Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is one of the richest dinosaur localities in Europe, with over 20 species of dinosaur having been recognised from the early Cretaceous Period (in particular between 132 and 110 million years ago), some of which were first identified on the island, as well as the contemporary non-dinosaurian species of crocodile, turtle and pterosaur.

Compton Bay, near Freshwater features dinosaur footprints which are visible at low tide.

Geological strata

Main article: Geology of the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight has layers of the Vectis and Wealden fossil-bearing beds exposed on the southern half of the island. These are revealed in the cliffs of Yaverland, close to Sandown, and at Hanover Point and Whale Chine, along the southwestern coast.

The Cretaceous habitat

The island's dinosaurs come from the Wessex Formation, which dates from between 125 and 110 million years ago (mya). During this time the Isle of Wight, then located on a latitude at which North Africa resides today, had a subtropical environment and was part of a large river valley complex, which ran along the south coast of England to Belgium. It was a world of ponds, rivers and swamps, so it had conditions favourable for the formation of fossils.

Animal remains from this time include crocodiles, turtles, pterosaurs, mammals and possibly some birds. In the water were snails, fish and mussels.

As this environment did not change much, over the course of 10 million years, a large number of fossils were formed, so the island today is a very rich source.

List of dinosaur species and genera

Unless otherwise specified, the following is a list of dinosaurs for which almost complete skeletons have been found on the island. There are also many more species, known only from a single or very few bones.

Order Ornithischia

• Suborder Ornithopoda ("bird-footed", bipedal herbivores)
  • Iguanodon bernissartensis
  • Brighstoneus simmondsi ^[1] , partial skeleton with skull and lower jaw
  • Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
  • Valdosaurus canaliculatus (known from partial material)
  • Istiorachis macarthurae ^[2] , partial postcranial skeleton
  • Hypsilophodon foxii: Named after Rev. William Fox, a fossil collector of the Isle of Wight who found several skeletons.
• Suborder Thyreophora ("shield-bearers", armored herbivorous dinosaurs)
  • Polacanthus foxii: Also named after the Reverend Fox. Notable as no head to the specimen has ever been found and reconstructions are based upon suppositions from similar ankylosaurians.
  • Vectipelta barretti ^[3]

Order Saurischia

• Suborder Sauropodomorpha ("sauropod-like", giant long-necked herbivores)
  • The 'Barnes High' sauropod: A member of the Brachiosauridae family, most likely Eucamerotus or Pelorosaurus , in the collection of Dinosaur Farm. ^{[4] [5]} This is the most complete specimen from the Wealden era "including presacral vertebrae, anterior caudal vertebrae, girdle and limb elements". ^[6]
  • Iuticosaurus valdensis ^[7]
  • Oplosaurus armatus ^[8] , a single tooth
  • Ornithopsis hulkei, ^[9] posterior dorsal vertebra, a right pubis and ischium
  • Chondrosteosaurus gigas, two neck vertebrae
  • Eucamerotus foxi, vertebrae found in 1852

Baryonyx, a large theropod, was found with fish scales in its stomach, indicating that it may have been a piscivore.

• Suborder Theropoda ("beast foot", bipedal carnivores)
  • Aristosuchus pusillus, a compsognathid
  • Baryonyx walkeri: Teeth are common on the Island. Hand bones have also been found.
  • Ceratosuchops inferodios ^[10]
  • Eotyrannus lengi: A tyrannosauroid. First identified in 1997 and named in 2001 from a single specimen found on the island.
  • Neovenator salerii: The holotype skeleton was found on the island in 1978 but not described until 1996.
  • Riparovenator milnerae ^[10]
  • Thecocoelurus daviesi, partial vertebrae ^[11]
  • Vectiraptor greeni, two partial dorsal vertebrae and parts of the sacrum ^[12] found in 2003 and described in 2021.
  • Vectaerovenator inopinatus ^[13] , found in 2019 from 4 vertebrae and named in 2020.
  • Yaverlandia bitholus: The holotype partial skull was found at Yaverland. It was initially believed to have belonged to a pachycephalosaurian.

See also

• List of dinosaur finds in the United Kingdom

References

1. Lockwood, Jeremy A. F.; Martill, David M.; Maidment, Susannah C. R. (10 November 2021). "A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, southern England". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 19 (12): 847–888. Bibcode:2021JSPal..19..847L. doi: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1978005 . ISSN   1477-2019. S2CID   244067410.
2. Lockwood, Jeremy A. F.; Martill, David M.; Maidment, Susannah C. R. (July 2025). "The origins of neural spine elongation in iguanodontian dinosaurs and the osteology of a new sail‐back styracosternan (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group of England". Papers in Palaeontology. 11 (4). doi:10.1002/spp2.70034. ISSN   2056-2799.
3. Thomas J. Raven (2021) The taxonomic, phylogenetic, biogeographic and macroevolutionary history of the armoured dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) (PhD thesis)
4. Naish, Darren (12 July 2006). "'Angloposeidon', the unreported story, part I". Tetrapod Zoology.
5. Taylor, Mike (6 November 2008). "Mystery sauropod dorsals of the Wealden, part 3: BMNH R88/89 — Britain's Best Brachiosaur (for now)". SVPOW.
6. "Sauropod dinosaurs". Field Guide to English Wealden Fossils. Palaeontological Association. 2011.
7. "Iuticosaurus, an Isle of Wight Titanosaurid". DinoWight. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
8. Wright, T. (1852). Contributions to the palaeontology of the Isle of Wight. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2:87-93.
9. "Ornithopsis, an Isle of Wight Brachiosaur". DinoWight. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
10. Barker, C.T.; Hone, D.; Naish, D.; Cau, A.; Lockwood, J.; Foster, B.; Clarkin, C.; Schneider, P.; Gostling, N. (2021). "New spinosaurids from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, UK) and the European origins of Spinosauridae". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 19340. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1119340B. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97870-8. PMC   8481559 . PMID   34588472.
11. Huene, F. von, 1923, "Carnivorous Saurischia in Europe since the Triassic", Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 34: 449-458
12. Longrich, Nicholas R.; Martill, David M.; Jacobs, Megan L. (June 2022). "A new dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Wessex Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, and implications for European palaeobiogeography" . Cretaceous Research. 134: 105123. Bibcode:2022CrRes.13405123L. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.105123. S2CID   245324247.
13. Barker, Chris; Naish, Darren; Clarkin, Claire; Hullman, Gabriel; Schneider, Philipp; Gostling, Neil; Farrell, Paul; Ward, Robin; Lockyer, James (2020). "Dryad Data -- Data from: A highly pneumatic 'mid Cretaceous' theropod from the British Lower Greensand". Dryad. doi:10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9gmj.

• Deborah Cadbury, The Dinosaur Hunters (Fourth Estate) ISBN   1-85702-963-1; a history of the early history of the discovery of dinosaurs in the United Kingdom. Includes brief references to collectors on the island.

External links

• Dinosaurs at Dinosaur Isle The website of Dinosaur Isle, an Isle of Wight palaeontological museum.
• DinoWight - The Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight Good site for general and scientific information
• Dinosaur Attractions Dinosaur Visitor attractions and things to do on the Isle of Wight
• The Palaeontological Association - Official website.
• "New Species Of Prehistoric Creatures Discovered In Isle Of Wight Mud", ScienceDaily, February 2009 news item on the discovery of diverse 48 species.

Other meanings

Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (Palaeontological Association, 2001) ISBN   0-901702-72-2, is also the title of a field guide to dinosaurs found on the island, by Darren Naish and David Martill.