The Kellaways Formation is a

geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...

formation of the Callovian Series from the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

. It is found in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, immediately above the Great Oolite Series: below the

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the ...

Formation and above the

Cornbrash The Cornbrash Formation is a Middle Jurassic geological formation in England. It ranges in age from Bathonian to Callovian, the uppermost part of the Middle Jurassic. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the form ...

. It consists of two layers, the Kellaways Sand, a light green-grey clayish silt and sand with layers of sand concretions, overlying the Kellaways Clay, a dark grey plastic fissile clay. They were laid down during the Callovian, offshore from the

London-Brabant Island The London-Brabant Massif or London-Brabant Platform is, in the tectonic structure of Europe, a structural high or massif that stretches from the Rhineland in western Germany across northern Belgium (in the province of Brabant) and the North Sea t ...

, between 165 and 160 million years ago, in the latitude of the modern

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, when the structure of Britain was still taking shape. At this stage, the coal swamps of the north-western shore of the island had subsided below the sea so that the Kellaways clay was formed in fairly deep water and the Kellaways sand was blown and washed from what had become the hot desert land. The holotype of the indeterminate eusauropod ''"Ornithopsis" leedsii'' has been recovered from this formation.Noé LF, Liston JJ, Chapman SD. 2010. ‘Old bones, dry subject’: the dinosaurs and pterosaur collected by Alfred Nicholson Leeds of Peterborough, England. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 343: 49–77.

References

Stratigraphy of the United Kingdom Callovian Stage Jurassic System of Europe {{UK-geologic-formation-stub

See also

References