I was recently re-reading James McKay and Roger Osborne’s excellent – and now award-winning – book, Yorkshire’s Amazing Dinosaur Coast, and I realised that one of James’ paintings showed elephants being mobbed by starlings in interglacial Sewerby. I was suddenly reminded of the upcoming “Common Stars” exhibition at Redcar Palace, celebrating the remarkable bird that is Sturnus vulgaris: the common...

For participants joining a Redcar Rocks Fossil Safari or geology walk, please make sure you have read and understood the following safety document:

Everyone knows that I live my life for shopping. Why would I go out on the wild, wet and cold Yorkshire Coast when I could be knee-deep in fossil-fuelled fast fashion made by children in Chinese sweatshops? But seriously, rather than buying overpriced, environmentally unfriendly plastic tat with a huge carbon footprint this Christmas, how about supporting British small businesses...

Much like Taylor Swift, Yorkshire Coast fossil trips should be all about the ERAS*: Enjoyable, Responsible, Accessible, and Safe. Accessibility is probably the biggest challenge, though. If you’re a wheelchair user, for example, where can you safely go fossiling? Many of Yorkshire’s most fossiliferous beaches are surrounded by steep cliffs. Places like Saltwick Bay and Port Mulgrave do not have...