Hastings, East Sussex

[TQ 831 095]–[TQ 853 105]

Highlights

The Early Cretaceous sandstones and shales that outcrop along the coast and foreshore east of Hastings have been famous for 150 years for specimens of dinosaurs, crocodilians, turtles, and footprints. More recent discoveries include rare mammal teeth, and other small bones, from the Cliff End Bone Bed.

Introduction

The Hastings Beds (Early Cretaceous: Berriaisian–Valanginian, (Figure 8.2)) of the cliff sections east of Hastings have been renowned for 150 years for finds of fossil reptile bones and footprints (Figure 8.4), and this century for microvertebrate remains in the Cliff End Bone Bed. Bones were first found at Hastings about 1830, and the brick pit and stone quarries around the town produced many specimens, but these quarries and pits are no longer accessible. The coast is subject to continuous erosion, and dinosaur footprints and a variety of reptile bones have been reported from the 1850s to the present day. Parts of the section are obscured by landslips, and there is limited access to the beach.

The stratigraphy of the Wealden of Hastings has been described by several authors (e.g. Beckles, 1856; Topley, 1875; White, 1928; Allen 1976; Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987). Accounts of reptiles and footprints have been given by Hulke (1885), Seeley (1887e), Lydekker (1892, 1893b), Ballerstedt (1914), Delair and Sarjeant (1985), Delair (1989) and Woodhams and Hines (1989), and the Cliff End Bone Bed has been described by Allen (1949) and Clemens and Lees (1971).

Description

The succession, in outline is (Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987):

The geology of the Ecclesbourne–Fairlight section has been described by Allen (1962), Stewart (1981b) and Lake and Shephard-Thorn (1987). The sections immediately east of Hastings Old Town show the top Ashdown Beds and the cliff is topped by the Cliff End Sandstone, the lowest unit of the Wadhurst Clay. The lowest exposed unit, the Lee Ness Sandstone, is seen on the foreshore at low tide. These units appear throughout the section, repeated by faults and with varying dips as a result of the WNW–ESE-trending Battle-Fairlight anticline. Individual horizons show lateral facies variation — the Cliff End Bone Bed does not occur throughout.

Most reptile remains do not have accurate local ity or horizon data. Bones and footprints seem to have been found at all levels in the section, and from several sites, which may be identified on the basis of the literature and museum labels.

1.      Ecclesbourne Glen [TQ 837 099]. Tylor (1862) recorded fossil footprints 'upon detached blocks of sand-rock which had fallen in large masses from the upper part of the cliff a little west of Ecclesboume Glen'. Various crocodilian and dinosaur bones (e.g. BMNH R605–9, R1637) are labelled 'Ecclesbourne Glen'. Several specimens in Hastings Museum (GG94–101) are recorded from the Wadhurst Clay and Ashdown Beds of Ecclesbourne.

2.      Lee Ness Ledge [TQ 867 108]. Beckles (1854, p. 457), Allen (1976, p. 393) and Lake and Shephard-Thom (1987) note 'casts of the footprints of Iguanodon' on the undersurface of blocks of the Lee Ness Sandstone. These may be the same specimens described in situ by Woodhams and Hines (1989), who report iguanodontid and theropod footprints at three levels 'near Lee Ness', two of these horizons being near the base of the Lee Ness Sandstone itself, and one 5–6 m lower.

3.      Fairlight Cove–Cliff End [TQ 876 116]. White (1928, p. 30) noted 'a few footprints of Iguanodon, on a slab of light-grey sandstone… on the shore close to the base of the clif at Cliff End. Allen (1976, p. 393) notes large dinosaur footprints at the top of the Ashdown beds at Cliff End. Footprints have been seen along this section in fallen blocks (P. Allen, pers. comm. to M.J.B., 1982). Tylor (1862) also recorded footprints from the following sites: [TQ 835 097], [TQ 854 104], [TQ 860 107], and Lake and Shephard-Thorn (1987, p. 21) noted some at Goldbury Point [TQ 877 114]. Several turtles, crocodilians and dinosaurs are labelled 'Fairlight West' or 'Cliff End' (BMNH R1954, R4416, R4434, R4439, HASTM GG80–6, 88, 92, 105–7, 313). Source horizons are the 'Ashdown Sands' and the 'Fairlight Clays' (upper and lower portions of the Ashdown Beds respectively). In general, bones and footprints may be found anywhere along the section where there is fresh exposure.

Iguanodontid footprints figured by Ballerstedt (1914, figs 2, 4) 'aus dem Wealden von Hastings' may come from this area too: one of them is a photograph by C. Dawson, presumably the archaeologist associated with the Piltdown find, and with Tielhard de Chardin, who was involved with the first collections from the Cliff End Bone Bed.

