THE NAZE, WALTON, ESSEX.

This page is intended to give an idea of what to expect of this locality if you have never visited it before.
(All images are actual size of an average specimen fossil.)
The Naze is rated a SSSI and is one of the classic sites in Essex visited by the ERMS every year. Collecting from the cliff face is not permitted. Coastal erosion is rapid enough by environmental factors without any interference by man. Besides, there is no point as fossils are easily picked by hand from the slumped Red Crag sands being washed away on the edge of the foreshore.

By far the most prolific Red Crag fossil is Glycymeris glycymeris, a bivalve which still survives to the present, although these fossils are about 1 to 2 Ma old. (Pleistocene). You may find an example or two with what looks like a hole drilled through the shell.


This is the work of another common fossil, a gastropod called Natica multipunctata.

Natica used its tongue to rasp a hole into the then living Glycymeris and then sucked out the innards. (I presume this explanation resulted from the study of the habits of present day gastropods. It may have just killed it by drilling the hole and then waited for the shells to disarticulate to get at the meat? It is probably safer to say Natica lunched on Glycymeris occasionally?)

 

Our third fossil featured is Neptunea contraria. This is a reverse spiral Whelk. (Extinct? check the whelk stalls at the seaside!) Has it gone because of a subtle environmental factor? Consequences of evolution or what? (It has recently been reported that antifouling paint on boats is causing a sex change in the whelks along our North Sea coast!)

Because Neptunea is common at the Naze, does it occur anywhere else? I have read of one other occurrence of a reverse spiral Pleistocene whelk and that was in the USA. So perhaps Neptunea is not so common after all!

 

There are many other Red Crag fossils plus the London Clay Fauna to whet your appetite. The trip leader may have prepared a handout, if you're lucky!

 

If you are interested in coastal erosion, then the Naze is excellent. It almost happens in real time. I just hope the cafe is still there when I go again. Best tea & cakes in Town! (RC)

For Field Trip assembly point & times see the Field Trip Programme.