HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Whitby Mudstone is a
Toarcian The Toarcian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, an age (geology), age and stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Early Jurassic, Early or Lower Jurassic. It spans the time between 184.2 Megaannum, Ma (million ...
(
Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...
; ''Falciferum''-''Bifrons'' in regional chronostratigraphy) geological formation in
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
and
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
,
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 ...
.Whitby Mudstone
at
Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...
.org
The formation, part of the
Lias Group The Lias Group or Lias is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) found in a large area of western Europe, including the British Isles, the North Sea, the Low Countries and the north of Germany. It consists of marine limestones, ...
, is present in the
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
and Worcester Basins and the East Midlands Shelf.


Lithology

The formation consists of mudstone and siltstone, partly
laminated Simulated flight (using image stack created by μCT scanning) through the length of a knitting needle that consists of laminated wooden layers: the layers can be differentiated by the change of direction of the wood's vessels Shattered windshi ...
and
bituminous Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American English, the m ...
, medium to dark grey in colour, with rare fine grained calcareous sandstone beds.
Limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and
phosphatic Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphor ...
nodules Nodule may refer to: *Nodule (geology), a small rock or mineral cluster *Manganese nodule, a metallic concretion found on the seafloor *Nodule (medicine), a small aggregation of cells *Root nodule Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, p ...
are present at some levels.


Fossil content

Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...
remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
.Weishampel et al., 2004, pp. 517-607 One of the more notable discoveries is the skull of the pterosaur '' Parapsicephalus'', found within the Alum Shale Member.O'Sullivan & Martill, 2017


Vertebrates


Insects

Insect compression fossils are known from nodules found on Alderton Hill near Alderton and
Dumbleton Dumbleton is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The village is roughly 20 miles from the city of Gloucester. The village is known to have existed in the time ...
in
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, including Alderton Hill Quarry and other nearby localities.


See also

*
List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in England See also * Lists of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Europe * Lists of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in the United Kingdom References * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fossiliferous stratigraphic units in England England England is a Countr ...
*
Toarcian turnover The Toarcian extinction event, also called the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction event, the Early Toarcian mass extinction, the Early Toarcian palaeoenvironmental crisis, or the Jenkyns Event, was an extinction event that occurred during the early ...
* Toarcian formations


Notes and references


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * {{cite book , editor-last= Weishampel , editor-first=David B. , editor-last2= Dodson , editor-first2=Peter , editor-last3= Osmólska , editor-first3=Halszka , year=2004 , title=The Dinosauria, edition=2nd , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZFDb_iw40C , location=Berkeley, publisher= University of California Press , pages=1–880 , accessdate=2019-02-21, isbn=0-520-24209-2


Further reading

* M. O'Sullivan, D. M. Martill, and D. Groocock. 2013. A pterosaur humerus and scapulocoracoid from the Jurassic Whitby Mudstone Formation, and the evolution of large body size in early pterosaurs. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association * A. S. Smith and G. J. Dyke. 2008. The skull of the giant predatory pliosaur ''Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni'': implications for plesiosaur phylogenetics. Naturwissenschaften 95:975-980 * M. J. Benton and M. A. Taylor. 1984. Marine reptiles from the Upper Lias (Lower Toarcian, Lower Jurassic) of the Yorkshire coast. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 44(4):399-429 * F. v. Huene. 1926. The carnivorous Saurischia in the Jura and Cretaceous formations, principally in Europe. Revista del Museo de La Plata 29:35-167 * C. W. Andrews. 1922. Note on the skeleton of a large plesiosaur (''Rhomaleosaurus thorntoni'', sp. n) from the Upper Lias of Northamptonshire. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 10:407-415 * R. Tate and J. F. Blake. 1876. The Yorkshire Lias 1-475 Geologic formations of England Jurassic England Early Jurassic Europe Toarcian Stage Mudstone formations of the United Kingdom Shallow marine deposits Open marine deposits Paleontology in England Geology of North Yorkshire Geology of Worcestershire Jurassic System of Europe