Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight
Encyclopedia
The Isle of Wight
is one of the richest dinosaur
localities in Europe
, with over 20 species
of dinosaur having been recognised from the early Cretaceous
Period (in particular between 132 and 110 million years ago), some of which were first identified on the island, as well as the contemporary non-dinosaurian species of crocodile
, turtle
and pterosaur
.
Compton Bay
, near Freshwater
features dinosaur footprints which are visible at low tide
.
en fossil
-bearing bed
s exposed on the southern half of the island. These are revealed in the cliffs of Yaverland
, close to Sandown
, and at Hanover Point and Whale Chine
, along the southwestern coast.
, which dates from between 125 and 110 million years ago (mya). During this time the Isle of Wight, then located on a latitude at which North Africa
resides today, had a subtropical environment and was part of a large river valley
complex, which ran along the south coast of England
to Belgium
. It was a world of ponds, river
s and swamp
s, so it had conditions favourable for the formation of fossils.
Animal remains from this time include crocodile
s, turtle
s, pterosaur
s, mammal
s and possibly some bird
s. In the water were snails, fish and mussels.
As this environment did not change much, over the course of 10 million years, a large number of fossils were formed, so the island today is a very rich source.
, 2001) ISBN 0-901702-72-2, is also the title of a field guide to dinosaurs found on the island, by Darren Naish
and David Martill.
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
is one of the richest dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
localities in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, with over 20 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of dinosaur having been recognised from the early Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
Period (in particular between 132 and 110 million years ago), some of which were first identified on the island, as well as the contemporary non-dinosaurian species of crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
, turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
and pterosaur
Pterosaur
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...
.
Compton Bay
Compton Bay
Compton Bay is a bay located on the southwest section of the Isle of Wight, England. The northern edge of the bay is defined by a distinctive white chalk cliff called Freshwater Cliff, named after Freshwater Bay which is located next to them and forms a small but piercing bay into them...
, near Freshwater
Freshwater, Isle of Wight
Freshwater is a large village and civil parish at the western end of the Isle of Wight, England. Freshwater Bay is a small cove on the south coast of the Island which also gives its name to the nearby part of Freshwater....
features dinosaur footprints which are visible at low tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
.
Geological strata
The Isle of Wight has layers of the Vectis and WealdWeald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
en fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
-bearing bed
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
s exposed on the southern half of the island. These are revealed in the cliffs of Yaverland
Yaverland
Yaverland is a village on the Isle of Wight, just north of Sandown. It has about 200 houses. About 1/3 of a mile away from the village is the Yaverland Manor and Church. Holotype fossils have been discovered here of Yaverlandia and a pterosaur, Caulkicephalus...
, close to Sandown
Sandown
Sandown is a seaside resort town and civil parish on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, neighbouring the town of Shanklin to the south. Sandown Bay is the name of the bay off the English Channel which both towns share, and it is notable for its long stretch of easily accessible...
, and at Hanover Point and Whale Chine
Chine
A chine is a steep-sided river valley where the river flows through coastal cliffs to the sea. Typically these are soft eroding cliffs such as sandstone or clays. The word chine originates from the Saxon "Cinan" meaning a gap or yawn....
, along the southwestern coast.
The Cretaceous habitat
The Island's dinosaurs come from the Wessex FormationWessex Formation
The Wessex Formation is an English fossil site and geological formation that dates to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. It is part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Formation.-Invertebrates:...
, which dates from between 125 and 110 million years ago (mya). During this time the Isle of Wight, then located on a latitude at which North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
resides today, had a subtropical environment and was part of a large river valley
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
complex, which ran along the south coast of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It was a world of ponds, river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s and swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
s, so it had conditions favourable for the formation of fossils.
Animal remains from this time include crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s, turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s, pterosaur
Pterosaur
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...
s, mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s and possibly some bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. In the water were snails, fish and mussels.
As this environment did not change much, over the course of 10 million years, a large number of fossils were formed, so the island today is a very rich source.
List of dinosaur species
Unless otherwise specified, the following is a list of dinosaurs for which almost complete skeletons have been found on the island. There are also many more species, known only from a single or very few bones.Order Ornithischia
- Suborder OrnithopodOrnithopodOrnithopods or members of the clade Ornithopoda are a group of ornithischian dinosaurs that started out as small, bipedal running grazers, and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world, and dominated the North American...
a ("bird-footed", bipedal herbivoreHerbivoreHerbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
s)- IguanodonIguanodonIguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
bernissartensis - MantellisaurusMantellisaurusMantellisaurus is a genus of dinosaur formerly known as Iguanodon atherfieldensis. The new genus was erected by Gregory Paul in 2007. According to Paul, it is more lightly built than Iguanodon and more closely related to Ouranosaurus, making Iguanodon in its traditional sense paraphyletic. It is...
atherfieldensis (formerly Iguanodon atherfieldensis) - ValdosaurusValdosaurusValdosaurus is a genus of bipedal herbivorous iguanodont ornithopod dinosaur found on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere in England. It lived during the Early Cretaceous.-Discovery and naming:...
canaliculatus (known from partial material) - HypsilophodonHypsilophodonHypsilophodon is an ornithopod dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous period of Europe. It was a small bipedal animal with an herbivorous or possibly omnivorous diet...
foxii: Named after Rev. William FoxWilliam Fox (palaeontologist)William D. Fox was an English clergyman and palaeontologist who worked on the Isle of Wight and made some significant discoveries of dinosaur fossils....
