The Great Oolite Group is a
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
stratigraphic unit that outcrops in southern England. It consists of a complex set of marine deposits primarily mudstone and bioclastic ooidal and fine grained limestone, deposited in nearshore to shelf settings.
It is exposed at the surface as a variably thick belt extending roughly NE-SW from the coast of
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...
up to the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...
. It is also present at depth in the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
and
Wessex Basin
The Wessex Basin is a petroleum-bearing geological area located along the southern coast of England and extending into the English Channel. The onshore part of the basin covers approximately 20,000 km2 and the area that encompasses the Englis ...
s, as well as offshore. Several of the constituent formations, notably the
Taynton Limestone Formation and the
Forest Marble Formation are notable for their fossil content, including those of dinosaurs and pterosaurs and some of the earliest mammals.
Paleofauna
* ''
Cardiodon rugulosus''
* ''
Cetiosaurus oxoniensis''
* ''
Eoplophysis vetustus'' (stegosaurid indet)
* ''
Megalosaurus bucklandii''
* ''
Proceratosaurus bradleyi
''Proceratosaurus'' is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of England. ''Proceratosaurus'' was a small dinosaur, measuring in length and in body mass.Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2008) ''Dinosaurs: The Most C ...
''
* ''
Seldsienean megistorhynchus''
See also
*
List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
This list of dinosaur-bearing rock formations is a list of geologic formations in which dinosaur fossils have been documented.
Containing body fossils
* List of stratigraphic units with dinosaur body fossils
** List of stratigraphic units with few ...
**
List of stratigraphic units with few dinosaur genera
This list of stratigraphic units with few non-avian dinosaur genera includes Mesozoic stratigraphic units of formation rank or higher that have produced dinosaur body fossils which have been referred to at most five genera. Since taxonomy frequent ...
References
Bibliography
* Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. .
Geological groups of the United Kingdom
Jurassic England
Fossils of England
Jurassic System of Europe
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