgotten. Her name and image are everywhere, from information boards along the seafront to the colourful Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre overlooking the beach. Here, fossil collecting is largely encouraged.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the rapidly eroding West Dorset coast, fossil collecting is essential if specimens, some of which may be of great scientific value, are to be saved from damage or destruction by the sea,\u201d notes the West Dorset fossil collecting code of conduct.<\/p>\n
And just as Anning sold many of her discoveries, fossils are still bought and sold today. Downstairs is a shop where small ammonites can be picked up for a few pounds, while larger specimens, painstakingly prepared within their surrounding rock, sell for several hundred. Provided hunters follow the code of conduct, ownership of fossils passes to the finder.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessional collectors have the most time, are able to react quickly to events that uncover the fossils \u2013 ie: storms and landslides \u2013 and have a great deal of local knowledge. But they need to sell their finds in order to earn a living,\u201d the code notes.<\/p>\n
It is easy to understand how fossil hunting becomes addictive. As we comb the beach, Curtis points to a smooth, brown, bullet-shaped object: the fossilised remains of a squid-like creature known as a belemnite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat belemnite\u2019s 190m years old. And we are the only three people to ever see that creature,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n