Redcar is a seaside resort on the North East coast of England. The name redcar means means either place by the red marsh from the Old English rēad meaning red and Old Scandinavian kjarr or the first part of the name could be OE hrēod a reed, meaning "reedy marshland", referring to the low lying site by the sea that Redcar occupies.
Skippy's grandfather was a foreman in the ICI works at Wilton in the 1950's-70s in the perspex division, which is where the connection to the town comes from!
The common name for Gryphea oyster is the Devil's toenail. Redcar is one of the few places in the UK where these fossils can be found, the other being in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Gryphea oysters were bivalve molluscs with hinged shells. Modern variants of bivalve molluscs include the familiar and edible cockles, oysters and mussels. They first appeared in the Cambrian, though for much of the Paleozoic they are quite rare as fossils.
The largest specimens of bivalve fossils can be well over a metre across (e.g. the modern Giant Clam). Most bivalves are marine, though some are freshwater. None live on land. They feed by straining small edible particles out of the water using sieve like organs called ctenidia. Bivalves tend to be very sluggish creatures which either burrow in the mud or attach themselves to solid objects such as rocks, and they have poorly developed sense organs. They also have primitive eyes located around the inside edges of the valves. Bivalves are exceedingly abundant in Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks. Sometimes whole beds up of their accumulated shells.
Another feature of the beach at Redcar is the scars that project at an angle out from the beach into the North Sea. The scars run for a considerable length of the beach and provide shelter for marine animals along the sandy coastlie
Take a walk from the given coordinates (across the road from the Park hotel) down the steps on to the beach and walk along the beach front towards the beacon.
Keep a close eye on the beach and you will find fossils of Gryphea oysters from the Jurassic period scattered amongst the other shells and clumps of seaweed.
To log this cache, email us with answers to the following questions:
1. The beach at Redcar has large scars of rock running through it at an angle of approximately how many degrees.
2. How do you think these scars were formed? (a bit of research will be required)
3. Find a Devil's toenail and estimate it's size (width and length)
4. How do you think the fossils came to be on Redcar beach?
5. As an optional extra, we'd love to see photos of you on the beach with a Devil's toenail!?
Please do not remove a large number of the fossils from the beach so that everyone can enjoy finding them!
When logging this earthcache please ensure that you send us the answers to the questions. To log an earthcache you are required to complete additional logging tasks, you need to answer the questions. If we do not receive the answers within 24 hours we will delete your log.