Portland stone
Encyclopedia
Portland stone is a limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 from the Tithonian
Tithonian
In the geologic timescale the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic epoch or the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic series. It spans the time between 150.8 ± 4 Ma and 145.5 ± 4 Ma...

 stage of the Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 period quarried
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 on the Isle of Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...

, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...

 beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

 and Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

. It is also exported to many countries—Portland stone is used in the United Nations headquarters
United Nations headquarters
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...

 building in New York City, for example.

The term "Portland Cement
Portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...

" was coined by Joseph Aspdin
Joseph Aspdin
Joseph Aspdin was a British cement manufacturer who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824....

 who in 1824 patented a hydraulic binder
Binder (material)
-See also:*Adhesive or Glue*Cement*Paint...

 created by burning a mixture of limestone and clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

, resembling the previously existing Roman cement
Roman cement
For the architectural material actually used by the ancient Romans, see Roman concrete."Roman cement" is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, and finally patented in 1796...

 and presenting a texture very close to that of the oolitic
Oolite
Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Hellenic word òoion for egg. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 mm; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites...

 Portland stone.

Geological information

Portland Stone formed in a marine environment, on the floor of a shallow, warm, sub-tropical sea probably near land (as evidenced by fossilized driftwood, which is not uncommon). As seawater was warmed by the Sun, its capacity to hold dissolved gas is reduced, consequently dissolved carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

 (CO2) is released into the atmosphere as a gas. Calcium
Calcium
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...

 and bicarbonate ions within the water are then able to combine, to form calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...

 (CaCO3) as a precipitate. The process of lime scale build up in a kettle in hard water areas is similar. Calcium carbonate is the principle constituent of most limestones. Billions of minute crystals of precipitated calcium carbonate (called calcite
Calcite
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite at 380-470°C, and vaterite is even less stable.-Properties:...

) accumulated forming lime mud (called micrite) which covered the sea floor. Small particles of sand or organic detritus, such as shell fragments, formed a nucleus, which became coated with layers of calcite as they were rolled around in the muddy micrite. The calcite gradually accumulated (by accretion) around the fragments of shell in concentric layers, forming small balls (of less than 0.5 mm diameter). This process is similar to the way in which a snowball grows in size as it is rolled around in the snow. Over time, countless billions of these balls, known as "ooids" or "ooliths", became partially cemented together (or lithified) by more calcite, to form the oolitic limestone we now call Portland Stone. Fortunately, the degree of cementation in Portland Stone is such that the stone is sufficiently well cemented to allow it to resist weathering but not so well cemented that it can't be readily worked (cut and carved) by masons, this is one of the reasons why Portland Stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Ian West of the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences at Southampton University completed a detailed geological survey of Withies Croft Quarry before the Portland Beds were quarried by Albion Stone plc.

Quarries and mines

Jordans is part of the Inmosthay Quarry in the centre of the Island, which also includes Fancy Beach. The quarry has been worked since the late 19th century. Albion Stone leases the southern section from The Crown Estate and purchased the northern part of the site in 2006. The majority of the southern reserves lie under the grounds of the local cricket club. To avoid disturbing the site at surface level, the company has applied and received permission to extract the stone using mining rather than quarrying techniques. The reserves to the north will be quarried using the diamond blade
Diamond Blade
A diamond blade is a saw blade which has diamonds fixed on the blade's base to use the diamonds to cut hard or abrasive materials. There are many types of diamond blades, and they have been applied in many industries, for example, construction industry to cut stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, coal...

d cutting machines, hydro bags and wire saw
Wire saw
A wire saw is a machine using a metal wire or cable for cutting. There are two types of wire saw machines: continuous and oscillating . Sometimes the wire itself is referred to as a "blade"....

s to shape the blocks. This process avoids the use of potentially damaging, dusty and noisy blasting as the primary extraction method, thereby protecting the surrounding environment, which has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 (SSSI).

