Fossils in Northumberland
Crinoid, Woodocrinus sp. © BGSDetailed lists of the fossils recorded from the district may be found in the scientific literature, including many of the references cited in the bibliographyof the Geology Audit and Action Plan. In addition, many large collections of fossils from the district are held in the collections of BGS and in museums.
Fossils of Silurian age are the oldest to have been found in the rocks of the district. Although relatively rare in the district, sufficient graptolites have been found in the Coquet Head Inlier to form an assemblage diagnostic of the top of the Monograptus riccartonensis zone of Wenlock age. This has allowed the strata to be correlated with sediments in the nearby Riccarton and Hawick inliers. Other sites where Silurian fossils have been noted include the Lower Ramshope Burn.
Fossils recognised within the Coquet Head Inlier include Monograptus priodon, Monograptus flemingii, Pristiograptus meneghini, Monograptus radotinensis, Monograptus flumendosae, Atrypa sp., Orthoceras sp., Monograptus sp. and Helminthoida sp. (trace fossil).
The Carboniferous rocks in the district contain finely preserved examples of many of the principal fossil groups, such as algae, sponges, foraminifera, brachiopods, molluscs, gastropods, ammonoids, goniatites, echinoderms, crinoids, corals, bryozoans,ostracods and plants. Whereas such fossils may be widely scattered through many of the rocks, a number of localities within the district are notable for concentrations of one or more fossil species. The following sites are particularly important:
Tipalt Burn [NY 659 661 – NY 687 683], in the west of the district, exposes fine sections through a particularly fossiliferous portion of the Lower Bankhouses Limestone. The nature and occurrence of the rich fauna of cephalopod molluscs, echinoderms, bryozoans, corals and brachiopods has invited comparison with the Carboniferous reef limestones of the Craven area of North Yorkshire. The site is today scheduled as an SSSI for its palaeontological importance.
The Redesdale Ironstone Shale is renowned for the rich diversity and fine preservation of its fossils. One band in particular within the deposit contains an exceptionally well preserved molluscan fauna. One band in particular within the deposit contains an exceptionally well preserved molluscan fauna. Redesdale Ironstone Quarries SSSI [NY 895 833] is one of the richest faunal localities in Dinantian strata in Britain.
The long-disused Brunton Quarry, near Chollerford [NY 929 700], which displays a section in the basal Namurian Great Limestone, is scheduled as an SSSI for its palaeontological importance. The Chaetetes Band, in the lowest 1.5 metres of the limestone, contains superbly preserved reef-like encrusting mats of the sponge Chaetetes depressus, accompanied by colonial corals and a variety of brachiopods and bivalves preserved in life position. It is a superb example of a Carboniferous tropical sea floor community – or complete ecosystem – fossilised in situ. The quarry is additionally noteworthy as the type locality for the alga Calcifolium bruntonense, a species restricted to the Great Limestone, in a bed known as the Brunton Band.
The Greenleighton Quarry SSSI [NZ 034 920] is of importance for the rich marine shell faunas contained in the Great Limestone and the overlying shales, including the type material Pleuropugnoides greenleightonensis. Nodules occurring just above the Great Limestone have yielded specimens of the goniatite Cravenoceras leion, thus proving the Great Limestone to be at or very close to the base of the Namurian, and ending the controversy over its precise stratigraphical position.
In Black Pasture Quarry [NY 932 699], sandstones above the Great Limestone locally contain abundant specimens of the brachiopods Schellwienella crenistria. The abandoned sections of the quarry also expose beautifully ripple-marked surfaces of sandstone on which well-preserved worm casts are locally conspicuous.
At Mootlaw Quarry, near Ryal [NZ 024 750], the shales that overlie the Great Limestone are notable for a rich and varied fauna of brachiopods, molluscs, gastropods, crinoids and goniatites. Of particular interest is the presence of the goniatite Cravenoceras cf. lineolatum, an important marker fossil in the Namurian rocks of northern England. The shales have also yielded an almost complete, fully articulated, crinoid: such fossils are almost invariably found in a fragmentary condition.
