Whitecliff Bay, Lower Headon Beds (Bed 21), Isle of Wight (Eocene of the United Kingdom)

Where: United Kingdom (50.7° N, 1.1° W: paleocoordinates 49.2° N, 5.0° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Lower Member (Headon Beds Formation), Late/Upper Eocene (37.2 - 33.9 Ma)

• This author numbers beds for the whole area (multiple formations) in one series, this is bed number 21. Prestwich says that this bed belongs to the "Upper Group" of the fluvio-marine series, I have correlated it with Bosma's naming system as the Lower Headon Beds.

Environment/lithology: sandy marl and shelly/skeletal, green, carbonaceous marl

• marls and limestone, this bed is "Light greenish marl with one bed of lignite, crystals of selenite, and numerous fossils-passes upwards into a laminated brown clay without shells, which again passes upwards into [bed] 22."

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: J. Prestwich. 1846. On the Tertiary or SupraCretaceous Formations of the Isle of Wight as exhibited in the sections at Alum Bay and White Cliff Bay. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 2:233-259 [J. Alroy/E. Leckey/E. Leckey]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 40772: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Erin Leckey on 30.06.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Calyptra sp.
"Calyptraea"
Gastropoda
 Neritoidea - Neritidae
 Architaenioglossa - Viviparidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Strombidae
Terebellum sp. Röding 1798 true conch
 Neogastropoda - Volutidae
"Voluta spinosa" = Athleta (Volutospina) spinosa
"Voluta spinosa" = Athleta (Volutospina) spinosa Linnaeus 1758 volute
 Neogastropoda - Nassariidae
 Neogastropoda - Turridae
"Pleurotoma colon" = Turris
"Pleurotoma colon" = Turris turrid
 Cerithioidea - Potamididae
 Cerithioidea - Thiaridae
"Melania sp." = Thiara
"Melania sp." = Thiara Röding 1798 snail
 Heterostropha - Planorbidae
Planorbis sp. Muller 1774 snail
Scaphopoda
 Dentaliida - Dentaliidae
Dentalium entale tusk shell
Bivalvia
 Carditida - Carditidae
Venericardia sp. Lamarck 1801 clam
 Cardiida - Cyrenidae
 Cardiida - Veneridae
Cytherea incrassata Sowerby 1817 venus clam
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea sp., "Ostrea flabellula" = Cubitostrea flabellula
Ostrea sp. Linnaeus 1758 oyster
"Ostrea flabellula" = Cubitostrea flabellula Lamarck 1806 oyster
Actinopteri
 Teleostei -
Teleostei indet.
bones and scales