Dundry Main Road South Quarry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dundry Main Road South Quarry (grid reference ST566654) is a 0.7 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of East Dundry, Avon, notified in 1974.

Amonite from the Jurassic era
Enlarge
Amonite from the Jurassic era

The quarry was cited in the last century by d'Orbigny as the English "type section" for the Inferior Oolite. Dundry has long been a famous palaeontological and stratigraphic locality. The type locality for many species of molluscs and brachiopods, as well as other lesser groups, it is renowned as one of the world's most fossiliferous exposures with well over two hundred species recorded. The Main Road Quarry exposes a fine section in the Middle and Upper Inferior Oolite. The former characterised by a typically southern English-Normandy fauna, including the rich ammonite occurrences of the "Brown iron-shot", and the latter by contrasting faunas of Cotswold aspect. This contrast is direct evidence for movements of the Mendip Axis in Middle Jurassic times, making this an outstanding site for its bearing on studies of palaeogeography.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dundry Main Road South Quarry. English Nature. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.