The Upnor Formation is a

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

found in the

London Basin The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea. The basin formed as a result of compre ...

of southeastern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.Upnor Formation
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org It is of

Thanetian The Thanetian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS Geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Paleocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Serie ...

(Upper

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

) age. It lies

unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval ...

on the

Thanet Formation The Thanet Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation found in the London Basin of southeastern England.Chalk Group The Chalk Group (often just called the Chalk) is the lithostratigraphic unit (a certain number of rock strata) which contains the Upper Cretaceous limestone succession in southern and eastern England. The same or similar rock sequences occur acr ...

. It is generally overlain either by the

Reading Formation The Reading Formation is a geologic formation in southern England. It dates to the Paleocene period, and is part of the Lambeth Group. It overlies the London Basin and is below the Harwich Formation. The formation is composed of "a series of lent ...

or the

Woolwich Formation The Woolwich Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation in southeast England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene Period (geology), period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in England References ...

, but locally in north and east Kent it is overlain unconformably by the

Harwich Formation The Harwich Formation is a geological formation found in the London Basin of southeastern England. It is Ypresian (early Eocene) in age. It lies unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two roc ...

. It forms the lowermost part of the

Lambeth Group The Lambeth Group is a stratigraphic group, a set of geological rock strata in the London and Hampshire Basins of southern England. It comprises a complex of vertically and laterally varying gravels, sands, silts and clays deposited between 56-55 ...

. The

type section A stratotype or type section in geology is the physical location or outcrop of a particular reference exposure of a stratigraphic sequence or stratigraphic boundary. If the stratigraphic unit is layered, it is called a stratotype, whereas the stan ...

is at Lower Upnor Pit, north

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The formation has provided fossils of the

eutheria Eutheria (; from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ) is the clade consisting of all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic tra ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

'' Arctocyonides arenae''.Hooker & Millbank, 2001

References

Bibliography

* {{cite LSA , last=Hooker , first=J. J. , first2=C. , last2=Millbank , year=2001 , title=A Cernaysian mammal from the Upnor Formation (Late Palaeocene, Herne Bay, UK) and its implications for correlation , journal= Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , volume=112 , pages=331–338 Geologic formations of England Paleocene Series of Europe Paleogene England Thanetian Stage Sandstone formations Shallow marine deposits Paleontology in England Geology of London