The quarry at Bowers has been operational since the late 18th century. It has been leased from The Crown Estate since 1979 and in 2002 it became the site of the first Portland Stone mine. Extraction from this site is now completely underground with the original Bowers Mine in the extreme southern end of the quarry and the High Wall Extraction on the eastern and south east boundaries. High Wall Extraction is a series of small mines that extract otherwise wasted stone that sits between the final faces of the quarry and the actual boundary of the site.

Once quarries have been worked they are then restored. The Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust was formed in 1983 and is dedicated to preserving a knowledge and understanding of stone and the landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 from which it comes.

Quarrying methods

Traditionally small diameter holes (35 mm) were drilled horizontally under each rock and charged with a small quantity of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

, chosen because of its relative non-shattering properties. When fired the gunpowder produced a "heave" which dislodged the rock from its natural bed, hopefully undamaged. Stone was cut using plugs and feathers
Plug and feather
Plug and feather, also known as plugs and wedges, feather and wedges, wedges and shims, pins and feathers and feather and tare refers to a technique and a three-piece tool set used to split stone.-Description:...

, where a series of short, small diameter (typically 30 mm) holes are drilled in a line where a cut is to be made. One plug and two feathers were inserted into each hole and each plug is hit in turn with a sledgehammer until the stone yields to the extreme tensile stresses produced. Most stone is many times weaker in tension than in compression, plugs and feathers utilize this fact. It is also worth noting that stone tends to split much more easily parallel to bedding planes (called graining) than perpendicular to them (called cutting).

In 1999, Italian stone cutting equipment, originally designed for use in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

's marble quarries was imported by Albion Stone and applied to the extraction of Portland stone. This new technology eliminated the need for blasting, significantly improved the quarries' environmental performance and removed the potential for any possible damage to the stone being quarried through shock. Full account of the local jointing pattern is made when deciding the position and orientation of cuts. Once the quarry faces have been cut, the stone is gently displaced hydraulically. This is done using "hydro-bags", which are thin, flat, steel bags or envelopes that when inflated with water under moderate pressure, are capable of producing the forces necessary to loosen the stone to the point where it can be easily removed using large wheeled loaders
Loader (equipment)
A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...

. Splitting stone, using pneumatic drill
Jackhammer
A jackhammer is a pneumatic tool that combines a hammer directly with a chisel that was invented by Charles Brady King. Hand-held jackhammers are typically powered by compressed air, but some use electric motors. Larger jackhammers, such as rig mounted hammers used on construction machinery, are...

s is arduous work and so wire-saws have been introduced in to the quarries, replacing much of the plug and feather cutting.

Mining

Mining in Portland is done by using a room and pillar
Room and pillar
Room and pillar is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane while leaving "pillars" of untouched material to support the roof overburden leaving open areas or "rooms" underground...

 method. The mine is advanced by extracting the stone using an abrasive tool chain cutter mounted on a machine. Slots are cut into the top, bottom, sides and middle of the stone. A flat steel pillow is inserted into the middle cut and slowly inflated with water. The stones are gently broken off at the back without placing any stress on the resulting blocks. The method of extraction is significantly more expensive than blasting, but results in a higher yield thereby saving valuable reserves for future generations. The environmental benefits are substantial as mining significantly reduces the impact on wildlife and the local community with reduced noise and dust.

Portland stone buildings

Portland's freestone has almost certainly been used as a building material since Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 times. The many well crafted Roman sarcophagi (stone coffins and matching lids, hewn from single large blocks of Portland stone) that have been unearthed locally over the years, testify to the skill of their makers.

The earliest known building to be constructed using Portland stone is Rufus Castle
Rufus Castle
Rufus Castle, also known as Bow and Arrow Castle, is a ruined castle overlooking Church Ope Cove on Portland, England. The castle is a Grade I listed building, dating from the late C15, on the site of an earlier building...

 at Church Ope Cove, Portland. The original structure was probably built in around 1080, rebuilt in around 1259 and rebuilt yet again in about 1450 which is the likely date of the walls we see today.

