Coten End Quarry

Also within

Warwickshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Triassic · Rock Type: Sandstone

Description

Area, 0.24 hectares 0.6 ac Description This site provides important exposures of fossiliferous sandstone layers of the Middle Triassic which accumulated about 230 million years ago, as sand dunes in a desert environment. Sandstones of this age in Britain are usually devoid of fossil remains but in this quarry geologists have found rare and important remains of reptiles and amphibians. These include labyrinthodont amphibians, of which some species were first collected and described from here. Coten End quarry is thus the type locality for these and consequently of international important for future research. Some of this fossil material consists of well preserved skull remains which have yielded much new information. Reptile remains from here include what may be a new species of Rhynchosaurus and other recently identified specimens include a macrochemid comparable with Swiss animals of the same age, apoposaurid and possible dinosaur teeth. The fauna from Coten End is unique and varied, representing the broadest range of Middle Triassic reptiles in Britain and the best terrestrial fauna of the mid Middle Triassic in the world.