Upper Chicksgrove Quarry
Condition (Natural England)
| Unit | Feature | Condition | Area (ha) | Assessed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST961295 | — | Unfavourable Declining | 5.82 | 2023-06-15 |
Geology & landscape
Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Jurassic
Description
Area, 5.6 ha. 13.8 ac. Description This site is of geological interest for both its exposures of the Portlandian rocks and for the fossil vertebrate remains found here. It is the largest single exposure in the Jurassic rocks of the Vale of Wardour. The historic Chicksgrove Quarry shows a thick Portland Purbeck section, from the Wardour Member of the basal Purbeck Clays and Limestones, which has proved of outstanding use in studies of late Jurassic stratigraphy. Ammonite faunas collected here have been critical in deriving a correlation with other Portlandian sections in north west Europe. The faunas of the glaucolithus ammonite zone, in particular, are the richest known occurrence for that time interval in Britain. The quarry was the source of the type material for the original description of Ammonites giganteus Sowerby and was the subject of one of the first bed by bed descriptions, publishedin 1816 by Benett. It is a key stratigraphic locality of national importance. The site also yields a variety of vertebrate remains giving a picture of the fish, reptiles and mammals which inhabited this part of north west Europe in latest Jurassic times. The site has provided remains of a number of 'dinosaur' genera, pterosaurs, crocodilians, sharks and bony fish as well as newly discovered multituberculate and pantothere mammals. These last two occur here at a stratigraphic level intermediate between the mammal faunas of the Guimarota deposits of Portugal Kimmeridgian and the Mammal Bed of the Purbeck strata of Dorset Berriasian and may equate in age with the famous Morrison Formation of North America, with its dinosaur and mammal assemblages. These vertebrates make this locality unique in the Jurassic succession of Europe.