Along its length, the Dorset Coast Path provides a continuous exposure of the Jurassic beds (213 - 144 million years old), together with earlier Cretaceous beds in places. Geologists have long recognised the importance of the Dorset exposures, as all the major Jurassic rock types are so well revealed. This has prompted World Heritage Site status to be awarded to the Dorset coastline.

There have been many important palaeontological finds along the coast, starting with the well known discoveries of ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons near Lyme Regis by Mary Anning in the early part of the 19th century. To this day, the Lyme Regis/Charmouth area remains popular with amateur and professional fossil hunters and at the very least visitors will be able to find remains of ammonites and the squid-like belemnites. There are many other localities which provide good exposures and the chance for some fossil finds.

An excellent site produced by Ian West of the Southampton Oceanography Centre which provides much more detail about the Geology of the Dorset Coast together with a number of field guides is at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/index.htm