Yaverland Fossil Hunting

1835 – dinosaur remains were already being reported from Yaverland
Yaverland has one of the longest fossil-discovery histories on the Isle of Wight. The site account notes that dinosaur remains were being reported from the cliffs and foreshore as early as 1835, making it one of the classic Wealden dinosaur localities on the island.

1923 – the skull roof later named Yaverlandia bitholus entered the local museum
Abell donated the small skull roof he had found at Yaverland to the Museum of Isle of Wight Geology in 1923. It subsequently became the type specimen of Yaverlandia. The later 1930 account concerns its early scientific discussion, rather than the date of the museum donation.

1936 – the Yaverland skull was first assigned to Vectisaurus
Before its true significance was understood, the original Yaverland specimen was assigned to Vectisaurus. This is an important step in the history of the fossil because it shows how difficult some of the Isle of Wight dinosaur remains were to interpret in the early years of study.

1971 – Yaverlandia bitholus was formally named by Peter Galton
Peter Galton re-examined the original skull material and concluded that it represented a distinct genus, which he named Yaverlandia bitholus. He interpreted it as a small dome-headed dinosaur. Yaverland is its type locality, but that original identification is now disputed.

2012 – a second specimen of Yaverlandia was discovered on a school fossil-hunting trip
A second specimen referable to Yaverlandia was discovered at Yaverland in 2012 by a student on a school fossil-hunting trip. This was especially important because for many years the animal had been known from only a single specimen.

2020 – the pterosaur Wightia declivirostris was described from a Yaverland specimen found by John Winch
A partial pterosaur snout found near the cliffs at Yaverland by amateur palaeontologist John Winch was described in 2020 as Wightia declivirostris. This was an important discovery because it represented the first tapejarid pterosaur reported from the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight.

2023 – rare iguanodontian dinosaur footprints were uncovered on Yaverland seafront
In 2023, scientists from the Environment Agency, JBA Consulting and Dinosaur Isle Museum reported rare dinosaur footprints on Yaverland seafront. The three-toed prints were interpreted as likely belonging to Mantellisaurus, and the discovery showed that the dinosaur-bearing land surface probably extends along much of Yaverland beach.

2026 – the second specimen of Yaverlandia was formally described
Darren Naish and Steven Sweetman described the second skull roof, found in 2012. It confirmed that the paired swellings were normal features of the animal, but its relationships remained unresolved. The authors concluded that Yaverlandia might not be a dinosaur at all; better material is needed before a secure identification is possible.

Modern understanding – Yaverland remains one of the Isle of Wight’s classic dinosaur and footprint localities
Today Yaverland is recognised as an important Early Cretaceous site for dinosaur bones, footprints and other vertebrate fossils from the Wessex Formation. Its importance lies not only in named discoveries such as Yaverlandia and Wightia, but also in the continued appearance of footprints and rolled dinosaur material on the foreshore.

The Y1–Y15 labels are editorial guide divisions. Radley’s numbered Wessex beds and White’s historical section are separate schemes and are not forced into one-to-one correlation. This account and chart include the younger marine continuation through Red Cliff towards southern Culver, described as a separate exposure tract below.

WEALDEN GROUP

Wessex Formation (Barremian)

The Yaverland Wessex section is not a single clean vertical cliff log. It is a composite upper Wessex succession exposed around Yaverland Battery, the old sea wall, the car-park foreshore and the northern end of Sandown Bay, with more than 50 m of strata logged in the published numbered section. This page follows the published Radley bed numbers where they are known, but combines them into practical site-use intervals because the cliffs are changeable, fallen blocks are common, and several important horizons are better seen on the foreshore than in the cliff face.

