Fossils quiz: the answers

Question One: 

It's an ammonite of course.

Question Two:

These fossil hunters are on the beach at Charmouth - under a landslip, definitely not clever!

Question Three:

This is a piece of art by Lyme Regis stone balancing artist Adrian Grey, using local fossils.

Question Four:

This is the Dapedius Sp, on show at Dorset County Museum. These armoured fish lived in the late Jurassic and Triassic periiod - between 252 and 145m years ago. The first ever specimen was found in Dorset.

Question Five: 

This beauty is the Swanage Crocodile. Found by collector Richard Edmonds in 2007, in 2012 it was declared a new species and named in honour of Rudayd Kipling.

Question six: 

This is the 140million year old turtle fossil found by Diane Godden in a quarry on Portland. More details here:

Question Seven: 

Joseph Anning found this skull on the beach at Lyme Regis in 1811, the first complete skull of an icthyosaur to be uncovered. A year later his sister Mary found the torso, and their mother sold both parts to local squire Henry Henley for £23.

Question Eight:

The answer was "all the above". Found by Kevan Sheehan from Osmington, who took years to recover the fossil, this pliosaur skull is one of the longest fossils ever found.

The animal it belonged to could have been as much as 18m long and the jaws would have been strong enough to break a small car in half. It was officialy unveiled by Sir David Attenborough in 2011.