Hempstead Cliff, Hempstead Series (bed 1), Isle of Wight (Eocene of the United Kingdom)

Where: England, United Kingdom (50.7° N, 1.5° W: paleocoordinates 49.2° N, 5.3° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Hempstead Formation, Late/Upper Eocene (37.2 - 33.9 Ma)

• the summit of Hempstead Cliff is capped with flint gravel mixed with sand, this bed is the highest Eocene strata, bed thickness is more than 20 ft.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: concretionary, ferruginous, argillaceous marl and concretionary, gray, blue, sandy claystone

• This bed is sandy grey or bluish clay, containing concretionary portions consisting of fragments of shells often enveloping entire oysters(!). The Hempstead Strata are shales and marls with a variety of colors (green, blue, red, yellow, gray) and some feruginous concretions.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: concretion

Primary reference: E. Forbes. 1856. On the Tertiary fluvio-marine formation of the Isle of Wight. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and of the Museum of Practical Geology 1-162 [J. Alroy/E. Leckey/E. Leckey]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 40105: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Erin Leckey on 17.06.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Cerithiidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Natica labellata Lamarck 1804 moon snail
Bivalvia
 Cardiida - Corbiculidae
"Cyrena semistriata" = Polymesoda subarata
"Cyrena semistriata" = Polymesoda subarata Bronn 1837 clam
 Pholadida - Corbulidae
Corbula sp. Bruguière 1789 clam
 Ostreida - Gryphaeidae
"Ostrea callifera" = Pycnodonte (Pycnodonte) callifera
"Ostrea callifera" = Pycnodonte (Pycnodonte) callifera Lamarck 1819 oyster
Thecostraca
 Balanomorpha - Balanidae
Balanus sp. Da Costa 1778 barnacle