Westbury claypit (Lafarge cement works) E5 (Jurassic of the United Kingdom)

Where: England, United Kingdom (51.3° N, 2.2° W: paleocoordinates 41.9° N, 7.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Aulacostephanus eudoxus ammonoid zone, Lower Member (Kimmeridge Clay Formation), Late/Upper Kimmeridgian (155.7 - 150.8 Ma)

• "found the pliosaur within the A. eudoxus Zone, in and 1 m below the top of their Subdivision E5, thus about 4.2 m below the top of the section then exposed, and 1 m below their E6 Marker of Crussoliceras Limestone."; Bed 30; crocodilian "material lay in situ c. 2 m below the Crussoliceras limestone marker bed of Birkelund et al. (1983), a lithologically persistent horizon found throughout the English Kimmeridgian (Taylor and Cruickshank 1993), and thus the material comes specifically from the eudoxus Zone (E5).

•["Lower Kimmerdigan" is incorrect, the Aulacostephanus eudoxus biozone is Upper Kimmeridgian]

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; poorly lithified, calcareous claystone

• "The matrix was a calcareous clay which was locally indurated."

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: permineralized

Collected by Bristol City Museums and Art Gallery staff in 1980, 2005- 2006

Collection methods: quarrying, chemical, mechanical, acetic

Primary reference: M. A. Taylor and A. R. I. Cruickshank. 1993. Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of Pliosaurus brachyspondylus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Upper Jurassic of Westbuty, Wiltshire. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 341(1298):399-418 [M. Carrano/H. Street]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 100263: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Hallie Street on 04.12.2010, edited by Roger Benson

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Plesiosauria - Pliosauridae
Pliosaurus westburyensis n. sp.1 Benson et al. 2013 plesiosaur
BRSMG Cc332
 Loricata - Metriorhynchidae
"Dakosaurus carpenteri n. sp." = Torvoneustes carpenteri2
"Dakosaurus carpenteri n. sp." = Torvoneustes carpenteri2 Wilkinson et al. 2008 marine crocodile
BRSMG Cd7203