Whitby Mudstone

The Whitby Mudstone is a Toarcian (Early Jurassic; Falciferum-Bifrons in regional chronostratigraphy) geological formation in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, England.^[1] The formation, part of the Lias Group, is present in the Cleveland and Worcester Basins and the East Midlands Shelf.

Lithology

The formation consists of mudstone and siltstone, partly laminated and bituminous, medium to dark grey in colour, with rare fine grained calcareous sandstone beds. Limestone and phosphatic nodules are present at some levels.^[2]

Fossil content

Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific genus.^[3][4] One of the more notable discoveries is the skull of the pterosaur Parapsicephalus, found within the Alum Shale^{[note 2]} Member.^[5]

Vertebrates

Insects

Insect compression fossils are known from nodules found on Alderton Hill near Alderton and Dumbleton in Gloucestershire, including Alderton Hill Quarry and other nearby localities.^[15]

See also

• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in England
• Toarcian turnover
• Toarcian formations

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ Not to be confused with the Ordovician Alum Shale Lagerstätte of Sweden
2. ^ Not to be confused with the Ordovician Alum Shale Lagerstätte of Sweden

References

1. ^ Whitby Mudstone at Fossilworks.org
2. ^ "Whitby Mudstone Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. British Geological Survey
3. ^ "Whitby Mudstone Formation". The BGS lexicon of named rock units. British Geological Survey. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
4. ^ Weishampel et al., 2004, pp. 517-607
5. ^ O'Sullivan & Martill, 2017
6. ^ O’Sullivan, Michael & Rigby, Martin (April 2017). "The first evidence of a Campylognathoides —like pterosaur in the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) Whitby Mudstone Formation of Lincolnshire, England". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 128 (2): 287–291. Bibcode:2017PrGA..128..287O. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2016.12.009
7. ^ Woodward, A. S. (1889). On the paleontology of sturgeons. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 11(1), 24-32.
8. ^ Sachs, S.; Johnson, M.M.; Young, M.T.; Abel, P. (2019). "The mystery of Mystriosaurus: Redescribing the poorly known Early Jurassic teleosauroid thalattosuchians Mystriosaurus laurillardi and Steneosaurus brevior". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 64 (3): 565–579. doi:10.4202/app.00557.2018
9. ^ O'Sullivan, Michael; Martill, David M.; Groocock, David (December 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. 124 (6): 973–981. Bibcode:2013PrGA..124..973O. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2013.03.002
10. ^ Taylor, M. A. (May 1992). "Taxonomy and taphonomy of Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus (Plesiosauria, Reptilia) from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of the Yorkshire coast". Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. 49 (1): 49–55. Bibcode:1992PYGS...49...49T. doi:10.1144/pygs.49.1.49. ISSN 0044-0604
11. ^ Biot, T.; Lomax, D. R.; Miedema, F.; Maxwell, E. E. (2026). "A well-preserved specimen of Stenopterygius quadriscissus (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) of Yorkshire, UK and new insights into species delineation in the genus". Fossil Record. 29 (1): 185–210. doi:10.3897/fr.29.185733
12. ^ Nigel R. Larkin; Dean R. Lomax; Mark Evans; Emma Nicholls; Steven Dey; Ian Boomer; Philip Copestake; Paul Bown; James B. Riding; Darren Withers; Joseph Davis (2023). "Excavating the 'Rutland Sea Dragon': The largest ichthyosaur skeleton ever found in the UK (Whitby Mudstone Formation, Toarcian, Lower Jurassic)". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 134 (5–6): 627–640. Bibcode:2023PrGA..134..627L. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2023.09.003. S2CID 262205225
13. ^ Benton, M. J. & Spencer, P. S. (1995), "British Early Jurassic fossil reptile sites", Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, p. 118, doi:10.1007/978-94-011-0519-4_5. ISBN 978-94-010-4231-4
14. ^ Owen, R. (1842), "Report on British fossil reptiles", Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 60–204
15. ^ Kelly, Richard S.; Ross, Andrew J.; Coram, Robert A. (2018). "A Review of Necrotauliids from the Triassic/Jurassic of England (Trichoptera: Necrotauliidae)". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 2018: 1–12. doi:10.1155/2018/6706120. hdl:1983/06ae01fb-06bc-41d0-bcbd-f7519cb07df6. ISSN 0033-2615

Bibliography

• O'Sullivan, Michael & Martill, David M. (2017). "The taxonomy and systematics of Parapsicephalus purdoni (Reptilia: Pterosauria) from the Lower Jurassic Whitby Mudstone Formation, Whitby, U.K". Historical Biology. 29 (8): 1009–1018. Bibcode:2017HBio...29.1009O. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1281919. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.) (2004). The Dinosauria. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 1–880. ISBN 0-520-24209-2. Retrieved 2019-02-21.

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