The Palaeontology of the London Clay (Lower Eocene) of the Herne Bay coastal section, Kent, England JOHN COOPER COOPER, J. 1977. The Palaeont ology of the Lond on Clay (Lower Eoce ne) of the Heme Bay coastal section, Kent , England. Proc. Geol. Ass., 88 (3), 16 3-78. The locality of 'Heme Bay' has been visited by collectors for about 150 years but no adequate account of its Lond on Clay fossils has ever been publ ished . Th e Old haven and Thanet Beds molluscs were dealt with by Cooper (1934). The present paper provides data on the Lond on Clay of the North Kent coast from Whitstable to Bishopstone Glen (Oldhaven Gap) and gives a biotic list based on museum material, published records and recent collecting. The list is comparable in size to those for the London Clay of Sheppey (Davis, 1936; 1937) and Bognor (Venables, 1963), these and Herne Bay being the most important coastal localities for Lond on Clay fossils. As no useful exposures of London Clay are now available, particularly in the cliffs and foreshore between Herne Bay town and Bishopstone Glen, it has not been possible to give any precise biostratigraphical interpretation of the fossils, beyond stating that they range from the lowest London Clay (?below Division I of Wrigley, 1924; 1940) to the lowest few metres of Division 3, a total thickness of some 40 metres. Department of Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 SBD. CONTENTS page 1. INTRODUCTION AND COLLECTING METHODS 163 2. COLLECTING-STATIONS AND EXPOSURES 165 3. BIOTIC LIST ... 166 4. THE PALAEOENVIRONMENT OF THE NORTH SEA BASIN AREA ... 175 5. CORRELATION WITH OTHER LONDON CLAY SECTIONS 175 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 177 REFERENCES 178 1. INTRODUCTION AND COLLECTING METHODS Formerly, before beach huts, housing and cliff stabilisation works covered most of the cliff expo sure s, the north-east coast of Kent between Whitstable and Bishopstone Glen (east of Herne Bay town) provided a collecting area for London Clay fossils, mostly preserved in iron pyrites. These former collecting spots are herein defined on the basis of museum material and recent collecting by the author and others. The principal locality involved in this paper and in previous literature is that called 'Herne Bay', i.e. the continuous cliff and foreshore from East Cliff (or The Downs, TR 187683) to 163
Transcript
The Palaeontology of the London Clay(Lower Eocene) of the Herne Bay coastal section,
Kent, EnglandJOHN COOPER
COOPER, J. 1977. The Palaeont ology of the Lond on Clay (Lower Eoce ne) of theHeme Bay coastal section, Kent , England. Proc. Geol. A ss., 88 (3), 163-78. Thelocality of ' Heme Bay' has been visited by collectors for about 150 years but noadeq uate account of its London Clay fossils has ever been publ ished . The Old havenand Th anet Beds molluscs were dealt with by Coo per (1934).
The present paper provides data on the Lond on Clay of the North Kent coast fromWhitstable to Bishopstone Glen (Oldhaven Gap) and gives a biotic list based onmuseum mater ial, published records and recent collecting. The list is comparable insize to those for the London Clay of Sheppey (Davis, 1936; 1937) and Bogn or(Venables, 1963), these and Herne Bay bein g the most important coastal localiti esfor Lond on Clay fossils.
As no useful exposures of London Clay are now avai lable, par ticularly in the cliffsand fore shore between He rne Bay town and Bishop stone Glen , it has not beenpossible to give any precise biostratigraphical interpreta tion of the fossils, beyondstating that they range from the lowest London Clay (?be low Division I of Wrigley,1924 ; 1940) to the lowest few metres of Division 3, a total thickness of some 40metres.
Department ofPalaeontology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road,London SW 7 SBD.
CONTENTSpage
1. INTRODUCTION AND COLLECTING METHODS 1632. COLLECTING-STATIONS AND EXPOSURES 1653. BIOTIC LIST ... 1664. THE PALAEOENVIRONMENT OF THE NORTH SEA BASIN AREA ... 1755. CORRELATION WITH OTHER LONDON CLAY SECTIONS 175
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 177REFERENCES 178
1. INTRODUCTION AND COLLECTING METHODS
Formerly, before beach huts, housing and cliff stabilisation work s covered most of the cliffexposures, the north-east coast of Kent between Whitstable and Bishopstone Glen (east ofHerne Bay town) provided a collecting area for London Clay fossils, mostly preserved in ironpyrites. These former collecting spots are herein defined on the basis of museum material andrecent collecting by the author and others.
The principal locality involved in this paper and in previous literature is that called 'HerneBay', i.e. the continuous cliff and foreshore from East Cliff (or The Downs, TR 187683) to
163
164 JOHN COOPER
Beltinge Cliff (TR 197684), east of Herne Bay town. West of the town are the old localities ofSwalecliffe (TR 133674 and/or TR 148677), Studd Hill (TR 153677) and Hampton (or WestCliff, TR 161682).
