The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles (154 km), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.
Golden Cap is a hill and cliff situated on the English Channel coast between Bridport and Charmouth in Dorset, England. At 191 metres (627 ft), it is arguably the highest point near the south coast of Great Britain and is visible for tens of miles along the coastline. It is accessible via a coastal footpath from Seatown, and takes around 40 minutes to reach the summit.
Plesiosaurus is a genus of extinct, large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the Early Jurassic. It is known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England. It is distinguishable by its small head, long and slender neck, broad turtle-like body, a short tail, and two pairs of large, elongated paddles. It lends its name to the order Plesiosauria, of which it is an early, but fairly typical member. It contains only one species, the type, Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. Other species once assigned to this genus, including P. brachypterygius, P. guilielmiimperatoris, and P. tournemirensis have been reassigned to new genera, such as Hydrorion, Seeleyosaurus and Occitanosaurus.
Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; snakeflies are found in temperate regions worldwide but are absent from the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere. Recognisable representatives of the group first appeared during the Early Jurassic. They are a relict group, having reached their apex of diversity during the Cretaceous before undergoing substantial decline.
The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre is based in the upstairs floor of a long-disused cement factory on the foreshore of Charmouth in Dorset, England.
Durlston Bay is a small bay next to a country park of the same name, just south of the resort of Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. It has been a renowned site for Lower Cretaceous fossils since the initial discovery of fragments there by Samuel Beckles in the 1850s.
The Tettigarctidae, known as the hairy cicadas, are a small relict family of primitive cicadas. Along with more than 20 extinct genera, Tettigarctidae contains a single extant genus, Tettigarcta, with two extant species, one from southern Australia and one from the island of Tasmania. Numerous fossil species have been described from the Late Triassic onwards. Tettigarcta are the closest living relatives of the true cicadas.
Promicroceras is an extinct ammonite genus from the upper Sinemurian of Europe, named by Leonard Spath in 1925. Promicroceras is included in the family Eoderoceratidae, which is part of the ammonitid superfamily Eoderoceratoidea.
Black Ven is a cliff in Dorset, England between the towns of Charmouth and Lyme Regis. The cliffs reach a height of 130 metres (430 ft). It is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Nearby is an undercliff with an ammonite pavement. The area is popular with tourists due to a number of fossils being found in the area.
The Spittles is an area of coastal cliff in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It is situated between the settlements of Lyme Regis to the west and Charmouth to the east. It forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site designated in 2001. The cliff contains layers of Blue Lias and clay; in wet seasons the clay causes the layers above to become saturated and hence landslips occur, exposing many fossils. Mary Anning famously found an Ichthyosaurus in the Spittles.
Stonebarrow is a coastal hill and sea cliff in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It is a well known fossil hunting location, close to the coastal village of Charmouth.
Archaeolepis mane is amongst the earliest undisputed lepidopteran fossils. It dates from the Lower Jurassic. It was found in the Charmouth Mudstone Formation, Dorset, United Kingdom.
Palaeontinidae, commonly known as giant cicadas, is an extinct family of cicadomorphs. They existed from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. The family contains around 30 to 40 genera and around a hundred species. They are thought to have had a similar ecology to modern cicadas as feeders on plant xylem fluids. Despite being described as "giant cicadas"(with the wingspan of some species exceeding 15 centimetres ), they are not particularly closely related to true cicadas.
Necroraphidia is an extinct genus of snakefly in the family Mesoraphidiidae. The genus is solely known from Early Cretaceous, Albian age, fossil amber found in Spain. Currently the genus comprises a single species, Necroraphidia arcuata.
Hondelagia is an extinct genus of snakefly in the Priscaenigmatidae family. The genus has been described three times under the same taxonomy, but was initially described by A. Bode in 1953. It currently contains one species, the Hondelagia reticulata which was described by Bode in 1953. Its wing is 7 centimetres (2.8 in) in length and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in width. It was found in Hondelage in Braunschweig. The genus was later described in 1992 by F. M. Carpenter and in 2002 by M. S. Engel. The genus' sister taxa is the extinct Priscaenigma. The species has no sister taxa.
Austroraphidia is an extinct genus of snakefly in the family of Baissopteridae. Austroraphidia fossils were described by Willmann in 1994. The genus was later described by Michael S. Engel in 2002. It has five sister taxa; Baissoptera, Cretinocellia, Cretoraphidia, Cretoraphidiopsis and Lugala. Its fossils were found at the Crato MNHN collection in Brazil, often known as the Cretaceous of Brazil. It contains one species, the extinct Austroraphidia brasiliensis, which was described by Nel et al. in 1990. Its average body length is 12.3 centimetres (4.8 in), the forewing is 10.2 by 3.0 centimetres and the hindwing is 9.5 by 2.88 centimetres.
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.
Liassocupes is an extinct genus of ommatid beetle from the Jurassic period of England. The only included species is Liassocupes parvus. It is known from compression fossils found at Flatstones near Charmouth in the Sinemurian aged part of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation, Dorset. Other species previously assigned to the genus include Liassocupes (?) maculatus described by Whalley in 1985 from the same locality, but this was subsequently suggested by Ponomarenko to belong to either Omma or Tetraphalerus and was considered to belong to the genus Brochocoleus by Kirejtshuk (2020). Another species Liassocupes (?) giganteus also described by Whalley (1985) from the same locality, was found to be a member of the genus Mimemala in the extinct family Schizocoleidae.
Fulgoridiidae are an extinct family of Mesozoic planthoppers. They are the earliest group of planthoppers known, and appear to be a paraphyletic assemblage ancestral to living planthoppers. The majority of known members of the family lived in the Jurassic period, though the group also includes one Cretaceous taxon. All currently known species are from Eurasia.
Dornraptor is an extinct genus of averostran, possibly stem tetanuran, theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Charmouth, Dorset, England. The genus contains a single species, D. normani, known from a fragmentary knee joint and femur that were initially described by Sir Richard Owen as belonging to the early armored dinosaur Scelidosaurus. Dornraptor lived in what is now England, along other theropods like Dracoraptor and Sarcosaurus.
