Brymbo Fossil Forest

Brymbo Fossil Forest Home of Wrexhams best fossil site! Follow us for fossil good-ness!

08/05/2026

Happy flippin 100th to the legend that is ! Obviously a huge inspiration to us all here at the Fossil Forest and Stori Brymbo

The hole that keeps on giving! The mine working uncovered at the bottom of the site continues to spew forth bounties! Th...
01/05/2026

The hole that keeps on giving! The mine working uncovered at the bottom of the site continues to spew forth bounties! This we're showing you a *highly suspected* cockroach wing, found by yours truly, from the clay band above the crank coal, while blattoids are common in the carboniferous you should take a minute to check out the scale bar. This bug was an absolute unit! Likely belonging to the archymylacridae or allies it clocks in at 5cm long! That means this roach would be huuuuuge.

Another late drop! Several of our volunteers love scoping out nearby localities for fossil remains and got the jackpo...
24/04/2026

Another late drop! Several of our volunteers love scoping out nearby localities for fossil remains and got the jackpot recently with a site that contains loads of disarticulated Upper Carboniferous fish in an ultra fine mudstone. Fish from this period are understudied in general and more so in North Wales, the guys are going through this material with a fine tooth comb to find teeth, scales and bones. Finding, collecting and identifying this material will provide important comparative data for our exploration of the Brymbo marine band this summer, watch this space!

Late drop! Last week our placement student Frey found this little blighter! While it looks superficially like a bivalv...
17/04/2026

Late drop! Last week our placement student Frey found this little blighter! While it looks superficially like a bivalve (clam) it's actually the carapace of a *bi-valved* crustacean! Luckily muggins here did a lot of research on these guys back in the day so I knew what I was looking at straight away! These cousins of sea-monkeys have been around for over 400 million years and can be found today on every continent except Antarctica. They specialise in 'ephemeral' habitats like puddles or seasonally-occuring ponds. This guy (and a few others of a different species) were found at the bottom of our section in the clay bands indicating a calm, short lived body of water filling with leaves and branches from the surrounding lycopods, perhaps giving these little guys places to hide. Interestingly, many species females can switch part of Thier oviduct to produce s***m to self-fertilise when the population is low! It's amazing how much is preserved here and excited to discover more!

Just look at this corker! This long-boy Calamites clocks in at about one meter and could go further! Excavated skillfull...
08/04/2026

Just look at this corker! This long-boy Calamites clocks in at about one meter and could go further! Excavated skillfully by the legendary this specimen is raising concerns about how we keep these fellows upright after excavation. We have a few ideas we're testing but if there's any budding palaeo conservationists out there with ideas don't hesitate to get in touch!

How's work? Oh, You know, just removing a portion of 300 million year-old riverbed with crowbars and a telehandler. Prep...
05/04/2026

How's work? Oh, You know, just removing a portion of 300 million year-old riverbed with crowbars and a telehandler. Preparing the excavation quadrant for this year's student digs! This 3x4 meter section of the FF will be subject to intense excavation, logging and analysis by students from all over the country (and internationally!) for this year's summer excavation efforts. Who knows what's in there waiting to be found!

Great to have from back on site helping us jacket a rare specimen of bark from the progymnos***m Cordaites. Feels like...
05/04/2026

Great to have from back on site helping us jacket a rare specimen of bark from the progymnos***m Cordaites. Feels like excavation season is kicking off!

Great day at for the geodiversity open day, met some wonderful rock-botherers and fellow fossil-nerds. Thanks to the st...
28/03/2026

Great day at for the geodiversity open day, met some wonderful rock-botherers and fellow fossil-nerds. Thanks to the staff for showing us some mega specimens and to the other attendees for the exciting banter. Really enthusiastic about the widely understood need to communicate the awesomeness of Welsh geoheritage better and looking forward to working together to make it happen. Next meeting at ? Watch this space! Oh and thanks for wrapping the meeting with a wonderfully personal soliloquy including his journey via the fossil forest

A late post to introduce you to one of our first trace fossils! Found by one of our Fossil Adventure participants last...
06/03/2026

A late post to introduce you to one of our first trace fossils! Found by one of our Fossil Adventure participants last weekend, this is kouphichnium, an ichnofossil of a wandering horseshoe crab! Note the mid-ridge produced by the dragged tail and the off-kilter marks left by the feet as it struggled with the soupy sediment. Absolute banger of a find that shows these critters lived in the fossil forest and weren't just washed in.

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Wrexham
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