I would like to say that I found this at Lyme Regis or perhaps somewhere up near Robin Hoods Bay but alas I cannot. I actually bought this specimen in a second hand shop in Matlock Baths a number of years ago. It is probably Jurassic but as I don't know where it came from I cannot be sure. I suppose that it might have come from the National Stone Centre in Derbyshire but I don't know what rocks are exposed in the old quarries there and, given that it is an SSSI, fossil collecting is forbidden.
Gryphaea is an extinct genus of oysters that were around in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and
are particularly abundant in the Lower Lias in the UK. They have been found at Lyme Regis since the time of Mary Anning, and probably before, but never by me. I guess that it is time that I went and had a look.
The specimen is about 52 mm in length. Of the two images, the first is without flash and the second is with.
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