Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting explained

Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting is a 3.6 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1989. It consists of two parts, Teffont Evias Quarry, and Teffont Evias Lane Cutting . Forest trees are currently growing on both sites, but there are small accessible exposures on the sides of quarry and roadway cuttings.

The sites offer exposures of a mid-Purbeck Lagerstätte, fine-grained limestone rock with good conditions for fossilization.^[1] These rocks and fossils were deposited after shallow seas receded about 146 million years ago. They record a warm environment of lakes and coastal lagoons, with occasional marine transgressions such as the Cinder Bed. Large fossils are rare, but they include insects of at least four Orders, fish, and crocodilians, also remains of vegetation, including a large tree^[2] and Charales.^[3] The charophytes, Clavator reidi, may have grown in a lake 1-2m deep or somewhat more.^[4]

Teffont Evias Quarry

This includes a pit with a recorded section from the early Jurassic Lias Group up to the Cinder Bed (formerly identified as the boundary between Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks, now regarded as early Cretaceous).^[3] With a wealth of fossils this is one of the most important Purbeck Bed localities outside Dorset.^[5]

Teffont Evias Lane Cutting

This is a key site in the history of British palaeoentomology;^[6] it has produced rare, but well-preserved insects and is the best exposure of the Purbeck beds (Lower Cretaceous, Berriasian c. 144 Ma) for collecting fossil insects.^[5] These beds formed the main material for Peter Bellinger Brodie's "Insects in the Secondary Rocks of England", a seminal work and still significant today.^[7]

External links

• Location of the SSSI on Natural England's interactive map

Notes and References

1. Wiltshire (including Swindon). Natural England. Our work: England's geology. http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/geodiversity/englands/counties/area_ID39.aspx Accessed 3 August 2013
2. Forests of the Dinosaurs: Wiltshire’s Jurassic Finale. John E Needham. Hobnob Press 30/09/2011. . http://www.hobnobpress.co.uk/8.html
3. Purbeck Formation - Jurassic-Cretaceous. Lithology, fauna, facies and palaeoenvironments. Geology of the Dorset Coast. Ian West, Romsey, Hampshire and School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton University, Southampton. 2009. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/purbfac.htm accessed 5 August 2013
4. Harris, T.M. 1939. British Purbeck Charophyta. British Museum (Natural History). London, Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British Museum, Issued 22 April 1939. 83 pp + 17 plates. (by Professor Thomas Maxwell Harris). As reported in: Purbeck Formation - Jurassic-Cretaceous. Lithology, fauna, facies and palaeoenvironments. Geology of the Dorset Coast. Ian West, Romsey, Hampshire and School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton University, Southampton. 2009. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/purbfac.htm accessed 5 August 2013
5. Natural England fact sheet on Teffont Evias Quarry Lane Cutting. COUNTY: WILTSHIRE. SITE NAME: TEFFONT EVIAS QUARRY/LANE CUTTING Status: Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notified under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/PDFsForWeb/Citation/1002868.pdf accessed 25 May 2023
6. An introduction to the fossil arthropods of Great Britain. D. Palmer, Jarzembowski, E.A., Siveter, Derek J., Palmer, D. and Selden, P.A. (2010) Fossil Arthropods of Great Britain, Geological Conservation Review Series, No. 35, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, 294 pages, illustrations, A4 hardback, . Chapter 1 page 43. http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/V35Chap1.pdf accessed 3 August 2013.
7. An introduction to the fossil arthropods of Great Britain. D. Palmer, Jarzembowski, E.A., Siveter, Derek J., Palmer, D. and Selden, P.A. (2010) Fossil Arthropods of Great Britain, Geological Conservation Review Series, No. 35, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, 294 pages, illustrations, A4 hardback, . Chapter 1 page 15. http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/V35Chap1.pdf accessed 3 August 2013.