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The first fossil I remember seeing was in the gravel outside our front door in Leicester, gravel that I imagine must have come from one of the local gravel pits.

And in it was a thing which the local people called a Devil’s Toenail, which is in fact a primitive oyster called Gryphaea, but they were quite common. But there it was lying amongst just normal little bits of pebble and sand, and it did seem extraordinary, a shell made out of stone. I remember it very well.