Top Barn Quarry, Nettleton (Jurassic to of the United Kingdom)

Where: England, United Kingdom (53.5° N, 0.3° W: paleocoordinates 44.3° N, 9.2° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Lower Member (Spilsby Sandstone Formation), Late/Upper Tithonian to Late/Upper Tithonian (150.8 - 140.2 Ma)

• Some of the elements were found in the basal Spilsby nodule bed (which is probably late Tithonian) and others in the overlying argillaceous sandstone (earliest Berriasian)

Environment/lithology: lagoonal; glauconitic, pebbly, phosphatic, gray, green sandstone

• Deposited in a small lagoon cut off from the open sea
• The Lower Spilsby Sandstone Member comprises poorly cemented, grey to grey-green, clayey quartzose sandstone, rich in glauconite, which encloses irregular masses of hard calcareous sandstone. At its base, the Basal Spilsby Nodule Bed contains numerous phosphatic pebbles, 6 to 12 mm in diameter.

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Pauline Taylor (and others) in 1999 and subsequent visits

• New Walk Museum, Leicester

Primary reference: R. Forrest and N. Oliver. 2003. Ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs from the Lower Spilsby Sandstone Member (Upper Jurassic), north Lincolnshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 54(4):269-275 [P. Mannion/P. Mannion]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 122657: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Philip Mannion on 04.01.2012

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Gnathostomata
  -
Osteichthyes indet. bony fish
LEICT G1.2001.100 (fish teeth and centra)
Reptilia
 Ichthyosauria - Ophthalmosauridae
cf. Ophthalmosaurus sp. Seeley 1874 ichthyosaur
LEICT G1.2001.016 (humerus) and LEICT G3.2001.001 (basioccipitial)
 Saurischia -
? Sauropoda indet. sauropod
LEICT G1.2001.21 and LEICT G1.2001.22 (tentatively identified as the sacral rib of a sauropod dinosaur on the basis of its size and the appearance of the bone)
 Plesiosauria -
Plesiosauria indet. de Blainville 1835 plesiosaur
LEICT G1.2001.005 (propodial), LEICT G1.2001.003 (dorsal centrum), LEICT G1.2001.010 (pectoral vertebra). Other material from the site includes fragments of vertebrae, ribs, girdles and propodials, and a complete epipodial, and a large damaged dorsal centrum
 Plesiosauria - Leptocleididae
Leptocleididae indet. White 1940 plesiosaur
LEICT G1.2001.008 (partial femur), LEICT G1.2001.060 and LEICT Gl.2001.061 (partial teeth)
 Plesiosauria - Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae indet. Cope 1869 elasmosaur
LEICT G1.2001.014, 047, 046, 050, 067, 045, 041, 044, 054, 049, 102 (series of associated cervical and dorsal centra)
 Plesiosauria - Pliosauridae
Pliosauridae indet. Seeley 1874 plesiosaur
LEICT G1.2001.011 (sacral centrum),