Reptile remains are also known from the Cliff End Bone Bed (less than 5% of all bones: Patterson, 1966; two teeth, K.A. Kermack, pers. comm. 1982). The Cliff End Bone Bed fauna consists largely of sharks' teeth, and those of the actinopterygian fish Lepidotes, together with rare mammal teeth. The Bone Bed, exposed in the cliffs at [TQ 887 129] (Figure 8.4), 2.5 m above the Cliff End Sandstone (Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987, pp. 67–71), is a poorly sorted cross-bedded coarse sandstone or fine-grained conglomerate of quartz and chert pebbles and abraded fragments of sideritic mudstone, with abundant fragments of fishes and reptiles as well as mollusc debris.

Fauna

As already indicated, some specimens are labelled as coming from Ecclesboume, Fairlight or Cliff End. The majority, however, are labelled 'Hastings' and although many probably came from the cliffs east of the town, some must have been found in the old quarries and brickpits. In the following list, only those specimens definitely recorded from the cliffs are listed, and numbers of all 'Hastings' material are given.

Interpretation

The Tunbridge Wells Sand has been interpreted as a fluvio-deltaic deposit, the Wadhurst Clay and Grinstead Clay as pro-deltaic or lagoonal in origin, and the Ashdown Beds as fluvial (Lake and Shephard-Thom, 1987). The environments of deposition in the Wealden of the Weald had formerly been interpreted as largely deltaic (e.g. Allen, 1959, 1962; Taylor, 1963), but Allen (1976, 1981) revised his former theory in favour of a model (Figure 8.8) in which the normal Wealden environment was a variable-salinity mudplain, periodically transformed into a sandy braidplain by powerful overloaded streams, the salinity changes being controlled by the rate of freshwater runoff. Allen (1981) argued that many of the rivers were braided in their proximal portions, whereas Stewart (1981a, 1981b, 1983) emphasized evidence for meandering streams. The climate was warm, with marked wet and dry seasons and 'herds of dinosaurs travelled freely across the basin and maintained themselves in it'.

The Cliff End Bone Bed was interpreted as a high-energy deposit by Allen (1949) and corre lated by him with the Telham Bone Bed, exposed near Battle, and with other occurrences of the Cliff End Bone Bed inland (Figure 8.3). Allen (1949) regarded this bone bed as a correlatable event horizon, restricted to the most eastern part of East Sussex, and neighbouring parts of Kent, and lying on top of the Tilgate Stone' horizon (Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987, p. 28).

The turtles Tretosternon and Plesiochelys are represented by fragmentary remains of the carapace, plastron and limbs. Such remains are relatively common in the Wealden of the Weald, but they are inadequate for a proper understanding of their anatomy and relationships.

The crocodilians are more abundant. Goniopholis, represented by numerous vertebrae, limb bones, teeth, jaws and scutes, was a moderate- to large-snouted aquatic crocodilian. The genus is known from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe and North America (Steel, 1973). Suchosaurus, an aquatic medium-sized pholidosaur, is represented by some teeth. Bernissartia (partial skeleton) was a small (1 m. long) animal with characteristic heterodont teeth, conical and pointed in the anterior part of the jaws, and rounded and blunt further back. The genus is known also from the Wealden of Bernissart, Belgium and the Isle of Wight and the Early Cretaceous of Galve, Spain (Buffetaut, 1975; Norell and Clark, 1990).

The type of the crocodilian Heterosuchus valdensis ((Figure 8.5)A probably came from the cliff section at Hastings. The specimen consists of a water-worn slab containing about 12 vertebrae of a small crocodilian (Seeley, 1887e). Further material from the Wealden of Sussex and the Isle of Wight was ascribed to this form by Lydekker (1888a), and Woodward and Sherborn (1890, p. 231) identified as Heterosuchus sp. specimens from the Isle of Wight and from the Middle Purbeck of Durlston Bay. The genus has been synonymized with Hylaeochampsa Owen, 1874, erected for Isle of Wight material (Steel, 1973, p. 53), but this cannot be demonstrated since the two taxa are based on non-overlapping material (Buffetaut, 1983; Clark and Norell, 1992). Indeed, Clark and Norell (1992) argue that the taxon is a nomen dubium, since it lacks diagnostic material. They regard it as a neosuchian, possibly a eusuchian, on the basis of its procoelous vertebrae and the well-developed condyles on the trunk vertebrae. If it is a eusuchian, as Hylaeochampsa is, then it is one of the oldest in the world.

A large carnivorous dinosaur, generally ascribed to Megalosaurus is represented by teeth and limb bones from Hastings. The generic assignment is unlikely, since Megalosaurus is typical of the Mid Jurassic. There is a problem over the definition of the two Wealden 'species', M. dunkeri and M. oweni, and Huene (1923) ascribed these to the new genus Altispinax, but the specimens are too incomplete for certain assignment. Molnar (1990) regards M. dunkeri as a 'problematic carnosaur' and M. oweni as a nomen dubium.

Some large bones, ribs and vertebrae from Hastings have been named Cetiosaurus and Ornithopsis (Lydekker, 1892, 1893b). While these assignments may or may not be correct, there seem to have been at least two large sauropods in the Wealden (Ostrom, 1970).

