The Ferruginous Sands is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It preserves

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

dating back to the

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

Stage of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

. It consists of "a number of heavily bioturbated coarsening-upward units each comprising dark grey sandy muds or muddy sands passing up into fine-to medium-grained grey to green glauconitic sands." The dinosaur '' Vectaerovenator inopinatus'' is known from the formation. Shark teeth are also known from the formation, including those of an indeterminate

lamniform The Lamniformes (, from Greek ''lamna'' "fish of prey") are an order of sharks commonly known as mackerel sharks (which may also refer specifically to the family Lamnidae). It includes some of the most familiar species of sharks, such as the g ...

shark and ''

Palaeospinax ''Palaeospinax'' is an extinct genus of synechodontiform cartilaginous fish. Although several species have been described, the genus is considered ''nomen dubium'' because the type-specimen of the type species, ''Palaeospinax priscus'', from th ...

'' (formerly ''

Synechodus ''Synechodus'' is an extinct genus of shark belonging to the family Palaeospinacidae and order Synechodontiformes. It is known from 16 species primarily spanning from the Late Triassic to Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geol ...

'').

References

* Cretaceous England Aptian Stage Lower Cretaceous Series of Europe {{England-stub

See also

References