For nearly 150 years this part of the North Kent coast has provided collectors with a venue fortheir attentions. Amongst the earliest was William Richardson who began collecting there in1829 (Richardson, 1841). In his time the cliffs at Swalecliffe and Studd Hill would have beensome 200 m north of their present positions, at about TR 133676 and TR 153679 respectively(Holmes, 1972, fig. 3). This coast has, however, failed to achieve the popularity of the Minster toWarden Point shore of the Isle of Sheppey, only a few kilometres away which has providedspectacular London Clay fossils for 300 years (Evelyn, 1668,522-3), probably due to the factthat the fossils at Herne Bay are less numerous, less well-preserved and comprise far fewervertebrate remains preserved in claystones or nodules. Many of the Sheppey fossils in museumcollections were purchased from the cementstone and copperas gatherers in the 19th century bycollectors of 'curiosities'. An additional reason is that the biotic content of Herne Bay is derivedfrom Wrigley's (1924; 1940) faunal Division 2 and ?lowest Division 3 of the London Clay,whereas at Sheppey it comes from Wrigley's Divisions 3 to 5, wherein a more diverse biota isfound. Thus the Sheppey biota is well served by the lists in Davis (1936; 1937), Reid & Chandler(1933) and Chandler (1961). The Plantae of Herne Bay have been thoroughly dealt with byReid & Chandler (1933) and Chandler (1961), by their own collecting efforts and those of alocal collector, D. J. Jenkins, whose name is immortalised in many of their plant species. Jenkinsalso collected many non-plant fossils, but unfortunately never published any list of his findings;nevertheless, he was careful to relate them to collecting-stations on his specimen labels. A visitby the writer to Herne Bay Library and Museum on 15 May 1974 failed to produce any speciesadditional to those already listed during the manuscript stage of this paper: Jenkins' album ofphotographs of fossils was examined, as was J. E. Cooper's notebook and few remaining fossilsfrom the Lower London Tertiaries of the Herne Bay coastal section. Almost all of Jenkins' andCooper's collections were given to the British Museum (Natural History) some years ago.
Despite many organised field meetings to the Herne Bay area by learned societies, no usefullist of the London Clay fossils to be found there has ever been published: a few species may begiven, or may be dismissed in terms of 'it [the London Clay] is not markedly fossiliferous,although pyritised wood and crinoid stems are common on the foreshore' (Pitcher, Peake,Carreck, Kirkaldy, Hester & Hancock, 1958, 17) or 'The usual fossils from the London Claywere collected from the foreshore' (Brown, 1936, 349). Brown does not enlighten us as to whatthe 'usual fossils' might be. A few species are listed in Dewey, Wooldridge, Cornes & Brown,1925, 272.
A sketch by Wrigley in Pitcher & others (1958, 16) shows the appearance of the cliffs atBeltinge before the present sea-defence and cliff-sloping works took place. Landslides andchanges in the coastline have been dealt with by So (1967) and Hutchinson (1968). Aerialphotographs of cliff falls in 1950 and 1964 are given in Hutchinson (1973) which show why cliffstabilisation works became necessary. Unfortunately, the works have taken place without anyaccount of the stratigraphy of the cliffs being published, and now the task would be impossiblewithout taking borehole samples. Some 36 m (120 ft) of London Clay were formerly exposed inthe cliffs at Beltinge, spanning Division 1 up to? the base of Division 3 (of Wrigley, 1924; 1940).
Fossils were rarely to be found on the slopes of the cliff, so most have been collected fromwave-sorted concentrates on the foreshore. The fossils are preserved mainly in the form of pyritemoulds or casts, as isolated fish teeth or in (or on) claystone concretions. The invertebrate fossilsare not at all easy to identify: they have to be compared with material from Sheppey and Bognor
THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 165
where they also occur largely as pyritic moulds or casts. For this reason, probably few collectorshave bothered with them, for without the external details of the shell (which may be entirelyreplaced by pyrite) the task of identifying them becomes almost impossible without extensivecomparative material. In some of the species listed herein, the only way to determine them wasto select a named, calcareous-shelled fossil with a pyrite infill (e.g. from Sheppey), dissolve theshell away in hydrochloric acid and use the resulting cast or mould as a reference tool. Thismethod is only of use when the biota of a formation is already well known, as it is for the greaterpart of the London Clay.
The main collecting method is the usual one employed by foreshore pyrite fossil-collectors,that of crawling on hands and knees (used by Bowerbank, Reid, Chandler and Jenkins) andfield-selecting the fossils from among the pyrite concentrates. Another method is to discard thelarger pyrite debris in the field using a coarse sieve, and bring the smaller fraction back to thelaboratory for sorting in a dry state or in a dish of water: the latter method often reveals details,especially in seeds and fruits (Chandler, 1961,5). In July 1970, the writer, accompanied by Dr.(then Mr.) A. J. Rundle and Mr. K. J. Hackett, accumulated 100 kg of pyrite residues below 9mm mesh, by wet-sieving into a baby-bath filled with sea water on the East Cliffs shore. Thismaterial was carried away for laboratory sorting and much of the non-plant material listedherein was collected on this occasion. In the early 1960's Mr. Rundle's close association with Mr.E. M. Venables of Bognor Regis, Sussex, the discoverer of the Bognor London Clay insect fauna(Britton, 1960; Venables & Taylor, 1963) led to Mr. Rundle using Venables' collecting methodsat Herne Bay, whereupon he discovered a similar insect fauna (mentioned briefly in Rundle,1970,8). A remarkable pyritised insect larva (Rundle & Cooper, 1971) was found by the writer.
