How many types of fossils exist and which is rarest fossil you have found so far? Gohar (8)

Hi Gohar,

Thanks for your question. I’m disappointed to tell you that as far as I know I’ve never found a rare fossil! When I was at primary school I went on a school trip to Dorset and we found lots of ammonites and belemnites. These are both very common fossils but it was still exciting to find them. More recently I found a fern fossil (like the one in the picture) when I was in some woodland in north Wales. It was in an area that had been a coal mine in Victorian times. Coal itself is a sort of fossil and it’s quite common to find plant fossils in coal seams.

Regarding the number of different types of fossil, you’d really need to ask a palaeontologist rather than an archaeologist. I’ve had a quick look on the internet and found that there are about 250,000 species identified in the fossil record – imagine trying to collect one of each species!

Abi

Answered by:

Abi McCullough

Abi works for Heneb: The Trust for Welsh Archaeology as Head of Advisory Services. Based on the Welsh/English border, she loves big show-off monuments like Iron Age hillforts, medieval castles and (especially) Offa’s Dyke.

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