Fossils are the remains of creatures and plants that died long ago and became preserved as stone. Many fossils were formed underwater. As sea creatures and plants died in prehistoric seas, they drifted to the seabeds and became covered in sediments and sand. Over time, these sediments turned to stone. Some of those sedimentary stone beds were lifted up out of the sea by massive earth movements, and form the land we walk on today. 

At the edges of the land, ancient seabeds are exposed along cliff lines. Storms, winds, rain and sun beat at the cliffs, gnawing at them until the edges collapse, exposing fresh rocks. These fall to the beach to be found by curious passers-by, or washed back out to sea. Ancient rocks are also hidden under your feet as you walk, exposed here and there in quarries and in thin-soiled fields.  

Unknown fossils are waiting to be discovered in the bright white chalks of Sussex and Kent; the shales and limestones of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast and South Wales; the jumbled geology of coastal Yorkshire and the ancient Midland beds; the curiosities of the Highlands, and the mudstones of Northern Ireland. 

And all you have to do, is look.