Locations on the Isle of Wight – a personal view – Deposits

• Whitecliff Bay
• Yaverland
• Hamstead to Yarmouth

Alison Cruickshanks (UK)

Within the ultimate a part of my article, I’ll take a look at areas on the Isle of Wight. Anybody who has visited the Isle of Wight will know that the island is legendary for dinosaurs. Certainly, in style customer sights embody the museums at Dinosaur Isle, Blackgang Chine (which has its personal mannequin Dinosaur land) and Dinosaur Farm.

What makes the Isle of Wight so particular is its diverse geology that modifications as you go from one aspect of the Island to a different. For instance, within the north, you’ll be able to gather from the Oligocene; within the south, you’ll be able to gather from the Cretaceous; and, within the south-east and west, you’ll be able to gather fossils from the Eocene. Some areas, akin to Whitecliff Bay and Alum Bay, have vertical beds. Alum Bay is legendary for the totally different colored sands that fill souvenirs in reward outlets everywhere in the island. These sands are from vertical beds representing the Eocene succession (Barton Group, Bracklesham Group, London Clay and Reading beds).

I spent a week on the Island with my husband looking at ten locations but I will concentrate on three of the most memorable during my visit.

Whitecliff Bay

We stayed at the caravan park on the cliff top at Whitecliff Bay and made this our first point of call. One of the first things I remember about Whitecliff Bay was the steep slope you need to descend to get down to the foreshore. It’s not so bad going down, but when you’re trying to carry several kilos of samples back from the beach, the return trip can be quite a challenge. Since our main objective at this location was to collect samples for later sieving for microfossils, there were plenty of trips during the week, back and forth collecting suitable supplies.

What makes Whitecliff Bay ideal for collecting such samples is the complete geological succession through the Eocene period that can be found there. To the west of the bay, the Reading Formation is the first part of the Eocene succession, followed by the London Clay Basement Bed, London Clay (Divisions A, B, C and D) and then the Bracklesham Group.

The full succession of the Bracklesham Group can be seen (Wittering Formation, Earnley Sand, Marsh Sand, Formation Selsey Sand) followed by Barton Clay, Chama Sand and Becton Sand. The Headon Hill Formation follows, including the Totland Bay Member, Cotwell Bay Member, Cliff End Member, Laceys Farm Limestone Member, Fishbourne Member, Osbourne Marls Member and Seagrove Bay Member. The east of the bay marks the final part of this succession: the Bembridge Marls Member and, finally, the Bembridge Limestone.

From the west end of the Bay, the upper chalk of Culver Cliff yields excellent sponges such as Porosphaera. Echinoids, such as the small Echinocorys subconicula and belemnites (Belemnitella mucronata) can be found from the Portsdown Member. This is the top of the succession, so it is best to search the rocks that have fallen from this thin marl bed. Occasional fish remains can also be found. I managed to find quite a lot of belemnites, but nothing worth keeping, as most of these were broken. Most of the rocks were covered in algae and so it was very hard to see anything.

Past the chalk, the Reading Formation can be seen, although much of it has been slipped and is covered by vegetation. This bed is mostly unfossiliferious, although a few silicified echinoids and a few derived microfossils from the chalk have been found.

The London Clay and London Clay Basement Bed, immediately after the Reading Formation, are where most of the more interesting fossils can be found, including shark’s teeth, worm tubes (Ditrupa) and a range of shells. The London Clay Formation includes the Bagshot Sands that are unfossiliferious. Therefore, most of the fossils can be found from the first part of the sequence.

Various molluscs can be found from the Bracklesham Group. These include Turritella and Venericor planicosta and are from the Earnley Sand. The giant foraminifera species, Nummulites laevigatus, can also be found here.  I managed to find some very nice specimens of all of these but we quickly had to treat them on site, as they are all extremely fragile.

We could not collect from the Barton Group as it was most covered by a sea defence, although during scouring conditions this is exposed on the foreshore. Here, shells of Nummulites prestwichianus and Nummulites rectus can be found. The Becton Sand follows the Barton Group (again, mostly covered up by defences).

The Headon Hill Formation was badly landsliped, but can yield a wide range of marine shells: Viviparus, Galba, Planorbina, Potamomya, Melanopsis, Theodoxus, Ostera, Psammotaea, Pelcora, Corbula, as well as many other species.

Lastly, at the Eastern end of the bay, the Bembridge Limestone yields superb specimens of Planorbina and Galba. I managed to collect some excellent specimens of both of these.

Yaverland

Another location, which has a varied geology, is Yaverland. The Cenomanian (chalk), Albian (greensand and gault clay), Aptian and the Wealden of the Barremain stage are all clearly visible here. This location is famous for dinosaur remains but, once again, collecting is dependant on the right conditions. However, vertebrae remains, including the bones and teeth of dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and fish, can be found here. We searched in a lignite bed that was recognisable by a dark layer containing fossil plant material of stems, branches and cones. Although I didn’t find any remains myself, my husband managed to find some nice teeth.

The most enjoyable part of this trip was splitting hard, cement-like slabs that were full of bones and teeth. I managed to find two sharks’ fins. These blocks are extremely hard and require a lot of work.

Later during the week, we returned after the foreshore had started to scour and initially thought we had found a piece of dinosaur bone on the foreshore. However, when we got back to the caravan, it turned out to be lignite. The foreshore was so muddy that it was difficult to identify the find until we had the opportunity to clean the specimen.

Hamstead to Yarmouth

The coastline from Hamstead to Yarmouth provides one of the few opportunities to collect from the Oligocene in the UK. The Bouldnor Formation is highly rich in fossils and our visit turned out to be the most memorable part of our trip. Not only did we find a large number of spectacular finds, it was also the most challenging. I particularly remember how steep and muddy it was just to get down to the foreshore. The footpath was extremely overgrown and the path was full of pits and slippery sections making it quite dangerous for children or elderly.

After finally making our way to the bottom, the tide was still in. This wasn’t a bad thing as we had already planned this. It’s quite a walk from Hamstead to Yarmouth and, as the tide retreats, the fossils can be found waiting to be picked up off the foreshore. This can be a popular location, so we intended to be first on the scene.

This area is rich in mammal, crocodile, turtle, crustacean, molluscs and fish remains and also fossil seed and plant material.

Crocodile scutes, turtle plates and crocodile teeth are the most common finds. The Hamstead Formation is full of fossil seeds: Stratiotes websterii is one of the most common and can be found mostly found by sieving, since they are very small. There are two species of crocodile, the most common being Diplocynodon and two species of turtle, including Trionyx and Emys.

I managed to find a large bagful of turtle plates, crocodile scutes and several crocodile teeth along the tide line. As we walked further along the beach, I came across a nice crocodile jaw that turned out to be my best find on the Island during the week.

I hope to return to the island in the near future with my husband to collect during spring or autumn tides in the hope of maybe finding that elusive dinosaur bone! I have already visited other renowned fossil areas in the UK including Somerset and Essex. During September, I will visit the Edinburgh area to look at Silurian and Carboniferous rocks and, at some point, I would like to visit the famous Dorset coast.

The last two years have been a steep learning curve but I have enjoyed every second and look forward to many more expeditions in the future.

Further information on the above locations can be found on UK Fossils.