Bed Y1 — Radley Beds 1–8: Lower Exposed Floodplain Mudstones And Track-Bearing Crevasse-Splay Sands

The lowest exposed Yaverland Wessex beds are dominated by red, purple and variegated silty mudstones of the alluvial floodplain, with subordinate thin sandstones laid down as crevasse splays or small sheet-flood bodies. Radley’s Beds 6 and 8 are the first important track-bearing horizons in the section. They yielded small ornithopod footprints, and Bed 8 also produced a large four-toed print about 55 cm long, generally interpreted as having been made by either a thyreophoran or a sauropod. These beds show repeated flooding of muddy floodplain surfaces, brief establishment of shallow standing water or soft substrate, and rapid burial beneath sand.

Radley Bed 6 — Lower track-bearing horizon

The older numbered account identifies a lower track horizon among the floodplain muds and thin sands. Small ornithopod prints are recorded from this lower part of the section.

Radley Bed 8 — Separate higher track horizon

Bed 8 is distinct from Bed 6 and includes the historically reported large four-toed impression, about 55 cm long, of uncertain thyreophoran or sauropod affinity. The identification is not narrowed to one dinosaur group.

Bed Y2 — Radley Beds 9–15: Lower–Middle Point-Bar And Plant-Bed Interval

This interval contains alternating floodplain mudstones, channel-margin sands and one of the more distinctive lower plant-debris horizons of the section. Radley Bed 12, occasionally exposed on the foreshore below the Yaverland car park, may consist almost entirely of plant material in a fine sand to mudstone matrix. Higher in the interval, Radley Bed 15 represents a point-bar or channel-sand sequence with two separate trackway-bearing levels. It is strongly dinoturbated, with numerous small tridactyl tracks and sand-filled casts, but the better-preserved impressions are attributable to large ornithopods; a single theropod track was recorded about 1.5 m below the top of the bed. This package records active river-channel migration across a vegetated floodplain already heavily used by dinosaurs.

Radley Bed 12 — Plant-debris horizon

Sweetman describes a bed dominated by plant material in fine sand to mudstone beneath the car-park foreshore. It is a distinct horizon within this grouped interval.

Radley Bed 15 — Point-bar and track-bearing sandstone

The point-bar sandstone and its trampled surfaces are distinct from the underlying plant-rich bed; the original track descriptions above retain their published bed numbering.

Bed Y3 — Radley Beds 16–24: Middle Floodplain Beds, Sideritic Plant Debris And Dinoturbated Surface

Radley Beds 16–24 return to dominantly floodplain sedimentation, with red and mottled silty mudstones, subordinate siltstones and local sand bodies. Bed 22 is a plant-debris bed in a siltstone matrix with abundant siderite concretions and comparatively little pyrite; it is a useful horizon because it shows that not all Yaverland plant beds are strongly pyritized or equally vertebrate-rich. Bed 24 is another dinoturbated horizon carrying small sand-filled casts of large ornithopod tracks. The interval as a whole represents repeated occupation of low-lying floodplain hollows by shallow water and vegetation, interrupted by episodes of drying, trampling and minor sediment influx.

Radley Bed 22 — Sideritic plant-debris horizon

Sweetman contrasts its abundant siderite and relatively low pyrite content with the more pyritic Compton CL2 material. Plant-debris beds therefore need not share identical mineralogy or fossil yield.

Radley Bed 24 — Track-bearing surface

This trampled horizon is kept separate from Bed 22 in the existing numbered account; its exact track details remain tied to the footprint studies rather than generalized from all plant beds.

Bed Y4 — Radley Beds 26–30: Stacked Plant-Debris Bed Complex

In the middle–upper part of the exposed Yaverland section, several plant-debris beds occur in close proximity within Radley Beds 26–30. These are grey siltstone- to mudstone-rich horizons above irregular erosional bases and contain washed-in wood, charcoalified plant fragments, mud clasts and sideritic concretions, together with local vertebrate material. Rather than representing one isolated fossil bed, this part of the section records repeated establishment of floodplain ponds, abandoned channels or shallow topographic lows that repeatedly trapped plant matter and vertebrate debris. It is one of the clearest signs that the Yaverland vertebrate record is tied to recurring low-energy debris-accumulation events on the Wessex alluvial plain.

