The recently discovered Late Triassic bonebed at Labanock in South Wales is a storm deposit that preserves a rich coastal marine biota, including a diverse range of fish and marine reptiles.
A view of the cliff face at Labanock Point from the eastern end of the beach shows how the red mudstones of the Williton Member (Marcia Mudstone Formation) transition upward into the bedded shales of the Westbury Formation. Image courtesy of Evans others., doi: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2024.05.001.
“The new bone beds paint a picture of a tropical island that was frequently battered by storms, washing material from the surrounding areas on land and at sea into the tidal zone,” said paleontologist Owain Evans from the University of Bristol.
“This means that from just one fossil bed, we can reconstruct a complex ecosystem containing a wide variety of marine reptiles, such as underwater ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and placodonts, as well as land-based dinosaurs.”
The discovery was made at Labanock Head, near Cardiff and Penarth in South Wales, where dark shale and limestone cliffs reveal an ancient, shallow sea.
Several layers contain deposits of bones, including the remains of fish, sharks, marine reptiles, and occasionally dinosaurs.
“I grew up in Cardiff and have been visiting Penarth beach all my life but I'd never noticed any fossils,” Ms Evans said.
“And the more I read, the more amazing it became.”
“Local geologists have been collecting the bones since the 1870s, and most of them are in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.”
“The Labanock collection dates back to the 19th century and many parts of the bone bed have been collected over many years,” said Dr. Cindy Howells, curator of palaeontology at the National Museum Wales.
“The presence of dinosaur remains at the site ensures that it will remain one of the most important sites for palaeontology in Wales.”
The paleontologists also unearthed the remains of a placodont osteoderm and a coelacanth throat bone.
“Coelacanth and other placodont fossils are relatively rare in the UK, which makes this find all the more remarkable,” said Dr. Chris Duffin, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum in London.
“Just these two fossils alone, Rhaetian What would it have been like in England?”
“The amount of dinosaur fossils found at Labanoc is extremely exciting and provides an opportunity to study a complex and often mysterious period in dinosaur evolutionary history,” said Professor Michael Benton, from the University of Bristol.
“We are a big Plateosaurus “Similar animals and several other bones possibly belonging to a predatory theropod were found.”
of Investigation result Appears in Proceedings of the Association of Geologists.
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Owain Evans othersA microvertebrate from the basal Rhaetian bone bed (Late Triassic) at Lavanock, South Wales. Proceedings of the Association of GeologistsPublished online May 23, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2024.05.001
Source: www.sci.news