The first known Portland stone quarries were situated on the north eastern coast of the Island, close to Rufus Castle, where huge landslips made the stone more easily accessible and the proximity of the sea, allowed the quarried stone blocks to be moved over relatively large distances by barge.

Portland stone was used to build the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

 in 1347, the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

 in 1349 and the first stone London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...

 in 1350. Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

 and Christchurch Priory
Christchurch Priory
Christchurch Priory is an ecclesiastical parish and former priory church in Christchurch in the English county of Dorset .-Early history:...

, also constructed during the 14th Century are built of Portland stone, its superb characteristics has ensured a popularity amongst masons and architects, that has endured ever since.

Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

 (1573–1652) used Portland stone to build the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

 in 1620. Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...

 used nearly one million cubic feet to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral and many other minor churches after the great fire of London
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

 in 1666. All of the stone used by Wren was transported by sailing barge from Portland to the centre of London via the Thames. Wren's widespread use of Portland Stone, firmly established it as London's "local stone" and as one of the best loved British building stones.

Other famous London buildings constructed of Portland stone are The British Museum 1753, Somerset House
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...

 1792, General Post Office 1829, The Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

, Mansion House
Mansion House, London
Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his...

 and the National Gallery.

Two of Liverpool's Three Graces, the Cunard Building
Cunard Building
The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building located in Liverpool, England. It is sited at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's Three Graces, which line the city's waterfront...

 and the Port of Liverpool Building
Port of Liverpool Building
The Port of Liverpool Building , is a Grade II* listed building located in Liverpool, England. It is sited at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Liver Building and Cunard Building is one of Liverpool's "Three Graces", which line the city's waterfront...

, are clad in Portland stone, which surrounds their reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

 frames.

The Nottingham Council House
Nottingham Council House
Nottingham Council House is the city hall of Nottingham, England. The iconic high dome that rises above the city is the centrepiece of the skyline and presides magnificently over the Old Market Square....

, completed in 1929, is also built with Portland Stone, as are the public buildings in Cardiff's civic centre.

Architect Charles Holden
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...

 significantly used the stone in his major commissions of the 1920s and 30s including Senate House
Senate House (University of London)
Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London between the School of Oriental and African Studies to the north, with the British Museum to the south...

 and 55 Broadway
55 Broadway
55 Broadway is a notable building overlooking St. James's Park in London. It was designed by Charles Holden and built between 1927 and 1929, and in 1931 the building earned him the RIBA London Architecture Medal...

 the home of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

.

After the Second World War (1939–1945) the bombed out centers of many towns and cities, such as Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 and London were reconstructed using vast facades of Portland Stone.

Portland Stone has also been used across the world in the UN building in New York, the National Gallery in Dublin and the Casino Kursaal in Belgium.

More recent projects include the new BBC Broadcasting House in London which won the ‘New Build (Modern Non Load Bearing Stone) ’ Award in the 2006 Natural Stone Awards.

Memorials

Following the First World War, Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...

 used Portland stone (quarried from the bottom of Wakeham) to construct the Cenotaph
The Cenotaph, Whitehall
The Cenotaph is a war memorial located in Whitehall, London. It began as a temporary structure erected for a peace parade following the end of World War I, but following an outpouring of national sentiment it was replaced by a permanent structure and designated the United Kingdom's official war...

 in London's Whitehall. Erected in 1920, The Cenotaph commemorates the millions of people killed in this and subsequent conflicts.

The gravestones for British personnel
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...

 killed in the First and Second World Wars were made out of Portland stone. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...

 use Portland Limestone supplier Stone Firms Limited's Broadcroft Whitbed..