Individual Beds 25–32 in the modern local graphic

These qualitative descriptions follow the actual Sweetman and colleagues (2015) Figure 2, adapted from Radley with additions. They supplement the older grouped account; no thickness has been measured from the drawing.

Radley Bed 25 — Rooted mudstone

The lower part of the Sweetman 2015 graphic shows a separate mudstone interval penetrated by roots below the succeeding plant-bearing package.

Radley Bed 26 — Concretionary and laminated mudstone

Mudstone contains concretions, lamination and slickensides in the local graphic. It is distinguished from the more concentrated plant-debris bed above.

Radley Bed 27 — Plant-debris bed

A distinct plant-rich interval is shown above Bed 26. Its position is retained without a scale-derived thickness or an exclusive species list.

Radley Bed 28 — Intervening muddy interval

A muddy interval separates the two individually shown plant-debris beds; it is not relabelled as one continuous fossil concentration.

Radley Bed 29 — Higher plant-debris bed

The next plant-debris unit is separately identifiable above the intervening mud. Its fauna is not assumed identical to Bed 27.

Radley Bed 30 — Thin intervening mud

A thin muddy interval separates the higher plant-rich level from the overlying sand.

Radley Bed 31 — Cross-laminated sand

The local schematic distinguishes this sandy, cross-laminated bed from the surrounding mudstones and plant-debris layers.

Radley Bed 32 — Mudstone with slickensides

The mudstone above Bed 31 bears slickensides and lies immediately below the separately described Bed 33 plant-debris horizon.

Bed Y5 — Radley Bed 33: Upper Plant-Debris Bed With Seeds, Spores And Pterosaur Material

Radley Bed 33 is an upper plant-debris horizon notable for the preservation of seeds and spores and for yielding pterosaur material from the Yaverland section. It is one of the more palaeobotanically informative beds in the upper exposed Wessex here and belongs to the typical grey plant-rich facies that contrast so strongly with the red alluvial mudstones around them. The bed demonstrates that the upper Yaverland floodplain supported lush vegetation and periodically trapped vertebrate remains in quiet-water settings; it is also the horizon associated with the pterodactyloid material described from Yaverland.

Bed Y6 — Radley Beds 34–35: Rooted Mudstone And Track-Bearing Sand

The upper Beds 34–35 interval includes rooted mudstone and a thin footprint-bearing sand. The older track account records large ornithopod impressions and underside casts, and Bed 35 is particularly well known because blocks fallen onto the beach commonly preserve large prints, some around 60 cm long. The footprint-bearing sand represents a shallow sheet-sand or crevasse-splay deposit laid across a soft muddy floodplain surface. The presence of tracks in both the bedding surfaces and the undersides of overlying blocks shows how rapidly some of these trampled surfaces were buried and preserved.

Radley Bed 34 — Rooted mudstone and sandy lower part

The actual Sweetman 2015 Figure 2 shows root traces and calcareous concretions in a mudstone-dominated bed with a sandier lower part. It is not simply a second uniform footprint sandstone.

Radley Bed 35 — Thin footprint-bearing sand

The same local graphic marks footprints within the separate thin sand horizon above Bed 34. The track surface and the underlying rooted interval are therefore distinguished.

Radley Bed 36 — Contorted lamination

Contorted lamination is shown in the overlying interval, above an irregular surface. No unique fossil list or scale-derived thickness is assigned.

Radley Bed 37 — Mudstone below Bed 38

The mudstone interval between the contorted beds and the vertebrate-rich Bed 38 is separately numbered in the local graphic.

Bed Y7 — Radley Bed 38: Upper Vertebrate-Rich Plant-Debris Bed (reported c. 0.5–1.25 m; about 4 m below the Wessex top)

Radley Bed 38 is one of the most important vertebrate horizons at Yaverland. It is a typical upper Wessex plant-debris bed resting on a sharp undulatory base that fills a partly eroded dinosaur-trampled surface. Its basal part may contain a conglomeratic lag of reworked calcrete nodules, other intraformational clasts, plant remains and vertebrate debris; above lies grey silty clay rich in poorly sorted plant material, including fusain, with small siderite concretions, pyrite nodules, unionoid bivalves and abundant vertebrate remains. The bed grades upward into overlying mudstone rather than ending sharply. Later screen-washing has shown this horizon to be one of the most productive Yaverland microvertebrate beds, yielding mammals and other small vertebrates as well as the larger reptilian and fish remains expected from Wessex plant-debris deposits.

