Palaeontological Association Field Guide to Fossils, No 12

Edited by Jeremy R Young, Andrew S Gale, Robin I Knight and Andrew B Smith

Like others in the series, Fossils of the Gault Clay has the usual excellent black and white photographs of beautifully prepared specimens. Each chapter is authored by a specialist in the relevant subject, containing an introduction, followed by detailed systematic descriptions of each specimen.

However, after the beautifully produced Ammonites and other Cephalopods of the Lower Cretaceous Albion of the South East of England (Fred Clouter, published by The Medway Fossil & Mineral Society) was published in 2007, is there a need for another guide to the Gault?

The answer is that this publication (as always with the PalAss guides) is a more academic piece. It covers the full range of fossils, including the glorious ammonites, to be found in the Gault of the entire UK, whereas Fred’s book is more populist and limited in range to cephalopods of the southeast (but no less excellent for this reason). Therefore, for the keen amateur as well as the professional, there are good reasons to have both publications on the shelf. There is also the excellent book published by Siri, Fossils of Folkestone, Kent, which I think also adds to the collector’s knowledge.

Fossils of the Gault Clay: Guide no 12, edited by Jeremy R Young, Andrew S Gale, Robin I Knight and Andrew B Smith, The Palaeontological Association (2010) 312 pages (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-4443-3542-2