3 enthusiastic and knowledgeable Islanders have established their own fossil hunting business on the Isle of Wight.
Megan Jacobs, Theo Vickers and Jack Wonfor have joined forces as ‘Wight Coast Fossils’ to give locals and tourists alike the opportunity to step back in time on special guided fossil walks, learning about and discovering the Island’s prehistoric past.
The trio are lifelong fossil hunters and boast expert knowledge of the geology and palaeontology of the Isle of Wight. They are passionate about the protection, conservation and public awareness of the Island’s renowned geological heritage.
Megan, 23, graduated last year with a first class degree in palaeontology from the University of Portsmouth and is now studying for her Masters Degree there looking at the Late Jurassic Ichthyosaur (a type of marine reptile) from Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset. She has published scientific papers and is currently working on publications about Isle of Wight geology.
Megan has collected from the Island’s beaches for over 15 years, specifically from the South West coast, and has a lot of experience giving guided tours for several years.
20-year-old Theo is in his first year of Marine Biology at the University of Portsmouth, with a keen interest in Cetaceans. However, he spends all his spare time walking the north coast of the Isle of Wight finding fossils of mammals and collecting sediment samples for sieving. This sieving allows him to find 30 million year old microvertebrates, most of which look like a grain of sand to the naked eye. His most recent find being a tooth from an early bat.
Theo’s collecting of the north coast has meant he has built up a amazing knowledge of the geology and the fossils.
Jack Wonfor, 18, is currently a student at the VI form in Newport but has enrolled onto this year’s palaeontology degree course at Portsmouth University. Jack is often found on the south coast of the Island hunting for ammonites and other goodies from the chalk, something he has been doing for several years. Jack has a great knowledge of all the fossils to be found from the Chalk and Lower Greensand, having amassed a huge collection himself.
Speaking about their new venture, Megan has said:
“Together we have a large knowledge base covering the whole of the Island’s geology and fossils, something of which most of the other fossil walk providers cannot boast.
“We started as a group of friends, all meeting at Dinosaur Isle museum whilst volunteering. We then went on to start a new Facebook Page producing content about Island geology and fossils, which has proved popular.
“We are now branching out our venture providing guided tours of the Island’s beaches. We offer the public a handful of the most fossiliferous beaches for public tours, where you are guaranteed to find lots of fossils that you are able to keep.
“We also offer specialised private tours for small groups, who may have specific interests, fancy learning more on a one-to-one basis, or would just like a quiet couple of hours on the beach without being surrounded by strangers.
“We are all very excited for this coming season”.
For more information visit https://wightcoastfossils.co.uk/ or follow the team on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WightCoastFossils.
Really impressed by how professional you website looks. Wishing you every success in turning your passion into a job x