, a fossil collector of the Isle of Wight who found several skeletons.
- Iguanodon
- Suborder ThyreophoraThyreophoraThe Thyreophora were a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs...
("shield-bearers", armored herbivorous dinosaurs)- PolacanthusPolacanthusPolacanthus, deriving its name from the Ancient Greek poly-/πολυ- "many" and acantha/ακανθα "thorn" or "prickle", was an early armored, spiked, plant-eating ankylosaur from the early Cretaceous period. Early depictions often gave it a very vague head as it was only known from the rear half of the...
foxii: Also named after the Reverend Fox. Notable as no head to the specimen has ever been found and reconstructions are based upon suppositions from similar ankylosauriaAnkylosauriaAnkylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are first known to have appeared in the early Jurassic Period of...
ns.
- Polacanthus
Order Saurischia
- Suborder SauropodomorphaSauropodomorphaSauropodomorpha is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs which includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had long necks and tails, were quadrupedal, and became the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The...
("sauropod-like", giant long-necked herbivores)- The 'Barnes High' sauropod: A member of the BrachiosauridaeBrachiosauridaeBrachiosauridae are a family of dinosaurs, whose members are known as brachiosaurids. They were herbivorous quadrupeds with longer forelegs than hind legs - the name derives from the Greek for arm lizard - and long necks...
family, most likely EucamerotusEucamerotusEucamerotus was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, England. It is known from vertebral remains, and a partial skeleton has been referred, although this has not been accepted...
or PelorosaurusPelorosaurusPelorosaurus was a huge plant-eating dinosaur. Pelorosaurus was one of the first sauropod dinosaurs ever discovered. Pelorosaurus lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 138-112 million years ago. Fossils referred to Pelorosaurus have been found in England and Portugal...
. This is the most complete specimen from the Wealden era.
- The 'Barnes High' sauropod: A member of the Brachiosauridae
- Suborder Theropoda ("beast foot", bipedal carnivoreCarnivoreA carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...
s)- BaryonyxBaryonyxBaryonyx is a genus of carnivorous saurischian dinosaur first discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking, England, and later reported from fossils found in northern Spain and Portugal. It is known to contain only one species, Baryonyx walkeri...
walkeri: Teeth are common on the Island. Hand bones have also been found. - EotyrannusEotyrannusEotyrannus was a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur hailing from the Early Cretaceous Wessex Formation beds, included in Wealden Group, located in the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom...
lengi: A tyrannosauroidTyrannosauroideaTyrannosauroidea is a superfamily of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontinent beginning in the Jurassic Period...
. First identified in 1997 and named in 2001 from a single specimen found on the island. - NeovenatorNeovenatorNeovenator is a genus of allosauroid dinosaur. Since its discovery on the Isle of Wight, UK, it has become one of the best-known large carnivorous dinosaurs in Europe. Neovenator was at first considered possibly a new species of Megalosaurus. It measured approximately 7.5 meters in length,...
salerii: The holotypeHolotypeA holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
skeleton was found on the island. - YaverlandiaYaverlandiaYaverlandia is a genus of theropod dinosaur. Known from a partial fossil skull found in Lower Cretaceous strata on the Isle of Wight, it was described as the earliest known member of the pachycephalosaurid family, but recent research by Darren Naish shows it to have actually been a theropod,...
: The holotype partial skull was found at YaverlandYaverlandYaverland is a village on the Isle of Wight, just north of Sandown. It has about 200 houses. About 1/3 of a mile away from the village is the Yaverland Manor and Church. Holotype fossils have been discovered here of Yaverlandia and a pterosaur, Caulkicephalus...
. It was initially believed to have belonged to a pachycephalosauriaPachycephalosauriaPachycephalosauria is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs. Well-known genera include Pachycephalosaurus, Stegoceras, Stygimoloch, and Dracorex. Most lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, in what is now North America and Asia. They were all bipedal, herbivorous/omnivorous animals with thick skulls...
n.
- Baryonyx
External links
- Dinosaurs at Dinosaur Isle The website of Dinosaur IsleDinosaur IsleDinosaur Isle is a purpose-built dinosaur museum located on the Isle of Wight in southern England.The museum was designed by Isle of Wight architects Rainey Petrie Johns in the shape of a giant pterosaur. It claims to be the first custom-built dinosaur museum in Europe...
, an Isle of Wight palaeontological museum. - Dinosaur Farm - Another local museum.
- DinoWight - The Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight Good site for general and scientific information
- The Palaeontological Association - Official website.
- "New Species Of Prehistoric Creatures Discovered In Isle Of Wight Mud", ScienceDaily, February 2009 news item on the discovery of diverse 48 species.
Other meanings
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (Palaeontological AssociationPalaeontological Association
The Palaeontological Association is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology.-Functions:...
, 2001) ISBN 0-901702-72-2, is also the title of a field guide to dinosaurs found on the island, by Darren Naish
Darren Naish
Darren Naish is a vertebrate palaeontologist and science writer. He obtained a geology degree at the University of Southampton and later studied vertebrate palaeontology under British palaeontologist David Martill at the University of Portsmouth, where he obtained both an M. Phil...
and David Martill.