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Chelmsford City Museums
Ammonite Geology Collection
> Chelmsford Museums > Collections > Geology

Geology Collection

Details

The Geology collection at Chelmsford Museum is home to British fossils, many from the south-east region and Essex, and features a small but fine collection of rocks and minerals. The larger fossil collections are rich in Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene material.    

Our collections include  some local fossils, from places like Walton on the Naze, and some Ice Age mammal remains from the gravels around Chelmsford. Other more exotic specimens have been donated by Victorian and later collectors.

Discover more about our Geology exhibitions.

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Sea Urchin Fossil Geology Collection
Flint fossil of a sea urchin


Found at Navestock, Essex. The bands of holes which were the sockets for the sea urchin's spines are similar to those on modern urchin shells. 



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Fish Fossil Geology COllection
Fossil fish from the Jurassic Period


This fossil is from Leicestershire. 


This was donated to the museum in Victorian times. The Jurassic Period was between approximately 150 million and 200 million years ago. 

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Ammonite Geology Collection
Ammonite


Ammonites were molluscs that lived between 240 million and 65 million years ago. They came in a range of sizes from only a couple of centimetres to 2 metres in diameter. 


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Sharks Tooth Fossil Geology Collection
Megalodon tooth 


Found in the Red Crag deposits at Walton on the Naze.


Megalodons were a species of shark that lived during the Pliocene era (16 to 1.6 million years ago).

They were one of the largest and most powerful marine predators and could reach up to 16m long, with jaws 2m wide.

The teeth of the megalodon could  be up to 21cm long. This example is large at about 10cm long, but small examples are still frequently found on the beach at Walton, washed out from the cliffs. 

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Mastadon Tooth Geology Collection
Tooth of a mastodon

Mastodons are an extinct larger tusked mammal, resembling an elephant.


Mastodons lived during the late Pliocene era, up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene around 11,000 years ago.

They were around 8 foot tall, and lived in forests where their diet consisted mainly of tree leaves, shrubs and mosses.

   

> Chelmsford Museums > Collections > Geology