Lapworth Museum (and a trip to Aust Cliff)

Last year, while visiting friends in Birmingham, we went along to the Lapworth Museum. Despite Birmingham not having the richest fossil record in the world, the fossils on display were diverse and very interesting. They were not limited to UK fossils, as you will become abundantly aware when you enter and are met with an Allosaurus skeleton. Because it had worldwide fossils on show it did make for a worthwhile visit.

The Allosaurus skeleton that greets you when you enter the Lapworth Museum.

There is a display devoted to more local fossils, this is the Palaeozoic of the Welsh Borders. These featured a diverse array of trilobites, crinoids and graptolites.

But best of all (at least for me!) is the display of plaster models of foraminifera. There is also a microscope next to this showing the true size of foraminifera and other microfossils.

Plaster models showing the range of shapes of benthic and planktic foraminifera.

Although a small museum it is easy to spend a while here to appreciate everything it has to offer.

I also went on a quick trip to Aust Cliff under the Severn Bridge. This is a site that, at its base, is dominated by the Mercia Mudstone Formation. Unfortunately this is largely unfossiliferous. However, the overlying Rhaetian Bone Bed and Blue Lias can be very fossiliferous. Blocks of Triassic rock fall from the top of the cliff sometimes packed with bones of reptiles. We didn't manage to find these bone blocks but did manage to see three different reptile teeth. They were cemented into large pieces of rock so couldn't be collected.

Tooth from Aust Cliff.

Tooth from Aust Cliff.

Tooth from Aust Cliff.