To preserve pyrite material, it should be washed first in several changes of fresh water toremove sea salt. An unfortunate tendency of pyrite fossils is that after a year or so they begin todecay: various coatings and bactericidal treatments are often recommended to prevent this, withvarying degrees of success. In the case of the Herne Bay material, the writer has employedordinary domestic paraffin (kerosene), in which the fossils are kept in small tubes or bottles. Thisliquid seals them off from the atmosphere (after they have been oven-dried at 100°C) and todate has been very effective in preserving them, except for some pieces of fossil wood. Thespecimens can be quickly prepared for examination by drying them on a paper tissue whereuponthe surface detail will be as when it was collected, with no coating material to obscure it.Preserving in paraffin is a much more rapid process than coating many individual specimens. Ifrequired, the pink or blue dye in paraffin can be removed by passing it through activatedcharcoal and filtering to remove any charcoal dust. The insect remains have been preserved insilicone oil, but this is extremely expensive and only exceptional material is worth beingpreserved in it. Glycerine should be avoided at all costs, as it contains or picks up a certainamount of water which aids the decay of the fossil: to put a fossil in glycerine is to consign it to itseventual destruction.
2. COLLECTING-STATIONS AND EXPOSURES
The map in So (1967, 476) will serve as a basis for the collecting stations designated here,which are (from west to east): The Paddock, TR 109673 (the area covered by the 'B' of'WHITSTABLE' in So, 1967,476); Street Stones (locally known as 'The Street'), TR 111677;Tankerton Slopes (TR 125673); Swalecliffe (TR 132674); Hampton or West Cliffs (TR161682); East Cliff or The Downs (TR 187683); Beltinge Cliff (towards Bishopstone Glen) TR194684 to TR 201686; 'Herne Bay' of collectors is the East Cliff to Beltinge Cliff stretch of the
166 JOHN COOPER
former cliffs and shore. The collecting-stations west of Swalecliffe are additional to others whichhave appeared as collecting-sites in previous literature.
The exposures nowadays are very poor, The Paddock being a shingle patch, amongst thepebbles of which one may find a few recognisable fossils; the Street Stones, a wave-accumulatedshingle ridge, has yielded only crustacean remains and lumps of pyrite. Tankerton Slopes werevisited by the writer and Mr. M. C. Daniels on 12 September 1971 during drainage works andsamples were removed from the Isselicrinus subbasaltiformis horizon within Division 2 of theLondon Clay. At Swalecliffe and Studd Hill one can sort a meagre few pyrite fossils fromamongst the shingle; they are all very rolled and worn, suggesting that little or no new material isbeing eroded from the foreshore. A few specimens may be found at Hampton (locally known asWest Cliff but little of the former cliff can be seen as it is now covered by beach huts). The cliffsfrom East Cliff (or The Downs) to Beltinge Cliff were reduced in gradient about 1970, theLondon Clay of the cliffs being bulldozed into the sea to be washed away. This produced somereally fresh pyrite concentrates on the seaward side of the bulldozed clay and producedexcellently-preserved, little-rolled material. The cliffs were trenched with drainage courses andseeded with grass, so nothing can be seen of the former East Cliff-Beltinge Cliff exposures.London Clay (all Division 1) occurs immediately west of Bishopstone Glen at Hillborough Cliff(TR 205686) to about the Coastguard Lookout (TR 212689) towards Reculver, but it is verypoorly fossiliferous; a few diatoms, foraminifers and pyritised wood may be found in it. They areaffected by weathering and no study of them was attempted.
3. BIOTIC LIST
The following list is based on: 1. lists in Casier, 1966; Reid & Chandler, 1933 and Chandler,1961; 2. material in the Department of Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural History)[BMPD]; 3. field collecting and from various bulk samples of pyrite between 9 mm and 1/16 in(1003 microns) mesh collected by the writer and others between 1964 and 1971, totalling 153kg. No indications of frequency are given in the list as the extraction, collecting and sortingmethods were too haphazard or subjective to produce numerically meaningful results. Newrecords for the Plantae only are indicated, as for all intents and purposes the remainder of thebiota may be regarded as mostly new. The sites visited by collectors have been designated ascollecting-stations and appear at the head of the columns as PA (Paddock); SS (Street Stones);TA (Tankerton Slopes); SW (Swalecliffe); ST (Studd Hill); HA (Hampton); EC (East Cliff orThe Downs); BE (Beltinge Cliff); 'HB' (Herne Bay of collectors, usually East Cliff-BeltingeCliff); and for comparison, B (Bognor) and S (Sheppey).
