Cromer Forest Bed Explained

Cromer Forest-bed Formation
Period:	Pleistocene
Age:	Early Middle Pleistocene
Type:	Geological formation
Prilithology:	sands and silts
Otherlithology:	peat, mud, silty marl
Unitof:	Dunwich Group
Subunits:	Sheringham Member, Runton Member, West Runton Member, and Bacton Member
Underlies:	Middle Pleistocene glacial deposits
Overlies:	Wroxham Crag Formation or unconformity with Chalk Group
Thickness:	NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet)
Coordinates:	52.941°N 1.253°W
Namedfor:	Cromer
Namedby:	Clement Reid
Year Ts:	1882
Location Ts:	The coast of North Norfolk from Weybourne to Happisburgh
Country Ts:	England

The Cromer Forest-bed Formation, sometimes known as the Cromer Forest Bed, is a geological formation in Norfolk, England. It consists of river gravels, estuary and floodplain sediments predominantly silt, sand, and muds as well as peat along the coast of northern Norfolk.^[1] It is the type locality for the Cromerian Stage of the Pleistocene between 0.8 and 0.5 million years ago.^[2] The deposit itself range varies in age from about 0.8 to 0.5 million years ago. It is about NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) thick and is exposed in cliff section near the town of West Runton.

Paleontology and Paleobotany

For over a century this formation, named after the local town of Cromer, has been famous for its assemblage of fossil mammal remains, containing the diverse remains of numerous taxa, including deer,^[3] carnivorans^[4] and birds.^[5] Although most of the forest bed is now obscured by coastal defence, the Cromer Forest-bed Formation continues to be eroded and is rich in fossils including the skeletal remains of the West Runton Mammoth which was discovered in 1990.^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

Archaeology

The oldest human footprints outside Africa, the Happisburgh footprints as well as handaxes and bison bones with cut marks were also found in layers considered to belong to this deposit near the town of Happisburgh.^[10]

See also

• Cromerian Stage
• Happisburgh
• Pakefield

Further reading

• Bowen, D.Q., 1978, Quaternary geology: a stratigraphic framework for multidisciplinary work. Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 221 pp.
• West, R.G., 1980, The pre-glacial Pleistocene of the Norfolk and Suffolk Coasts Cambridge University Press.
• Ehlers, J., P. L. Gibbard, and J. Rose, eds., 1991, Glacial deposits in Great Britain and Ireland Balkema, Rotterdam. 580 pp
• Mangerud, J., J. Ehlers, and P. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology 1: Part I Europe, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
• Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q, and Richmond, G.M., 1986, Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 5, pp. 1–514.

External links

Gibbard, P.L., S. Boreham, K.M. Cohen and A. Moscariello, 2007, Global correlation tables for the Quaternary, Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Cromer Forest-bed Formation. The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. British Geological Survey.
2. Book: Ashton, Nick. Early Humans . William Collins . London . 2017. 314 . 978-0-00-815035-8.
3. Lister. Adrian M.. 1993. The stratigraphical significance of deer species in the cromer forest-bed formation. Journal of Quaternary Science. 8. 2. 95–108. 10.1002/jqs.3390080202. 1993JQS.....8...95L.
4. Lewis. Mark. Pacher. Martina. Turner. Alan. December 2010. The larger Carnivora of the West Runton Freshwater Bed. Quaternary International. 228. 1–2. 116–135. 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.06.022. 2010QuInt.228..116L.
5. Harrison. C. J. O.. May 1979. Birds of the Cromer Forest Bed Series of the East Anglian Pleistocene. Transactions of the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society. 24. 277–287.
6. Web site: Clues of Britain’s First Humans (Published 2010) . . https://web.archive.org/web/20230530204929/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/science/08flint.html?_r=1 . 2023-05-30 . live .
7. Web site: First humans arrived in Britain 250,000 years earlier than thought . 2010-07-07 . The Guardian. London . https://web.archive.org/web/20230622163918/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/jul/07/first-humans-britain-stone-tools . 2023-06-22 . live .
8. https://www.jstor.org/pss/2791161 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1931)
9. Stuart. Anthony J.. Lister. Adrian M.. December 2010. Introduction: The West Runton Freshwater Bed and the West Runton Mammoth. Quaternary International. 228. 1–2. 1–7. 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.07.035. 2010QuInt.228....1S.
10. Ashton. Nick. Lewis. Simon G.. De Groote. Isabelle. Duffy. Sarah M.. Bates. Martin. Bates. Richard. Hoare. Peter. Lewis. Mark. Parfitt. Simon A.. Peglar. Sylvia. Williams. Craig. 2014-02-07. Petraglia. Michael D.. Hominin Footprints from Early Pleistocene Deposits at Happisburgh, UK. PLOS One. 9. 2. e88329. 10.1371/journal.pone.0088329. 1932-6203. 3917592. 24516637. 2014PLoSO...988329A. free.