GA field trip to Langhurstwood, Sunday 28th July 2019.
Conditions for the visit were perfect. Heavy rain in the previous few days had cleaned the quarry faces but they were now fairly dry. Warm summers day, slightly overcast with a gentle breeze.
Lower Cretaceous Wealden sediments are exposed at Langhurstwood. This location is famous for fish otoliths. Otoliths are tiny earstones <2mm across (ie. minute). I found an otolith whilst examining specimens under a microscope.
The amount of disarticulated fish debris is quite astonishing and I found an excellent lepidotes scale. The predominant palaeoenvironment is thought to be inland lagoons by a hybodontid sharks tooth is suggestive of brackish conditions at times. Exactly how these sediments were formed is not know but psammitic sediments suggest higher energy environments at times. If so how did the fish remains survive?
Panorama of Langhurstwood Brickpit.
Barbara Roberts - NON ART 