Most of the material is now preserved in the BMPD.
HERNE BAY LONDON CLAY BIOTIC LIST
Collecting Stations
t = new record (Plantae only)
PLANTAEAlangium jenkinsi ChandlerAldwickia venablesi C.
THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 167
tAuraucarites sp. [bark]t Beckettia mastixioides R & C.Beilschmiedia oviformis (Bowerbank)
pyriformis R & C.Calycocarpum(?) jenkinsi C.Canticarya sheppeyensis R & C.
ventricosa R & C.Cantitilia polysperma R & C.Carpolithus gracilis (Bowerbank)
t pusillus var. elongatus C.t semencorrugatus R & C.
subfusiformis (Bowerbank)thunbergioides R & C.
Choerospondias sheppeyensis R & C.Cinnamomum globulare R & C.
grande R & C.oblongum C.ovoideum C.
Citrispermum sheppeyense R & C.Cucurbitospermum cooperi C.Cupanoides grandis Bowerbank
tumidus BowerbankDracontomelon subglobosum R & C.Dunstania ettinghauseni (Gardner)
multi/ocularis R & C.Durania stonei (R & c.jEchinocarpus priscus R & C.Erythropalum jenkinsi C.Euphorbiospermum cooperi C.
eocenicum R & C.Euphorbiotheca minima C.Faboidea crassicutis R & C.Filicales (Family? Genus?)Hightea elliptica Bowerbank
turgida BowerbankIcacinicarya amygdaloidea C.
foveolata R & C.jenkinsi R & C.
? minima R & C.nodulifera R & C.ovoidea R & C.platycarpa R & C.reticulata C.sp.
lodes corniculata R & C.
-PA SS TA SW ST HA EC BE 'HB' B S
x Bx Bx Sx Sxx Sx Sx Sx ~ Sx ~ Sx Sx Sx Sx S
x x B Sx x B Sx x ~ S
x ~x Sxx Sx Sx ~ Sx Sx ~ Sxx Sxxx B Sxx Sx Sx ~ Sx Sxx Sxx ~x Sx Sx Bx B
xx x
168 JOHN COOPER
HERNE BAY LONDON CLAY BIOTIC LIST continued
lodes multireticulata R & C.Jenkinsella apocynoides R & C.Juglandicarya cooperi C.
depressa R & C.?lubbocki R & C.minuta C.
Lagenella alata R & C.Lagenoidea bilocularis R & C.Lanfrancia subglobosa R & C.Langtonia bisulcata R & C.
?Langtonia sp.Laurocalyx globularis R & C.Laurocarpum cupuliferum C.
inornatum C.minimum R & C.minutissimum R & C.ovoideum R & C.paradoxum R & C.proteum R & C.sheppeyense R & C.sp.
Leguminosae? ?GenusLeucopogon quadrilocularis R & C.Leyrida bilocularis R & C.Litsaea pyriformis R & C.Lobaticarpum variabile R & C.Magnolia angusta R & C.
crassa R & C.t lobata Bowerbank
oblonga C.rugosa C.subcircularis R & C.sp.
Mastixia cantiensis R & C.parva R & C.
Meliosma cantiensis R & C.jenkinsi R & C.
Moraceae. Genus?Neuroraphe obovatum R & C.Nipa burtini (Brongniart)Nyssa bilocularis R & C.
Collecting Stations
PA SS TA SW ST HA EC BE'HB' B S
x B Sx x
xx B Sxx Sx B Sx Sx B Sx S
xx Sxxx B Sx B Sx Sx B Sxx Sxxx B Sx B Sx B Sx B S
x x B Sx B Sx Bx B Sx B Sx B Sxx B S
x x B Sx x B Sx x B S
xx
~Ix Bx
TH E PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 169
Collecting Stations
Nyssa cooperi C.spp.
Ochrosoidea sheppeyensis R & C.Odina (Lannea) jenk insi R & C.
?Odina (Lannea) sp.Oncoba variabilis (Bowerb ank)PaLaeallophyllus minimus C.
rotundatus R & C.Palaeobrugieria eLongata C.
Lata C.PaLaeon yssa multilocularis R & C.Palaeophytocrene fo veoLata R & C.Palaeovitis paradoxa R & C.PaLmospermum cooped C.
t davisi C.exca vatum R & C.jenk insi R & C.minutum C.ornatum C.
t puLchrum C.sp.spp.
t Parthenocissus monasteriensis R & C.?Pinus macrocephaLus (Lindley & Hutton)
GardnerPLatycarya richardsoni (Bowerbank)PoLycarp ella caespitosa R & C.Portnallia sheppeyensis C.
