Hello good people of Nottinghamshire. Does anyone else have an interest in collecting fossils or am I alone in the county? By the way, by fossils I mean the remains of extinct creatures, not people as old as me!

When I was a lot younger I used to go chipping at rocks, found a few anomites and similar ones, never any dinosaurs though lol. It was really interesting, it might be cool to take it up again.

It's good fun. I've been collecting since I was a kid. By the way, the "curly ones" are ammonites. If you cut and polish them (ammonites) they are full of crystals and look like multi coloured diamonds. There are dinosaur remains on the east coast but they are rare. Lots of Ichthyosaur bones though.

Wow, yeah I used to have a few ammonites that were lined with crystals. What's your rarest find?

I have a perfect Harpocerous (ammonite) of about 6" across which is fairly rare and some Ichthyosaur vertibrae with double ribs, they should only have one rib on each side but these have two. My rarest find though must be a huge lump of Coprolite (dino poo) entirely preserved in iron pyrite. It weighs about 8lb. Also shrimps, coral, fern leaves and some ammonites from a quarry in Newark which no one can identify. They may be a new sub species or even a new species, I am waiting for news from some professionals.

Austria may be landlocked today but 150 million years ago it was under a shallow sea in the southern hemisphere. Some of the most important finds have come from the Austria-Germany region, including the world famous Archaeopteryx, also from a quarry.

Any dinosaurs in England?

Wow, fossilised dinosaur droppings, in fools gold! That's incredible, how deep down did you have to dig to find that? Good luck with the identification of the ammonites too.

Yes, there are lots of dinosaur remains in England but mainly in the south, especially the Isle of Wight. I didn't have to dig at all for my coprolite, it was laying there on the beach. The boulder clay cliff had eroded some more and it had just dropped out. Many finds are just laying on the beach as the tides wash the cliffs away.

ever had a t-rex wash up on the beach?

I can never remember the names of all the different fossils, but I've always collected the odd ones I've come across, plus I've bought a few trillobites and ammonites (they're my favourites) when I see ones I like. I used to collect rocks, crystals and minerals when I was holidaying in the Lake District and Wales, and got some really nice lumps of things such as galena, quartz and pyrites.....etc.

I spend a lot of my time at the weekends in the Little Gem Rock shop in Cromer 'cos it's got loads of fossils, petrified wood, dinasaur bones, as well as all the crystals, caves, geodes.......and so on, and I just love to be able to look and enjoy them.
Often families come in with their finds from the beaches and staff will help them to identify their bits and pieces. A lot of the children have very good knowledge about geology these days, I'm really impressed with their interest.

I can tell you though that you are definitely not the only one interested in fossils, you just have to go to the right places to meet them.

No T Rex in this part of the world. There have only been about fifteen ever found, all in America, although hollywood makes you think they are everywhere.
I have never been to Cromer but there are lots of fossil shops in Whitby and Bridlington. Try to find a magazine called rock and gem, it lists national shows and they have some amazing specimens.

My ex in-laws take their kids to Whitby a lot and go fossil hunting. They've found loads of bits n pieces on the beach. it's a great way to get the kids involved.

I never been to Whitby before but I have it down as a place to visit in the future. I think they run coach trips up that way from Cromer. It will be good to explore the shore as well as the rock shops.