Tytherington Quarry, Fissure 2 (Bristol Channel): Carnian, United Kingdom
collected by J. Marshall & D. Whiteside 1975

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Gastropoda
Gastropoda indet. Cuvier 1795
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Reptilia - Procolophonidae
Hwiccewyrm trispiculum n. gen., n. sp. Butler et al. 2023
Butler et al. 2023 6 individuals
UMZC 2023.4.1 (holotype), UMZC 2023.4.2-51.
Reptilia - Archosauria
Archosauria indet. Cope 1869
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Reptilia
Archosauria informal indet. 2 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-525; "morphotype 2"
Archosauria informal indet. 3 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 5 specimens
BRSUG 29372-68, 1084, 1096, 1317, 1868; "morphotype 3"
Archosauria informal indet. 4 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-12; "morphotype 4"
Archosauria informal indet. 5 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-40, ; "morphotype 5"
Archosauria informal indet. 6 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-41; "morphotype 6"
Archosauria informal indet. 7 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 3 specimens
BRSUG 29372-535, 402, 1772; "morphotype 7"
Archosauria informal indet. 8 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 4 specimens
BRSUG 29372-11, 562, 603, 48; "morphotype 8"
Archosauria informal indet. 9 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 5 specimens
BRSUG 29372-45, 196, 565; "morphotype 9"
Archosauria informal indet. 10 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 2 specimens
BRSUG 29372-13, 1064; "morphotype 10"
Archosauria informal indet. 11 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-1617; "morphotype 11"
Archosauria informal indet. 12 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-168; "morphotype 12"
Archosauria informal indet. 13 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-76; "morphotype 13"
Archosauria informal indet. 14 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-1038; "morphotype 14"
Archosauria informal indet. 15 (Cope 1869)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-50; "morphotype 15"
"Palaeosaurus" sp. Riley and Stutchbury 1836
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
nomen dubium belonging to Phytosauria
aff. Terrestrisuchus sp. Crush 1984
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Reptilia - Theropoda
Coelurosauria indet. Huene 1914
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
    = Theropoda indet. Marsh 1881
Carrano 2025
Reptilia
Thecodontosaurus sp. Riley and Stutchbury 1836
1000 specimens
BRSUG 23606–BRSUG 23972, BRSUG 26585–BRSUG 26660, BRSUG 28121–BRSUG 28404, and BRSUG 29372-2805–BRSUG 29372-3812
    = Thecodontosaurus antiquus Morris 1843
van den Berg et al. 2012
Lepidosauria indet. (Haeckel 1866)
Reptilia - Sphenodontia
Sphenodontia indet. (Jaekel 1910)
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Reptilia - Clevosauridae
Clevosaurus sp. Swinton 1939
Reptilia
Diphydontosaurus avonis n. gen., n. sp. Whiteside 1986
Whiteside 1986 90 %-specimens
represents 90 % of the fauna in the block prepared.
Planocephalosaurus sp. Fraser 1982
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Actinopteri - Pholidophoriformes - Pholidophoridae
? Pholidophorus sp. Agassiz 1832
Whiteside 1986
a few fish scales, "probably Pholidophorus"
    = Pholidophorus sp. Agassiz 1832
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
Palaeonisciformes - Birgeriidae
Saurichthys sp. Agassiz 1834
Whiteside 1986
    = Severnichthys sp. Storrs 1994
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
nomen dubium belonging to Birgeria
Palaeonisciformes - Palaeoniscidae
Gyrolepis sp. Agassiz 1833
Whiteside 1986
unclassified
Actinopterygii informal indet. 1 (Cope 1887)
van den Berg et al. 2012 60 specimens
"morphotype 1"
Actinopterygii informal indet. 2 (Cope 1887)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-947; "morphotype 2"
Actinopterygii informal indet. 3 (Cope 1887)
van den Berg et al. 2012 1 specimen
BRSUG 29372-1435; "morphotype 3"
Chondrichthyes - Ctenacanthiformes
Ctenacanthoidea indet. Zangerl 1981
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
scale
Chondrichthyes - Hybodontiformes - Polyacrodontidae
Hybodus sp. Agassiz 1834
Whiteside 1986
    = Polyacrodus sp. Jaekel 1889
Whiteside and Marshall 2008
see common names