Sweetman and Underwood (2006) report a thickness reaching about 1.25 m, although the bed appears only about 0.5 m thick in some exposures. Its sharp uneven base contrasts with the less distinct upward passage into mudstone, so the reported range is an exposure-specific description rather than a fixed thickness everywhere. Their paper also records teeth assigned to Palaeoscyllium aff. formosum from Bed 38; the qualified identification is retained.

Radley Bed 39 — Concretionary and veined interval

Above Bed 38, the graphic shows sideritic concretions, irregular lamination and barite veins within the next numbered bed.

Radley Bed 40 — Upper mudstone and burrowed contact

The highest numbered Wessex bed contains dispersed plant material, concretions and irregular lamination. Burrows descend from the overlying Vectis contact in the local diagram.

Bed Y8 — Historical Upper Silty Bone-Bed And Topmost Wessex Mottled Marls Below The Vectis Base

White’s historical section at Yaverland records the top of the Wessex Formation as about 15 m of variegated clays and marls with bands of cross-bedded sand, overlain by about 6 m of green, red and variegated clays behind the old sea wall, then by a pale greenish-grey silty bed about 0.45 m thick containing rolled concretions, pyritized and carbonized wood, Margaritifera-like unionoid bivalves, reptilian bones and Lepidotes scales, and finally by about 3 m of grey marl with coloured mottling and irregular large calcareous nodules in the upper part. This upper silty bed east of the old wall below Yaverland Battery was historically one of the principal sources of wave-washed bones. It belongs to the highest Wessex floodplain and shallow-water facies immediately below the abrupt lithological and environmental shift into the grey lagoonal beds of the Vectis Formation, but it should not be forced into a one-to-one correlation with any single later Radley bed number unless the exposure itself makes that secure.

Historical lower variegated package (about 15 m)

White’s Yaverland account distinguishes variegated clay and marl containing cross-bedded sand bands.

Historical coloured clays behind the old wall (about 6 m)

Green, red and variegated clay forms the next separate historical interval.

Historical upper silty bone-bearing bed (about 0.45 m)

Pale green-grey silt contains rolled concretions, woody material, unionoid shells, reptile bone and fish scales. It was a principal source of wave-washed material near the old wall.

Historical topmost mottled marl (about 3 m)

Grey marl with coloured mottling and large irregular calcareous nodules completes this older description. No automatic match to an individual Radley bed is made.

Exposed Wessex Formation At Yaverland: More Than 50 Metres Of The Upper Formation In The Published Numbered Section

Vectis Formation (Late Barremian To Earliest Aptian)

Yaverland to Red Cliff is an important reference section for the Vectis Formation and its formal members; the type section is on the south-west coast in the Brighstone Bay–Atherfield tract. At this part of the coast the formation can be followed from the sharp top-Wessex change into grey lagoonal mudstones, up through the Barnes High Sandstone, and into the upper rhythmic Shepherd’s Chine Member. The section is composite and partly landslipped, but the formation is more completely represented here than at most other Isle of Wight coastal sites.

Cowleaze Chine Member

Bed Y9 — Lower Cowleaze Chine Member: Basal Grey Clays, Desiccation Surface And Lepidotes Horizon

The base of the Vectis Formation rests sharply on a yellow-grey mottled palaeosol developed at the top of the Wessex Formation. Above it, the lower Cowleaze Chine Member consists of dark slightly silty grey clays carrying brackish bivalves, including the Filosina-bearing horizons noted low in the section. About 0.8 m above the base a conspicuous desiccation surface with large polygonal cracks is developed, the cracks being filled by darker greenish clay; a concentration of Lepidotes bones and scales rests on this surface, and a thin lag of berthierine-rich clay pellets occurs just above. This lower member records a restricted lagoonal setting that periodically dried out, was reworked, and fluctuated between freshwater, brackish and marine influence.

