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Found a rock, fossil or mineral?  

Gravel Hunters

Found a rock, fossil or mineral?

Bring your find to the Museum and we will do our best to identify it for you, free of charge.

Please phone ahead to check that someone is available to look at your find and discuss it with you - we can't always guarantee that the appropriate member of staff will be available, particularly on Saturdays. If it's something unusual, we may ask you to leave it with us for a few days so we can find out more information before making an identification.

Alternatively you can email us with the details of your specimen or tag us on social media (Instagram @sedgwickmuseum or https://www.facebook.com/sedgwickmuseum). Please send good quality photographs taken from different angles and using a ruler for scale so that we know how big it is. It is also very useful to know where you found the specimen.

We are happy to accept written enquiries accompanied by photographs but please do not send objects by post to the Museum for reasons of safety and security.

Please note we do not offer a valuation service for specimens.

If you think you may have found an archaeological artefact, please look at the Portable Antiquities Scheme for more information.

Gravel Hunters 

Have you ever wondered where you might find fossils of your own? At the Sedgwick Museum, we house millions of rocks and fossils from around the world, and you could grow your own collection too. 

Although there are places that are famous for fossil collecting, such as the Jurassic coasts of Dorset and Yorkshire, the Isle of Wight, and the beaches of East Anglia, you can also find them right here in Cambridge. You might be surprised by how easy they are to find.

Evidence of ancient life can be found in ordinary flint gravel. You can find fascinating fossils in driveways, gardens, car parks and more.

Do you want to become a gravel hunter? You can access our activity and identification resource to help you in the field and take a look at the video below explaining how gravel is formed.