The commonest dinosaur remains from Hastings are teeth, jaws, vertebrae, ribs and limb bones of the large bipedal ornithopod Iguanodon (Hulke, 1885). The specific assignment is difficult and awaits revision (Norman, 1980, 1986). Several species of Iguanodon were named from the Hastings area, including I. hollingtonensis Lydekker (1889), based on a partial skeleton from Hollington Quarry, St Leonards, near Hastings [TQ 795 115], and I. dawsoni Lydekker (1888), both based on limb bones and vertebrae from Shornden Quarry, Hastings ([TQ 802 106], [TQ 803 104]) (Lydekker, 1888a, 1889e). The status of these taxa is currently unclear. Norman and Weishampel (1990, p. 530) synonymize I. hollingtonensis with I. fittoni, and accept I. dawsoni as valid, but do not elucidate the differences of these rather poorly known taxa from the typical I. atherfieldensis Hooley, 1924 and I. bernissartensis Boulenger, 1881, the sympatric small and large forms respectively found in most of the Wealden of Europe.

Armoured dinosaurs are represented by a '?stegosaur' tooth and a ?Polacanthus spine. The English ankylosaurs Hylaeosaurus and Polacanthus are known from the Wealden of the Weald, the Isle of Wight, and the Upper Greensand of Charmouth, Dorset, but dermal elements such as the spine are hard to identify.

Pterosaurs are relatively uncommon, with only a few wing bones of 'Ornithocheirus' known. Plesiosaurs, typically marine animals, are also uncommon; some vertebrae and limb bones of Cimoliasaurus suggest that they may have wandered into coastal fresh waters at times.

The iguanodontid and theropod footprints from Hastings (Tagart, 1846; Beckles, 1854; 1856; Tylor, 1862; White, 1928; Delair and Sarjeant, 1985; Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987, pp. 19–21; Woodhams and Hines, 1989) are large (0.3–0.6 m long), tridactyl (three-toed) imprints ((Figure 8.5)B,C. The 'toes' are broad, short and curved to a point and there is a broad heel impression. They are generally seen as casts on the underside of sandstone beds, or as wave-eroded hollows in silts on the present foreshore. Theropod prints have narrower toes than the iguanodontid prints, and they should have evidence of sharp claws if preservation is good enough. They are much rarer than the iguanodontid prints.

Comparison with other localities

In the Hastings area several quarries in the Wadhurst Clay and Ashdown beds have yielded similar fossil reptiles. These include St Leonards (0.02–0.1 m thick bed in Hall and Co.'s Quarry behind the church just off the West Marina; [TQ 797 088]; Tretosternon, Goniopholis, Pleurocoelus, Iguanodon, 'stegosaur', Ornithocheirus, Cimoliasaurus, Parish, 1833; Topley, 1875, p. 61; White, 1928, p. 47; Allen, 1949, p. 276); Hollington Quarry ('quarry at Rose Cottage', Topley, 1875, p. 61; [TQ 795 115]; Tretosternon, Goniopholis, Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, 'stegosaur', Cimoliasaurus, Lydekker, 1889f, p. 355; 1890b, pp. 40–3; White, 1928, pp. 66, 71); Little Ridge Farm Quarry ([TQ 809 127]; Iguanodon); Shornden Quarry ([TQ 802 106]; Iguanodon); Silver Hill/Tivoli Brickworks ([TQ 799 115]; Iguanodon); Bucks Hole Quarry ([TQ 806 110], [TQ 806 112]; Iguanodon, Cimoliasaurus); Ore (?[TQ 826 108]; Goniopholis, Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, Cimoliasaurus). Unfortunately, none of these sites is still extant.

The Cliff End Bone Bed is currently exposed (Lake and Shephard-Thorn, 1987, pp. 37, 39) near the steps from the Undercliff to Watchbell Street, Rye ([TQ 9195 2018]), and formerly in a brickpit near Baldslow [TQ 810 133]. Bone beds which may be equivalent to the Cliff End Bone Bed are seen at Reyson's Farm, near Brede [TQ 832 192] and West Ascent, St Leonards [TQ 7982 0885].

Conclusions

The most varied faunas of Early Cretaceous dinosaurs are known from the Wealden of Europe. One of the best of these faunas is that from the Hastings Beds in their type area, and the fossils include skeletons and footprints. Moreover, this is the only extensive, eroding coastal setting in these non-marine strata, which therefore has considerable potential for future finds. Previous finds include a selection of terrestrial and aquatic reptiles — two genera of turtles, four genera of crocodilians, one genus of theropod, two of sauropods, three of ornithischians, one genus of pterosaur and one plesiosaur. Also, further collecting from bone-rich horizons — such as the Cliff End Bone Bed — may yield new genera of smaller reptiles: lizards, snakes, turtles.

The conservation value lies in the combination of this potential for future discoveries and the importance of the fossil faunas recovered from the site over the past 150 years.

References