?Posidonia parisiensis (Brongniart)Protoavensara sheppeyensis R & C.PseudoscLerocarya lentiformis R & C.Sabal sp. (S . grandisperma R & C.")Sapindospermum cooperi C.
jenkinsi R & C.o voideum R & C.revolutum C.
Sapindospermum spp.Saxifragispe rmum spinosissim um R & C.Shrubsoleia [enkinsi R & C.Sphinxia o valis R & C.TaLauma wilk inso ni C.Tamesicarpum poLyspermum R & C.Tetracera croft i C.
PA SS TA SW ST HA EC BE 'HB' B S
X
x B Sxx B Sxx B Sx Sx S
x x xx x x
x B Sx B Sx Sx
x Bx Sxx Bxx
xx Bx B
x Sx x B S
x Sx B Sxx B Sx Sx B Sxx Bxxx Sx Sxx Sxx B Sx
,
170 JOHN COOPER
HERNE BAY LONDON CLAY BIOTIC LIST continuedCollecting Stations
PA ss TA SW ST HA EC BE 'HB ' B S
Tetracera eocenica R & C. x B StTinomiscum taylori C. x B
t'l'Iinomiscoidea scaphiformis R & C. xTinospora excavata C. x B S
rugosa R & C. xwilkinsoni C. x
Tricarpellites communis Bowerbank x St Vitis magnisperma C. x
subglobosa R & C. x B S?Vitis sp. [tendrils] xWetherellia variabilis Bowerbank x x x B SWood fragments x x x xUndetermined seeds and fruits x x
PROTOZOA
Astrorhiza sp. [E. of Bishopstone Glen] xDentalina sp. x
?Cornuspira sp. x'Lenticulina'sp. x'Marginulina' sp. x
?Pyrulina sp. x'Quinqueloculina' sp. x
BRYOZOA
Batopora clithridiata (Gregory) x B S
COELENTERATA
Graphularia wetherelli Edwards & Haime x SParacyathus caryophyllus (Lamarck) x S
crassus Edwards & Haime x x
BRACHIOPODA
Lingula tenuis J . Sowerby x x STerebratulina wardenensis Elliott x x S
MOLLUSCA: Bivalvia
Abra splendens (J. de C. Sowerby) x x x x B SAnomia scabrosa Wood x B S
THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 171
Collecting Stations
PA ss TA SW ST HA EC BE 'HB' B S
'Arca'sp. x?Corbula globosa J. Sowerby x BCuspidaria inflata (J. de C. Sowerby) x x x x x B S'Musculus' sp. xNucula bowerbanki (J. de C. Sowerby) x xNucula sp. or spp. x x x xNuculana amygdaloides (J. de C. Sowerby) x x x B S
partimstriata (Wood) x Bsp. or spp. x x x
?Pholadidea [crypt] xPterelectroma media (J. Sowerby) x B SPteria papyracea (J. de C. Sowerby) x STeredinid tubes x x x x SThyasira angulata (J. Sowerby) x x x x
goodhalli (J. de C. Sowerby) x x x x x B SVerticordia sulcata (J. Sowerby) x S
MOLLUSCA: Gastropoda
Bartonia curta (J. Sowerby) x x B SBullinella spp. x B SCrenilabium elongatum (J. de C. Sowerby) x B SEpitonium cf. undosum J. de C. Sowerby xEuspira glaucinoides (J. Sowerby) x x x x x x B SFicopsis multiformis (Wrigley) x x S
?Ficopsis multiformis (Wrigley) xOrthochetus elongatus (Wrigley) x x SPhalium (Galeodosconsia) striatum (J. Sowerby) x B S
?Scaphander parisiensis d'Orbigny x SScaphella wetherelli (J. de C. Sowerby) x SSinum clathratum (Gmelin) x SSiphonalia sp. xStellaxis pulcher (J. de C. Sowerby) x B SStreptolathyrus cymatodis (Edwards) x BSurculites errans (Solander) x x B STornatellaea simulata (Solander) x x B STurbonilla sp. xTurridae, indeterminate x
MOLLUSCA: Pteropoda
Spiratella mercinensis (Watelet & Lefevre) xtaylori Curry x x x S
172 JOHN COOPER
HERNE BAY LONDON CLAY BIOTIC LIST continuedCollecting Stations
FA SS TA SW ST HA EC BE'HB' B S
MOLLUSCA: Scaphopoda
Cadulus (5.S.) sp.Laevidentalium anceps (J. de C. Sowerby)
nitens (1. Sowerby)Scaphopods, indeterminate x
xxx
SS
MOLLUSCA: Cephalopoda
Eutrephoceras centrale (J. Sowerby)regale (1. Sowerby)
ANNELIDA
Ditrupa plana (1. Sowerby)Glycera sp. [scolecodonts]
Callianassa sp.Campylostoma matutiforme BellCtenocheles sp.Cyclocorystes pulchellus BellDromilites bucklandi Milne-EdwardsHoploparia gammaroides M'Coy x x
xx xx xx x xx XIBx x x B S
THE PALA EONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 173
Collecting Stations
PA ss TA SW ST HA EC BE 'HB' B S
Laeviranina gottschei (1. Bohm) x xLinuparus scyllariformis (Bell) x X
Linuparus sp. (antenna fragment) xPortunites incerta Bell x x x xXanthilites bowerbanki Bell x x x BZanthopsis leachi (Desmarest) x x SZanthopsis sp. xVarious indeterminate remains x x x x x
ARTHROPODA: Ostracoda
Undetermined ostracods x
ARTHROPODA: Stomatopoda
Squilla wetherelli H. Woodward x
ECHINODERMATA
Cainocrinus tintinnabulum Forbes x B
