St James' Pit
   HOME





St James' Pit
St James' Pit is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Norwich in Norfolk, England. It is a Geological Conservation Review site within Mousehold Heath, which is a Local Nature Reserve. This site has been designated because of its jaw and vertebra fossils of '' Liodon'' and ''Mosasaurus'', which were two genera of mosasaurs, large marine reptiles dating to the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...). References External linksMagic(UK Government website providing geographical information about Great Britain), centred on St James' Pit {{SSSIs Norfolk, state =collapsed Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk Geological Conservation Review sites ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Norwich Crag Formation
The Norwich Crag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the British Pleistocene Epoch. It is the second youngest unit of the Crag Group, a sequence of four geological formations spanning the Pliocene to Lower Pleistocene transition in East Anglia. It was deposited between approximately 2.4 and 1.8 million years ago, during the Gelasian Stage. The Norwich Crag is a marginal facies of the thicker, much better developed sedimentary sequence in the southern North Sea basin. It outcrops in the eastern half of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and is also represented in Essex and Hertfordshire. It was deposited in a near-shore environment, and comprises a range of sands, silty clays and flint-rich gravels representing various Marine transgression, transgressive and Marine regression, regressive marine episodes. It rests in some places on the Red Crag Formation and in others unconformably on Coralline Crag Formation, Coralline Crag, Palaeogene formations and Chalk Group bedrock. It is ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Geological
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology. It is integrated with Earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface and the processes that have shaped that structure. Geologists study the mineralogical composition of rocks in order to get insight into their history of formation. Geology determines the relative ages of rocks found at a given location; geochemistry (a branch of geology) determines their Geochronology, absolute ages. By combining various petrological, crystallographic, and paleontological tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole. One aspect is to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides evidence for plate tectonics, the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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 Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserve (United Kingdom), national nature reserves, Ramsar Convention, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Area of Conservation, Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I". Selection and conservation Sites notified for their Biology, biological interest are known as Biological SSSIs (or ASSIs), and those notified for geological or Physical geography, physiographic interest are Geological SSSIs (or ASSIs). Sites may be divided into management units, with some a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich City Council local authority area was estimated to be 144,000 in 2021, which was an increase from 143,135 in 2019. The wider Norwich List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, built-up area had a population of 213,166 at the 2011 census. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of Norwich, the city has one of the country's largest medieval cathedrals. For much of the second millennium, from medieval to just before Industrial Revolution, industrial times, Norwich was one of the most prosperous and largest towns of England; at one point, it was List of towns and cities in England by historical population, second only to London. Today, it is the largest settlement in East Anglia. Heritage and status Norwich claims to be the most complete medie ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Norwich. The county has an area of and a population of 859,400. It is largely rural with few large towns: after Norwich (147,895), the largest settlements are King's Lynn (42,800) in the north-west, Great Yarmouth (38,693) in the east, and Thetford (24,340) in the south. For local government purposes Norfolk is a non-metropolitan county with seven districts. The centre of Norfolk is gently undulating lowland. To the east are the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which extend into Suffolk and which are protected by the Broads Authority, which give them a similar status to a National parks of England and Wales, national park. To the west the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Geological Conservation Review
The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological and geomorphological features of Britain. These sites display sediments, rocks, minerals, fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ..., and features of the landscape that make a special contribution to an understanding and appreciation of Earth science and the geological history of Britain, which stretches back more than three billion years. The intention of the project, which was devised in 1974 by George Black and William Wimbledon working for the Governmental advisory agency, the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC), was ac ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mousehold Heath
Mousehold Heath is a freely accessible area of heathland and woodland which lies to the north-east of the Middle Ages, medieval city boundary of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. The name also refers to the much larger area of open heath that once extended from Norwich almost to the Broads, and which was kept free of trees by both human activity and the action of animals grazing on saplings. This landscape was transformed by enclosure during the 19th century and has now largely disappeared, as almost all of it has since been converted into farmland or Landscape architecture, landscaped parks, reverted to woodland, or has been absorbed by the rapid expansion of Norwich and its surrounding villages, where new roads, shops, houses and Light industry, industrial units have been built. The present Mousehold Heath consists of mostly Broad-leaved tree, broad-leaf woodland, with isolated areas of heath that are actively managed. It is home to a number of rare insects, birds a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Vertebra
Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal segment and the particular species. The basic configuration of a vertebra varies; the vertebral body (also ''centrum'') is of bone and bears the load of the vertebral column. The upper and lower surfaces of the vertebra body give attachment to the intervertebral discs. The posterior part of a vertebra forms a vertebral arch, in eleven parts, consisting of two pedicles (pedicle of vertebral arch), two laminae, and seven processes. The laminae give attachment to the ligamenta flava (ligaments of the spine). There are vertebral notches formed from the shape of the pedicles, which form the intervertebral foramina when the vertebrae articulate. These foramina are the entry and exit conduits for the spinal nerves. The body of the vertebr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Liodon
''Liodon'' is a dubious genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous, known from fragmentary fossils discovered in St James' Pit, England and possibly also the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco. Though dubious and of uncertain phylogenetic affinities, ''Liodon'' was historically a highly important taxon in mosasaur systematics, being one of the genera on which the family Mosasauridae was based. History ''Liodon anceps'' was first described as "''Leiodon anceps''" by Richard Owen in 1841, based only on two tooth fragments and a minor portion of the corresponding jaw bone discovered in Essex, England.Benjamin CreislerMosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide. Dinosauria.com. Retrieved 2008-04-07. The name ''Leiodon'' derived from the Greek ''leios'' ("smooth") and ''-odon'' ("tooth"), meaning "smooth tooth" on account of the "smooth and polished surface" of the fossil teeth. The specific name ''anceps'' means "two-edged", referencing the carinae (cutting edges) on both the front ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mosasaurus
''Mosasaurus'' (; "lizard of the Meuse (river), Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic Squamata, squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Late Cretaceous. The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of ''Mosasaurus'' were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780 was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". In 1808, naturalist Georges Cuvier concluded that it belonged to a giant marine lizard with similarities to monitor lizards but otherwise unlike any known living animal. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mosasaur
Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') are an extinct group of large aquatic reptiles within the family Mosasauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764. They belong to the order Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period (Turonian–Maastrichtian ages), with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and Pliosauridae, pliosaurs, mosasaurids became the dominant marine predators. They themselves became extinct as a result of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, K-Pg event at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Description Mosasaurs breathed air, were powerful swimmers, and were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow Inland sea (geology), inland seas prevalent during the Late Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs were so well adapted to thi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]