Recent discoveries from the Kimmeridge Clay - Dr Steve Etches

Event Description

Dr Steve Etches MBE

Lecture outline

New Discoveries from the Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset focuses on the diversity of the outstanding fossil collection held at The Etches Collection Museum of Jurassic Marine Life and in particular

• The stunning specimens, with many world firsts and specimens still undescribed.


• The scientific importance of these finds.


• And, more importantly, the stories around these amazing discoveries.

The stories reveal the painstaking extraction and preparation, to reveal the secrets of these fascinating fossils, how they lived, bred and died in the seas of Kimmeridge, 157 million years ago.

Biographical note

Dr Steve Etches MBE is an English plumber, fossil collector and preparator in Kimmeridge, on the Isle of Purbeck. He was born in 1949 and for the past 45 years has focused on collecting fossils solely from the Kimmeridge Clay. His collection is now housed in a purpose-built museum and educational learning centre in Kimmeridge village in Dorset called The Etches Collection Museum of Jurassic Marine Life. Steve Etches has won many prizes for his contributions to palaeontology and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen in 2014. On 24 July 2016, Steve Etches was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by the University of Southampton.

Attending the lecture

The lecture is open both to members of the Society and to guests.

The lecture will take place in Hansom Hall.

Please note that tea and coffee drinks will be available between 7.00pm and 7.15pm before the formal start of the event at 7.30pm.

The lecture will also be streamed on Zoom. A recording of the lecture may be available to members only.

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