Colchester + Ipswich Museums

This exciting new gallery examines the fossil evidence from beneath our feet, to learn what this area was like millions of years ago.

Starting at the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago there is evidence of the Chalk Sea. Colchester at this time was covered by a tropical sea inhabited by sea urchins, shellfish and corals. Many of these animals have been fossilised in flint and can be found on our coastline.

55 million years ago our area was again underwater. The rivers flowing through the subtropical rain forests deposited thick mud out at sea. This mud formed the London Clay deposit. Here we find fossil evidence of turtles, crocodiles and sharks.

Around 3 million years ago the climate cooled and the Red Crag deposit was laid down. Fossils such as the left-handed whelk are dwarfed by the teeth of Carcharadon megalodon the giant ancestor of the Great White Shark. See the huge replica jaw hanging in the archway above the gallery.

1.6 million years ago Colchester experienced the freezing temperatures of an Ice Age. These cold periods were interrupted by warmer periods during which elephants and hippopotamuses roamed this area. These giants were replaced by more hairy animals during the frozen periods such as woolly rhinoceroses and woolly mammoths. Fossil evidence shows that these animals lived right here in north east Essex.