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