A Conversation for Orkney's Cliffs and Beaches
Fossils
Atlantic_Cable Started conversation Apr 7, 2004
Orkney and the nearby Caithness also harbour unique fossil fish from the Devonian era, species that are found nowhere else in the world.
The area used to be a small sea, closed in where the fish evolved on their own.
Fossils
frenchbean Posted Apr 8, 2004
Hello AC 
Well, Orkney beaches certainly have heaps of fossils on the rocks. Especially 'shadow' fossils of fronded plants up in the nw of the mainland.
Fb
Fossils
Atlantic_Cable Posted Apr 8, 2004
I don't know aout Orkney myself, but in Caithness there a lot of illegal fossil hunters (you aren't supposed to remove more than a certain weight out of the country, and can't remove more than a certain weight from the site itself per visit.)
There was one terrible occasion on Sandside Beach (near Dounreay) where some foreign fossil collectors (who a local fossil expert had refused to take hunting) dug a huge hole in the sand and through the bedrock and smashed, destroyed and damaged a whole bunch or fairly good quality specimens to get to a few excellent ones below. It was dreadful.
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