Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It also extends northwards into Greenland and Svalbard. These areas were a part of the paleocontinent of Euramerica (Laurussia). In Britain it is a lithostratigraphic unit to which stratigraphers accord supergroup status and which is of considerable importance to early paleontology. The presence of Old in the name is to distinguish the sequence from the younger New Red Sandstone which also occurs widely throughout Britain.
Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England. It is privately owned by the Weld family, who own the Lulworth Estate, but it is also open to the public.
Dorset is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi); it borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The great variation in its landscape owes much to the underlying geology, which includes an almost unbroken sequence of rocks from 200 to 40 million years ago (Mya) and superficial deposits from 2 Mya to the present. In general, the oldest rocks appear in the far west of the county, with the most recent (Eocene) in the far east. Jurassic rocks also underlie the Blackmore Vale and comprise much of the coastal cliff in the west and south of the county; although younger Cretaceous rocks crown some of the highpoints in the west, they are mainly to be found in the centre and east of the county.
Echinodon is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur that lived during the earliest Cretaceous of southern England and possibly western France in the Berriasian epoch. The first specimens were jaw bones named Echinodon becklesii by Sir Richard Owen in 1861, and since their original description only additional teeth have been discovered. The specific name honours collector Samuel Beckles who discovered the material of Echinodon and many other taxa from across England, while the genus name translates as "prickly tooth" in reference to the dental anatomy of the taxon.
Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone.
The Purbeck Group is an Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous lithostratigraphic group in south-east England. The name is derived from the district known as the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where the strata are exposed in the cliffs west of Swanage.
Nuthetes is the name given to a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur, either a dromaeosaurid or a tyrannosauroid, known only from fossil teeth and jaw fragments found in rocks of the middle Berriasian age in the Cherty Freshwater Member of the Lulworth Formation in England and also the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. If it was a dromaeosaurid, Nuthetes would have been a small predator.
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck Marble. The stone has been quarried since at least Roman times up to the present day.
The Wessex Formation is a fossil-rich English geological formation that dates from the Berriasian to Barremian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It forms part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Formation and overlies the Durlston Formation. The dominant lithology of this unit is mudstone with some interbedded sandstones. It is part of the strata of the Wessex Basin, exposed in both the Isle of Purbeck and the Isle of Wight. While the Purbeck sections are largely barren of vertebrate remains, the Isle of Wight sections are well known for producing the richest and most diverse fauna in Early Cretaceous Europe.
The Lias Group or Lias is a lithostratigraphic unit 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, shales, marls and clays.
Owenodon is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur known from a partial lower jaw discovered in Early Cretaceous-age rocks of Dorset, United Kingdom, and possibly also Romania and Spain. The first and only definitive specimen was found in the Lulworth Formation of the Purbeck Limestone Group, dating to the middle Berriasian stage. It was first described by Richard Owen as a species Iguanodon, I. hoggii, honouring naturalist A.J. Hogg who had originally collected the fossil. Owen described the mandible as it was, partially embedded in a limestone block, but it was given to the Natural History Museum, London where it was accessioned as NHMUK PV R 2998 and further prepared. Some damage occurred to a tooth crown and part of the bone while stored in the collections. Redescription of I. hoggii by David Norman and Paul Barrett subsequently transferred the species to Camptosaurus in 2002, as well as tentatively referring other camptosaur-like material from the Purbeck beds to the species. The identity of the species was questioned, with Kenneth Carpenter and Yvonne Wilson, and Greg Paul, separating "C." hoggi from Camptosaurus as an intermediate ornithopod, until Peter Galton named the new genus Owenodon for it in 2009. Galton removed the material assigned by Norman and Barrett from Owenodon, but referred isolated teeth from the Bauxite of Cornet, Romania, and the El Castellar Formation of Spain to O. hoggii. The taxon, believed by Galton to be intermediate between Camptosaurus and Iguanodon, is of uncertain relationships, with the limited material preventing clear understanding of its position within ornithopod evolution. Phylogenetic studies have found Owenodon to be more primitive, equivalent to, or more derived than Camptosaurus, but it is often excluded to improve results.
The Mercia Mudstone Group is an early Triassic lithostratigraphic group which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands—the name is derived from the ancient kingdom of Mercia which corresponds to that area. It is frequently encountered in older literature as the Keuper Marl or Keuper Marl Series.
Pleurosternon is an extinct genus of freshwater pleurosternid turtle from the latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous of Europe. Its type species, P. bullockii was described by the paleontologist Richard Owen in 1853. Since then, and throughout the late 19th century, many fossil turtles were incorrectly assigned to this genus, though only two are currently considered valid.
The Portland Group is a Late Jurassic (Tithonian) lithostratigraphic group in South East England. The name is derived from the Isle of Portland in Dorset where the strata are exposed and have been extensively worked. Rocks of this age have in the past been called the Portlandian stage by geologists, which corresponds with the late Tithonian stage of the internationally used geological timescale.
The Durlston Formation is a geologic formation in England. Particularly in the Isle of Purbeck. It preserves fossils dating back to the Berriasian stage of the Lower Cretaceous.
The Charmouth Mudstone Formation is a geological formation in England, dating to the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian). It forms part of the lower Lias Group. It is most prominently exposed at its type locality in cliff section between Lyme Regis and Charmouth but onshore it extends northwards to Market Weighton, Yorkshire, and in the subsurface of the East Midlands Shelf and Wessex Basin. The formation is notable for its fossils, including those of ammonites and marine reptiles and rare dinosaur remains. The formation played a prominent role in the history of early paleontology, with its Lyme Regis-Charmouth exposure being frequented by fossil collectors including Mary Anning.
The Tyrone Group is a lithostratigraphical term coined to refer to a particular succession of rock strata which occur in Northern Ireland within the Visean Stage of the Carboniferous Period. It comprises a series of limestones, shales and sandstones which accumulated to a thickness of 2400m in the northwest Carboniferous basin of Ireland. The type areas for the group are the Clogher Valley of County Tyrone and the Fermanagh Highlands of nearby County Fermanagh. The rocks of the group sit unconformably on older rocks of the Shanmullagh Formation of the Fintona Group which are the local representatives of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. The top of the Dartry Limestone, the uppermost part of the group, is a disconformity, above which are the layered sandstones and shales of the Meenymore Formation of the Leitrim Group. The succession continues south and west across the border into the Republic of Ireland, though different names are typically applied.
Purbicella is a genus of extinct squamate from the Early Cretaceous of southern England. The type and only species is Purbicella ragei, which was described by Susan E. Evans, Marc E. H. Jones, and Ryoko Matsumoto in 2012 for a mostly complete and articulated skull from the Berriasian Lulworth Formation of Dorset. The generic name described the region of Purbeck where the fossil was found, while the species name honours paleoherpetologist Jean-Claude Rage. Purbicella has the most complete skull of any British fossil lizard, British Geological Survey (BGS) specimen GSb581, which was originally collected prior to 1911, but then remained in BGS storage until it was rediscovered and described by Evans and colleagues. The skull is unique among coexisting taxa for having fused frontal bones, and Purbicella is likely closer to modern lacertoids than any of the other British forms.
The geology of the North York Moors National Park in northern England is provided largely by a thick southerly dipping sequence of sedimentary rocks deposited in the Cleveland Basin during the Jurassic Period. A series of ice ages during the Quaternary period has left a variety of glacial deposits, particularly around the margins of the National Park.
