Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting is a 3.6

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

geological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

Teffont Evias Teffont Evias is a small village and former civil parish in the Nadder valley in the south of Wiltshire, England. Edric Holmes described the village as "most delightfully situated", and Maurice Hewlett included Teffont in his list of the half ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, 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 A Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These for ...

, fine-grained

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

rock with good conditions for fossilization. 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 and

Charales Charales is an order of freshwater green algae in the division Charophyta, class Charophyceae, commonly known as stoneworts. Depending on the treatment of the genus ''Nitellopsis'', living (extant) species are placed into either one family ( Ch ...

.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 The charophytes, ''Clavator reidi'', may have grown in a lake 1-2m deep or somewhat more.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

Teffont Evias Quarry

This includes a pit with a recorded section from the early Jurassic

Lias Group The Lias Group or Lias is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) found in a large area of western Europe, including the British Isles, the North Sea, the Low Countries and the north of Germany. It consists of marine limestones, sh ...

up to the Cinder Bed (formerly identified as the boundary between Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks, now regarded as early Cretaceous). With a wealth of fossils this is one of the most important Purbeck Bed localities outside Dorset.English Nature 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. http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1002868.pdf accessed 3 August 2013

Teffont Evias Lane Cutting

This is a key site in the history of British palaeoentomology;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. it has produced rare, but well-preserved insects and is the best exposure of the Purbeck beds (

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...

Berriasian In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age/stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It has been taken to span the time between 145.0 ± 4.0 Ma and 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma (million years ago) ...

c. 144 Ma) for collecting fossil insects. These beds formed the main material for

Peter Bellinger Brodie Peter Bellinger Brodie (1815 – 1 November 1897) was an English geologist and churchman, the son of the conveyancer Peter Bellinger Brodie and nephew of Sir Benjamin C. Brodie. He was born in London in 1815. While residing with his fathe ...

's "Insects in the Secondary Rocks of England", a seminal work and still significant today.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.

References

External links

Location of the SSSI
on

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

's interactive map {{DEFAULTSORT:Teffont Evias Quarry Lane Cutting Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1989 Quarries in Wiltshire