Democrinus londinensis (Forbes) x x x B SHemiaster sp. xlsselicrinus subbasaltiformis (Miller) x x x x x x xTeichaster stokesi (Forbes) x B S
PISCES: chondrichthyes
Elasmodus hunteri Egerton x Slsistius tritu ratus Winkler x SLamna affinis Casier x x
aff. lerichei Casier xverticalis Agassiz x
Notidanus serratissimus Agassiz x SOdontaspis (Odontaspis) rutoti (Winkler) x
trigonalis (JaekeI) x S(Synodontaspis) hopei (Agassiz) x S
robusta Leriche xteretidens White x xsp. x
Otodus obliquus Agassiz x SScyliorhinus minutissimus (Winkler) x SSqualus minor (Leriche) x S
174 JOHN COOPER
HERNE BAY LONDON CLAY BIOTIC LIST continuedCollecting Stations
PA SS TA SW ST HA EC BE'HB' B S
Striatolamia macrota (Agassiz)Indeterminate shark teeth x
x x x
PISCES: teleosts
'A rdiodus marriotti White'Cylindracanthus rectus (Dixon)
1963, p. 69, 'pectenate form']Various forms of burrows or tracesFaecal pellets
Supplementary Notes to the Biotic List
x
x
x
xx
x
xx B
xx
The insect remains are probably the most interesting aspect of this biota, the majority beingidentical to those from the London Clay of Bognor (Britton, 1960). In all, 13 beetles and onebostrychid larva were collected, and all belong to groups of which the Recent forms feed in, or
THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 175
are associated with, wood. It is presumed that these insects drifted out to sea on floating logs andbranches. A true bug (Hemiptera, Heteroptera; Pentatomidae, Pentatomiinae, det. E. B.Britton, 1957, redetermined as Cydnidae, Cydniinae by C. Lyal, 1975) was collected by Miss H.P. Wilkinson on the East Cliff shore in 1952 (BMPD, no. In. 44653).
Some of the fish species could have come from the Lower London Tertiaries, being waveconcentrated along with the pyrite.
4. THE PALAEOENVIRONMENT OF THE NORTH SEA BASIN AREA
Two excellent papers have ably dealt with the question of the palaeoenvironment of the earlyTertiary. Montford (1970) reviewed the geography, climate, soils and vegetation of the landareas of the North Atlantic region, from Upper Cretaceous to Pleistocene times. In the UpperCretaceous and Tertiary he envisaged a tropical rain forest environment bordering the presentLondon and Hampshire Basins, with tropical swamps on the North German plain. Even in theArctic, the vegetation was of warm-temperate type. This tropical rain-forest concept perpetuates the ideas of E. M. Reid and M. E. J. Chandler, which arose from their palaeobotanicalresearches, a concept which held good until Daley (1972) suggested that the London Clay floradid not represent a true tropical rain-forest type, but a climatic type not represented at thepresent day. In a time when the temperate belts reached to the poles, a more uniform climatewould be achieved: seasonal, but frostless, with higher temperature and rainfall in northernlatitudes than today. The seas would be consequently warm with what we would regard today as'tropical' and 'subtropical' biotas, but which are really the norm, for at the moment we are stillliving in an Interglacial period, with the possibility of a further Glacial period.
5. CORRELATION WITH OTHER LONDON CLAY SECTIONS
Unfortunately there is no published work dealing with the faunal correlation of the London Clayof the tectonically separated Hampshire and London Basins which once formed part of theNorth Sea Basin. Within the Hampshire Basin, Wright (1972a) was able to use foraminiferidsfrom the '1957 hole' at Lower Swanwick to correlate his Faunule 2 there with the Craigweil Bedand the base of the Barn Bed at Bognor. Thus at Lower Swanwick the planktonic foraminiferiddatum falls within the 'Grey clays with few fossils' of Curry & King (1965). Later, Wright(1972b) used this datum to correlate the successions at Whitecliff Bay, Alum Bay and Bognor.At Bognor he places the datum at the base of the Upper Fish Tooth Bed. This datum has not yet,to my knowledge, been found in the London Basin London Clay (should it occur); likely placesto discover it would be the pits at Aveley (TQ 552807) and High Ongar (TL 562024), both inEssex.