Portland stone
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

 was used for the Armed Forces Memorial
Armed Forces Memorial
The Armed Forces Memorial is a national memorial in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the 16,000 servicemen and women of the British Armed Forces killed on duty or through terrorist action since the Second World War.-History:...

 in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England. Designed by Liam O'Connor Architects and Planning Consultants, it was completed in 2007 at a cost of over £6 million and bears the names of over 16,000 service personnel of the British Armed Forces killed since the Second World War.

Ornithischians

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...

s of the Portland stone
Taxa Presence Description Images

Genus:
  • Echinodon
    Echinodon
    Echinodon meaning "hedgehog tooth" in reference to the spines on its teeth , occasionally known as Saurechinodon, is a genus of small European dinosaur of the early Cretaceous Period , 140 million years ago.-Discovery and species:The type specimen was discovered by Samuel Beckles in the Purbeck...

  1. Echinodon sp.
  • Geographically located in Wiltshire, England.


  • Family:
    • Nodosauridae
      Nodosauridae
      Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, Asia, Antarctica and Europe.-Characteristics:...

    1. Indeterminate remains.
  • Geographically located in Wiltshire, England.

  • Order:
    • Ornithischia
      Ornithischia
      Ornithischia or Predentata is an extinct order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. The name ornithischia is derived from the Greek ornitheos meaning 'of a bird' and ischion meaning 'hip joint'...

    1. Indeterminate remains.
  • Geographically located in Wiltshire, England.

  • Suborder:
    • Thyreophora
      Thyreophora
      The Thyreophora were a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs...

    1. Unnamed genus.
  • Geographically located in Wiltshire
    Wiltshire
    Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

    , England.

  • Saurischians

    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...

    s of the Portland stone
    Taxa Presence Description Images

    Infraorder:
    • Sauropoda
      Sauropoda
      Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an infraorder of saurischian dinosaurs. They had long necks, long tails, small heads , and thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land...

    1. Indeterminate remains.
    2. Indeterminate remains.
    3. Indeterminate remains.
    4. Indeterminate remains.
  • Geographically located in Dorset, Britain.
  • Geographically located in Oxfordshire, Britain.
  • Geographically located in Buckinghamshire, Britain.
  • Geographically located in Wiltshire, Britain.
  • "(=Ornithopsis
    Ornithopsis
    Ornithopsis was a medium-sized Early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur, from England. It has been considered a synonym of the wastebasket taxon Pelorosaurus, but recent research suggests that this is not as clear-cut as supposed...

    sp.)"
  • "(=Cetiosaurus
    Cetiosaurus
    Cetiosaurus meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek cetus/κητος meaning 'sea monster' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', was a sauropod dinosaur from the Mid to Late Jurassic Period in what are now Europe and Africa. It is estimated to have been about long and to have weighed roughly...

     longus
    , C. ?longus, C. sp.)"
  • "(=Cetiosaurus
    Cetiosaurus
    Cetiosaurus meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek cetus/κητος meaning 'sea monster' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', was a sauropod dinosaur from the Mid to Late Jurassic Period in what are now Europe and Africa. It is estimated to have been about long and to have weighed roughly...

     longus
    )"
  • "(=Camarasaurus
    Camarasaurus
    Camarasaurus meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the hollow chambers in its vertebrae was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America...

     sp.
    , Diplodocus
    Diplodocus
    Diplodocus , or )is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron bones...

    sp.)"

  • Suborder:
    • Theropoda
      Theropoda
      Theropoda is both a suborder of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs, and a clade consisting of that suborder and its descendants . Dinosaurs belonging to the suborder theropoda were primarily carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved herbivory, omnivory, and insectivory...

    1. Indeterminate remains.
  • Geographically located in Dorset and Wiltshire, Britain.
  • "(=Megalosaurus
    Megalosaurus
    Megalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...

    sp.)"

  • See also

    • List of stone
    • List of types of limestone
    • Isle of Portland
      Isle of Portland
      The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...

      , Dorset

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