Desiccation polygons below the fish bed

Large cracks and polygonal surfaces record temporary drying within the lower Cowleaze succession. Huggett’s V1 and V2 identify samples between polygons and within crack fills, not separate formal beds.

Fish-bearing clay

Partial and disarticulated Lepidotes remains occur in clay above the desiccated surface. This is the fish horizon, distinct from its underlying cracked substrate and overlying lag.

Berthierine-rich lag (0.1 m)

A thin reworked clay-pellet lag overlies the fish bed. V3 is the sample designation for this lag, not a lithostratigraphic bed number.

Basal Vectis desiccation surface and bone concentration

The 2019 local field guide places a polygonally cracked surface about 0.75 m above the member base and a fish-dominated bone layer shortly above it. The approximate 0.8 m description above is rounded; it is not a formation thickness measurement.

Bed Y10 — Upper Cowleaze Chine Member: Silty Grey Clays, Ostracods, Viviparus Siltstone And Thin Ironstone

Higher in the Cowleaze Chine Member, the succession includes grey shales and silty clays with ostracods and bivalves, local silty lenses, pyritic concretions and a siderite-cemented siltstone yielding Viviparus moulds. In older descriptions the member at Yaverland was logged as about 10.5 m of grey shales with molluscs and ostracods, together with a thin ironstone band. The fauna and sedimentary structures show a low-energy lagoonal to marginal-estuarine setting, with repeated salinity change, quiet-water shell accumulation and intermittent minor sediment influx. The member is about 7–10 m thick regionally and is fully represented in the Yaverland–Red Cliff reference section.

Historical middle Cowleaze clay-ironstone band (0.1 m)

White’s local section, reproduced by GCR 10, records a 0.1 m clay-ironstone band within the approximately 10.5 m lower shale succession. It is retained as an older measured horizon, without assuming equivalence to Huggett’s separately described 0.2 m Viviparus siltstone.

Higher phosphatic-nodule level

The primary study records nodule B at the 4 m level in its local figure. A different nodule, A, was found loose and is only probably derived from the Cowleaze Chine Member.

Viviparus siltstone (0.2 m)

A siderite-cemented siltstone containing gastropod moulds occupies 6.2–6.4 m in the published local log.

Desiccated surface above the Viviparus bed

A second, less sharply polygonal drying surface occurs above that siltstone, separately from the lower fish-bed surface.

Barnes High Sandstone Member

Bed Y11 — Barnes High Sandstone Member (c. 2.4 m at the historical Yaverland section)

The Barnes High Sandstone is a laterally persistent yellow to white, locally grey sandstone that divides the lower and upper parts of the Vectis Formation. At Yaverland it was logged historically as about 2.4 m thick, though the member is 2.5–7 m thick regionally. It represents a distinct pulse of higher-energy sand influx across the otherwise mud-dominated Vectis lagoonal–estuarine system. In the field it is one of the most useful markers in the Yaverland–Red Cliff Vectis section because it forms a much stronger, sandier bed than the grey clays above and below.

The 2.4 m value is White’s historical Yaverland estimate reproduced in the GCR. Sweetman and Martill’s 2019 field guide gives about 5 m for the sandstone at Yaverland. Both are published local descriptions; they are not averaged or combined, and the chart therefore assigns no single Barnes High thickness.

Shepherd’s Chine Member

Bed Y12 — Lower Shepherd’s Chine Member: Rhythmic Grey And Blue Mudstones, Siltstones And Fine Sandstones

The lower Shepherd’s Chine Member comprises rhythmic alternations of grey and blue mudstone, siltstone and fine sandstone, arranged in repeated fining-upward cycles. Ostracods and bivalves are common, and the facies indicate repeated alternation between shallow brackish lagoons, low-energy embayments, mudflats and marginal floodplain-waterbody settings. These rhythms are one of the characteristic features of the Vectis Formation and show that the upper Vectis was not a single uniform clay deposit but a highly variable coastal-plain and lagoonal succession.

