2026 Day 1 - We're back! And the fish greet us with a smile.

by Zoe Wilcox, Documentation and Collections Officer

Four years after the original excavation which yielded such incredible Jurassic fish finds, a larger team has assembled for a second go at hunting down palaeontological treasure. Dr Neville and Sally Hollingworth (of Cerney Wick mammoth-hunting fame) are back with Nigel Larkin and an expanded team for a 2 week dig at Court Farm, King’s Stanley. This is being made possible thanks to Adam Knight, who has let our band of sweaty, muddy experts back onto his land to see what more can be uncovered. In the fullness of time, the finds will be donated to the Museum in the Park so that they are publicly accessible and available for scientific research.

team photo day 1

The aim of this year’s dig is to go further into the Jurassic beds, while at the same time teaching novices such as myself practical field skills such as nodule splitting and fossil identification. I wasn’t at the Museum last time around, so this is my chance to learn some real-world geological skills whilst rubbing shoulders with experts who are joining us from far and wide. I’m a bit nervous about the chiselling to be honest, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it. Together with my museum colleague Finch Neville (who, as a palaeo undergrad, has far better credentials for this than I do) we will be providing you with a daily update on the dig.

Day 1 - Monday

We start with a safety briefing and induction and the obligatory team photo with our specially-created sign.

Day 1 is to be a relatively slow day for the majority of the team as the digger moves in to open up a trench. The plan is to dig parallel to the trench from 2022, as well as excavating a section going into the hillside at 90 degrees to enable the team to properly stratify the different layers. Even before we start work formally, a few fish have been discovered in the discard pile from the 2022 dig, so excitement is mounting.

For safety reasons we can’t do a lot on the dig site while the initial excavation is being done, so we spend some time examining the finds from 2022 and showing them to those who are new to the site to help us all ‘get our eye in’. Sally is re-united with the eye-popping pachycormus fish head (the star find which started off this whole process), which she hasn’t seen since donating it to the Museum. I’m happy to see the fish too as it’s been at Bristol University for the last year being micro CT scanned, so I’m happy to have it back.

examining the 2022 finds, including the famous pachycormus (bottom left)

After a coffee break we head down to the site and start setting up a documentation, washing and drying station in the shade of the barn. It’s already extremely hot and the weather forecast tells us that the temperature is set to rise to the mid 30s by the end of the week, so keeping ourselves cool is going to be important. Meanwhile, the rest of the team brave the heat and go up the hill for a fossil walk to see some sandy beds where ammonites have been found.

temporary documentation station to record our first finds as we continue to set up

By early afternoon, the digger has stopped work for the day and we are able to get into the trench, mark up sections and start splitting nodules. Nodules are the rounded lumps of hardened mineral layers that stand out from the rock or mud around them. Standing on the Jurassic bed, it’s easy to see the yellowish nodules peeking out from the dirt.

a nodule from the jurassic bed

nodule splitting tutorial with neville

Neville gives us a tutorial on splitting the nodules and we get to work, with our gloves and safety glasses on. There is a first flurry of little finds and we rush to share out the documentation roles so that we can number it, register each one in the finds book and ensure it is photographed. I find myself responsible for the fiddly task of putting each raffle ticket used to number the finds into a tiny plastic bag and handing it to the finder with instructions not to let go lest it blow away in the breeze.

Straight away we are uncovering scatterings of fish debris, scales and fossilised wood. I manage to split a small rock and find a tiny bivalve shell.

Then, a cry goes up from Julian at the end of the trench who has found a beautiful example of a preserved fish head. He has christened it ‘Smiler’ as it does indeed seem to be smiling out at us, happy to see life again after 180 million years or so.

‘smiling fish’ found by julian moore

Not longer after that, it’s time for me to pack up and head home. It’s been a really encouraging first day. I check the finds list online when I get home and see that the first few hours of digging have yielded 28 specimens including some rather long unfamiliar Latin names that I shall have to look up! I wonder what tomorrow will bring…

fish found on day 1 (tetragonalepis semicincta)