Global sea levels continued to rise throughout much of the Early Cretaceous Period until warm waters flooded large areas of land across the world and the Jurassic Coast was once again deep underwater. Thriving in these sun-lit seas were billions of coccolithophores.
Coccolithophores are tiny, single-celled algae known as phytoplankton. Like plants, coccolithophores turn sunlight into energy that they use to live and grow. Plankton communities are primary producers and provide an important source of food for the ocean’s ecosystem. Since their first appearance around 220 million years ago, these living fossils have survived two mass extinctions and are still found floating in oceans today.
Chalk is a highly fossiliferous rock made up of countless tiny skeletons of plankton and other sea creatures. Mostly, it is the remains of coccolithophores - microfossils no bigger than the width of a human hair. It formed as the slow and gentle process of deposition created a fossil-rich ooze that blanketed the bottom of the sea. Over millions of years, billions of coccolithophores were buried and turned to chalk. You’ll notice that many of the local cliffs contain this bright white rock, including at Lulworth Cove and Swanage Bay.
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