In the London Basin, a possible penecontemporaneous datum occurs between Wrigley's(1924; 1940) faunal Divisions 2 and 3, as modified by Rundle & Cooper (1970,113-114). Atthis horizon, the North Sea Basin was probably breached by the Tethys Sea, bringing a moreexotic fauna to a sea formerly only open to the north, with relatively cooler circulating water(Bonde, 1973, 139 (figure); Lehman 1973, 60, Fig. 2). With the Joining of the North Sea Basinand the Tethys, either through the western English Channel or across Eastern Europe, the faunawas enriched, causing much of the Division 2 fauna to be replaced by the more exotic ('tropical')elements of the succeeding Divisions 3, 4 and 5. At Bognor, the Pebble Bed at the base of theLower Fish Tooth Bed (only 4·5 m (15 ft) below Wright's (1972b) planktonic foraminiferiddatum) probably marks this same Tethyan connection, expressed by Venables (1963,251) as
lOWER 5WANWICK BOG NOR LONDON AREA LONDON AREA 5HEPPEY HERNE BAY
.....-.J0\
Curry & King 1965
Wright 1972
Glauconitic sandy clay
Laminated
clays
:
Turr itella,Volutocorbi 5
and Yenericor
Aporrhais, Arctico
and Pinna - - - - -
---------
.....o:tZooo;glI:I
(this paper)
d
b
o
Davis 1936
III
_____ ~_----_---~-_---I----3----lI II II II I
I II II II II (2) I I 2I IiUsit,li,-ri..o.u1.
horizon
Rundle & Cooper 1970
Division 5
Division 4variable thickness
,
Division 3
Division 2
---------
Division 1
- -2/3--junction
- -3/4--transition
Wrigley 1940
5th Division
4th Divisionvariable thickness
f----------
3rd Division---------
2nd Division
1st Division
UFTB
lFTB Pebble. _Bed
CoinocrinusPholodomya
Venables 1963
Wright 1972
UPPER
, CLAY
GROUP(I
Barn Rock Bed
MIDDLE
CLAY
- - I
GROUPI
Bognor l Bog nor
Rock RockG r 0 v p
LOWER
Starfish Bed
CLAY
GROUP
RhobdopleuraBed
Borneo Bed
p~o~k!...o~c_
foram. datum
ft.
o
15+50
30-.-100
m.
Fig. 1. Correlation of London Clay successions in the Hampshire and London tectonic basins.
THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LONDON CLAY OF THE HERNE BAY COASTAL SECTION 177
This transitional bed is regarded as marking an important stage in the westward transgression ofthe London Clay sea'.
On the Isle of Sheppey, Davis (1936) attempted to discover the source ofthe fossils that couldbe found strewn on the beach and postulated that almost all came from his fossiliferous bed 'c' (?approximately equivalent to Wrigley's faunal Division 4 of the London area) . The presentwriter's field experience of Sheppey does not concur with Davis's interpretations and sees noreason why Wrigley's Division 3, 4 and 5 should not be represented in the Sheppey cliffs. TheseDivisions would be correspondingly thicker here due to the general eastward thickening of theLondon Clay into the North Sea Basin.
Although Wrigley probably felt unable to put into print all his thoughts on the areal extensionof his faunal Divisions 1-5 outside the 'London area', he does express some of them (Wrigley,1940,242) and says that Division 2 is found at Herne Bay and that at Sheppey 'the place ofDivision 5 is taken by a stiff clay with a facies-persistence of the fauna of Divisions 3 and 4'. Thiscan mean two things: (a) that there are three faunal horizons present, i.e. Divisions 3 and 4 withan overlyingfacies-fauna of Division 3 and 4 fossils in Division 5 deposits or time-equivalent, or(b) that only Divisions 3 and 4 are present at Sheppey and occupy the thickness of Divisions 3, 4and 5 in the clay.
