Mid Jurassic (Bathonian) of Southern England

The remains of dinosaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and turtles are known from a large number of localities in the Bathonian of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire (Figure 6.1). Many of these are important from an historical point of view as well as being productive sources of reptiles. The majority of the remains come from rocks that are interpreted as subaerial lagoonal and lacustrine deposits, and these document a number of major faunal changes. Most notable was the disappearance of the tritylodontids, the last surviving members of the essentially Permo-Triassic mammal-like reptiles. A number of new groups appeared, including the choristoderes, the avialan dinosaurs, and possibly the lizards (see (Figure 6.5)). These British records are international 'firsts' and 'lasts' (more detail in the introduction to Chapter 4).

The GCR sites, New Park Quarry [SP 171 296], Stonesfield [SP 387 171], Huntsman's Quarry [SP 126 253], Shipton-on-Cherwell [SP 475 178] and Kirtlington [SP 494 199], provide a coverage of faunas which range in age from the Early to the Late Bathonian.

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