Woodleaze Quarry, Fissure 1 (Triassic of the United Kingdom)

Where: England, United Kingdom (51.6° N, 2.5° W: paleocoordinates 20.6° N, 6.5° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Carnian (237.0 - 228.0 Ma)

• Similar to field relationships of Tytherington Quarry, Woodleaze has fissure fills in the Carboniferous Black Rock Limestone. Fissures are interpreted as "broadly contemporaneous" to Tytherington. Dissolution and karstification of the Carboniferous Limestone around Bristol predominantly took place in the early Rhaetian (Whiteside and Marshall, 2008).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fissure fill; gypsiferous, green, red, yellow, calcareous mudstone and siltstone

• Marginal marine environment. "Detailed overview of local topography... indicates the fissures formed in a limestone island emerging from the early Rhaetian sea... Importantly, the bones of the rhynchocephalian Clevosaurus from the Woodleaze fissures are almost always black or dark grey in colour, which indicates deposition in an anoxic environment."
• "The Woodleaze deposits... [are comprised of] bedded green, yellow and (some) red calcareous mudstones or siltstones. The rock from fissure 1 at Woodleaze also contains significant quantities of gypsum.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collected by C. Alabaster, L. Loeffler, A. Hook and J. Rogers in 1989

Collection methods: bulk, chemical, sieve, ,

• University of Bristol, Geology Department.

Primary reference: C. G. Klein, D. I. Whiteside, V. S. Lucas, P. A. Viegas, and M. J. Benton. 2015. A distinctive Late Triassic microvertebrate fissure fauna and a new species of Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from Woodleaze Quarry, Gloucestershire, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 126:402-416 [P. Barrett/T. Cleary]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 176263: authorized by Paul Barrett, entered by Terri Cleary on 04.02.2016

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Collection also includes a fish scale, wood fragment, and ichnofossils of uncertain affinity.
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Eosuchia -
Lepidosauria indet.
Lepidosauria indet. Haeckel 1866 lepidosaur
BRSUG 29381-101, single fragment of bone with three conical teeth, comparable to the fragment assigned to lepidosaur B by Whiteside and Marshall (2008)
 Eosuchia - Clevosauridae
Clevosaurus sectumsemper n. sp.
Clevosaurus sectumsemper n. sp. Klein et al. 2015 lepidosaur
Hundreds of disarticulated bones, including BRSUG 29381-56 (holotype), see original ref. for a more extensive list
 Eosuchia -
Diphydontosaurus avonis
Diphydontosaurus avonis Whiteside 1986 lepidosaur
BRSUG 29381-98 and -99, two consecutive parts of a left dentary; [no. not given], one vomer with tooth
Osteichthyes
 Palaeonisciformes - Birgeriidae
? Severnichthys sp.
? Severnichthys sp. Storrs 1994
BRSUG 29381-102, tooth