An old record of the Division 2 index-fossilIsselicrinus [Balanocrinus ]subbasaltiformis fromthe well at Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey can be used to fix a datum within Wrigley 's Division 2 (atabout 30 m (100 ft) above the base of the London Clay in the London area) . Sheerness is,however, almost at sea level and the cliffs from Minster to Warden Point are up to 44 rn (160 ft)above sea level, leaving an univestigated gap of some 37 m (120 ft) between the Isselicrinushorizon and Davis's (1936) foreshore clays, unit 'a' , taking the thickness of London Clay onSheppey to be up to 157·8 m (518 ft) (Davis, 1936,342). The foreshore clays, unit 'a', are not asbarren as Davis suggests and yield molluscs, crustaceans, fish remains and plants. Isselicrinus hasnever been found amongst the beach concentrates at Sheppey, but the brachiopod Terebratulinawardenensis (distribution: occasional in Division 2, common in Division 3; does not survive theDivision 3/4 transition) is quite common there. It can also be found in situ in pockets just abovethe shingle , in the cliffs from Warden Point to Minster (in Davis's unit 'b ') and is therefore notconfined to Davis's unit 'c'. At Herne Bay , Isselicrinus occurs in great abundance, and T.wardenensis only very rarely. One can thus correlate, at least in part, the lowest part of theSheppey cliff succession, the Sheerness well and Herne Bay (see Fig. 1) . At Herne Bay , thewhole of Division 2 is (or was) present, with perhaps the lowest few (?3) metres of Division 3, asevidenced by the gastropod Scaphella wetherelli, a Division 3 index-fossil in the London area.Putting all this information together, Fig. 1 is arrived at, based on the literature and personaldocumentation. All the successions are drawn to the same vertical scale and use the Division 213junction, the Isselicrinus horizon and the planktonic foraminiferid datum in correlation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks are due, first of all, to Dr. A. J . Rundle for introducing me to the Herne Bay LondonClay exposures at East Cliff and Beltinge Cliff and for collaboration in field work on severaloccasions. For help in the field, loan of material and naming some of the plant remains I thankMr. M. C. Daniels. I am grateful to Mr. J. J. Hooker and Mr. C. A. Walker of the BMPD for themammal records and for looking at the reptile and bird remains. Mr . A. S. Gale gave specimensin aid of this paper, as did Dr. Rundle and Mr. D. J. Ward. Hearty thanks are due to Dr. Rundleand Mr. K. J. Hackett for helping me collect and carry 100 kg of pyrite residues (in addition to
4
178 JOHN COOPER
the field equipment) on a hot summer day. Mr. D. 1. Ward presented me with concentrates ofpyrite residues, specimens of fish remains for the National Collections and nam ed some of mychondrichthyan teeth. Dr. Niels Bonde named the trace-fossil 'Streblosoma' for me. Mr. E. A.Jarzernbowski arranged forthe hemipteran to be re-examined . Mr. Harold Gough of the HerneBay Records Society at Herne Bay Library and Museum was very helpful in showing me localfossils and notebooks in his care and I am grateful to Mr. T . R. B. Morton, Branch Librarian, forkindly arranging my visit.
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BRIlTON, E. B. 1960. Beetles from the London Clay(Eocene) of Bognor Regis, Sussex . Bull. Br. Mus. natni« (Geol.), 4 (2), 27-50.
BROWN, E . E . S.1936. Field Meeting at Herne Bay andReculver. Proc. Geol. Ass ., 47 (4) , 349-51.
CASlER, E . 1966 . Faune ichthyologique du LondonClay. London: British Museum (Natural History).
CHANDLER, M. E. J .1961. The Lower Tertiary Florasof Southern England. 1. Palaeocene Floras. LondonClay Flora (Supplement) . London: British Museum(Natural History).
COOPER, J. E.1 934. Oldha ven and Thanet Sand Mollusca of Herne Bay.!. Conch . Lond., 20 (1), 4-8.
CURRY, D. & C. KING. 1965. T he Eocene Successionat Lower Swanwick Brickyard , Hampshire . Proc.Geol. Ass., 76 (1), 29-36 .
DALEY, B. 1972 . Some problems concerning the EarlyTertiary climate of southern Britain. Palaeogeogr.Palaeoclimat. Palaeoecol., 11, 177-190.
DA VIS, A. G. 1936. The London Clay of Sheppe y andthe Location of its Fossils. Proc. Geol. Ass. , 47 (4),328-45.
DAVIS, A. G. 1937 . Additional note s on the geology ofSheppey. Proc. Geol. Ass., 48 (1) ,77-81.
DEWEY, H., S. W. WOOLDRIDGE, H. W. CORNES& E. E. S. BROWN. 1925. The Geology of the Canterbury District. Proc. Geol. A ss., 36 (3) , 257-90.
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MONTFORD, H. M. 1970. The Terrestrial Environment during Upper Cretaceous and Tert iaryTimes. Proc. Geol. Ass., 81 (2), 181-204.
PITCHER, W. S., N. B. PEAKE, J. N. CARRECK, J.F. KIRKALDY, S. W. HESTER&J. M. HANCOCK1958. Geologists' Association Guides . No. 30: TheLondon Region. Colchester: Benham & Co.
REID, E. M. & M. E. J . CHANDLER. 1933. TheLondon Clay Flora. London: British Museum(Natural History) .
RICHARDSON , W. 1841. Observation s on the Loca lity of the Hyracotherium. Trans. gcol. Soc. Lond.,(2) 6 (1) , 211-4.
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RUNDLE, A. J. & J. COOPER. 1970. Some RecentTemporary Exposures of London Clay in the LondonArea. Lond. Nat , no. 49. 113-24.
RUNDLE, A. J . & J. COOPER. 1971. Occurrence of aFossil Insect Larva from the London Clay of HerneBay, Kent . Proc. Geol. Ass ., 82 (2), 293-96.
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WRIGHT, C. A. 1972a. Foraminiferids from the London Clay at Lower Swanwick and their Palaeoecological Int erpretation. Proc. Geol. Ass., 83 (3) ,337-47.
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Received 2 July 1975Re vised version received 21 July 1976