Geography
Country:United Kingdom State/province:England County:Avon
Coordinates: 51.6° North, 2.4° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:20.6° North, 6.5° East
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period:Triassic Epoch:Late/Upper Triassic
Stage:Carnian 10 m.y. bin:Triassic 3
Key time interval:Carnian
Age range of interval:237.00000 - 227.00000 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Stratigraphy comments: Rhaetian age is based upon "non-reworked" palynomorphs and the lithology, both of which indicate age equivalence to the Late Westbury Formation (Lower Rhaetian), Penarth Group, of Whiteside (1983) and Whiteside and Marshall (1986). Tytherington fissure fills are not necessarily contemporaneous (Fraser 1994).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: "limestone"
Secondary lithology:green,red marl
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: Bones are from a detrital limestone infilling of the Lower Carboniferous Black Rock Limestone. Fissure material is "red and green marls, breccias and conglomerate."
Environment:fissure fill
Geology comments: Marginal marine environment. "Fissures were formed in the Late Triassic by solutional and tectonic processes (Whiteside 1983) and were infilled by terrestrial deposits that derived from a small limestone island."
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Degree of concentration:-multiple events
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Spatial orientation:preferred
Preservation of anatomical detail:good
Disassociated major elements:many
Disassociated minor elements:many
Fragmentation:occasional
Spatial resolution:parautochthonous
Collection methods and comments
Collection excludes:species names
Collection methods:bulk,chemical,sieve,field collection
Minimum sieve size:500.000 Maximum sieve size:75.000
Collection size:1000 specimens
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collectors:J. Marshall & D. Whiteside Collection dates:1975
Collection method comments: University of Bristol, Geology Department. The Fissure 2 site has been destroyed by quarrying, but uprepared blocks containing fossils are retained in the collections at Bristol. Greater than 1000 specimens.
Taxonomic list comments:Whiteside states that "Clevosaurus is found in the same faunal assemblage as Diphydontosaurus in three fissure deposits at Tytherington." It is not clear whether Clevosaurus occurs at Fissure 2.
Metadata
Also known as:ST 660 890, ST 660890
Database number:46889
Authorizer:R. Whatley, E. Vlachos, M. Carrano Enterer:R. Whatley, M. Carrano, F. Aspromonte
Modifier:M. Carrano Research group:vertebrate
Created:2005-01-25 09:00:32 Last modified:2024-02-16 10:27:01
Access level:the public Released:2005-01-25 09:00:32
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
56028. J. E. A. Marshall and D. I. Whiteside. 1980. Marine influence in the Triassic "uplands". Nature 287:627-628 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]

Secondary references:

74242 A. Ballell, E. J. Rayfield, and M. J. Benton. 2020. Osteological redescription of the Late Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaur Thecodontosaurus antiquus based on new material from Tytherington, southwestern England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 40(2):e1770774:1-24 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
80580 A. Ballell, E. J. Rayfield, and M. J. Benton. 2022. Walking with early dinosaurs: appendicular myology of the Late Triassic sauropodomorph Thecodontosaurus antiquus. Royal Society Open Science 9(1):211356:1-27 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Uhen]
86209 R. J. Butler, L. E. Meade, T. J. Cleary, K. T. McWhirter, E. E. Brown, T. S. Kemp, J. Benito and N. C. Fraser. 2023. Hwiccewyrm trispiculum gen. et sp. nov., a new leptopleuronine procolophonid from the Late Triassic of southwest England. The Anatomical Record 1-31 [E. Vlachos/F. Aspromonte]
14199ETE M. T. Carrano. 2025. Taxonomic opinions on the Dinosauria. [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
76451 R. Schouten. 2000. The Tytherington Thecodontosaurus, a prosauropod dinosaur. In M.-C. Buchy (ed.), 5th European Workshop on Vertebrate Palaeontology. Program. Abstracts. Excursion Guides 73 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
87573 M. J. Simms and K. Drost. 2024. Caves, dinosaurs and the Carnian Pluvial Episode: Recalibrating Britain’s Triassic karst ‘fissures'. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 638:112041 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
70247 T. van den Berg, D. I. Whiteside, P. A. Viegas, R. Schouten, and M. J. Benton. 2012. The Late Triassic microvertebrate fauna of Tytherington, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 123:638-648 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/O. Alfaro]
12453 D. I. Whiteside. 1986. The head skeleton of the Rhaetian sphenodontid Diphydontosaurus avonis gen. et sp. nov. and the modernizing of a living fossil. Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 312:379-430 [R. Whatley/R. Whatley/R. Whatley]
59609 D. I. Whiteside, C. J. Duffin, P. G. Gill, J. E. A. Marshall, and M. J. Benton. 2016. The Late Triassic and Early Jurassic fissure faunas from Bristol and South Wales: stratigraphy and setting. Palaeontologia Polonica 67:257-287 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
25869ETE D. I. Whiteside and J. E. A. Marshall. 2008. The age, fauna and palaeoenvironment of the Late Triassic fissure deposits of Tytherington, South Gloucesterhire, UK. Geological Magazine 145(1):105-147 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/R. Butler]