Bed Y13 — Upper Shepherd’s Chine Member: Thin Shelly Limestones, Rare Ironstones And Beef-Bed Interval

Higher in the Shepherd’s Chine Member, the same grey and blue mudstones and siltstones are joined by several thin shelly limestones, rare ironstone layers and the distinctive beef-bed horizon recognized in the reference section. In White’s older account the upper Vectis at Yaverland was described as about 37 m of grey and blue shales with Ostrea, ostracods and unionoid-type bivalves interbedded with thin shelly limestones and rare ironstones. These beds represent repeated shallow-water expansion and contraction across a stressed lagoonal to marginal-marine landscape, with quiet sedimentation, shell concentration and intermittent early diagenetic mineralization.

Historical upper Vectis shelly limestone beds (0.12 m)

The GCR transcription of White’s Yaverland log specifies thin 0.12 m shelly limestones interbedded with the upper shales. Rare ironstones are also recorded, but are not assigned that limestone thickness.

Cyrena Bed
This named Shepherd’s Chine shell limestone is dominated by cemented Filosina shells.

Oyster Bed
The separate oyster-rich coquina lies about 9 m above the Cyrena Bed in the 2019 local field account. It contains mainly Liostrea shells and records a short marine incursion.

Beef Bed
This higher Filosina-rich shell limestone lies about 4 m above the Oyster Bed in the same account. These named horizons are distinct; their relative spacing is not a new measurement of the whole member.

Total Thickness Of The Vectis Formation At Yaverland–Red Cliff: About 50 Metres In The Classic Historical Section, With The Full Formation Present In The Reference Section

LOWER GREENSAND GROUP

Atherfield Clay Formation (Aptian)

At the north-eastern end of the Yaverland–Red Cliff section, the Vectis Formation is overlain disconformably by the basal Lower Greensand marine transgression. The Perna Member is the key horizon here and Red Cliff is one of the reference sections for the lowest Atherfield Clay on the Isle of Wight. Higher Atherfield Clay and younger Lower Greensand continue north-eastward in the Red Cliff–Culver section, but the core Yaverland locality is most important for the basal marine transgression itself.

Perna Member

Bed Y14 — Perna Member Bed 1: Blue Sandy Clay With The Atherfield Bone Bed At Its Base (c. 1.15 m)

This bed forms the main basal Atherfield Clay unit in White’s Yaverland section. It is a thick blue sandy clay resting disconformably on the Vectis Formation, with the Atherfield Bone Bed developed at its base as a transgressive lag. That lag includes quartz grit, fish teeth, phosphatic nodules, rolled ammonites and derived vertebrate debris, and historically yielded elasmobranch material including hybodont teeth. It marks the first major Aptian marine flooding surface above the Wealden lagoonal succession and records erosive reworking before mud-rich marine sedimentation became established.

Bed Y15 — Perna Member Bed 2: Calcareous Sandstone (c. 0.1 m)

A thin calcareous sandstone above the blue clay completes the classic two-bed Perna section at Yaverland. Although only about 0.1 m thick in the historical section, it is an important marker because it represents the establishment of a more openly marine shelly sandstone facies above the transgressive bone bed and muddy basal clay. In the formal Isle of Wight Lower Greensand framework, the Perna Member is characterized by exactly this combination of basal bone-bed lag, sandy mudstone and thin calcareous sandstone.

BGS (2015) gives 1.8 m for the Perna Member in Sandown Bay, whereas White’s historical Yaverland section lists 1.15 m and 0.1 m for its two units. These remain separate published local measurements; they are not averaged or added to one another.

Higher Atherfield Clay Continuation At Red Cliff

Beyond the basal Perna beds, the Atherfield Clay continues at Red Cliff into higher sandy and muddy marine beds referred to the Chale Clay Member. These include brown and pale blue sandy mudstones, shell-bearing beds, pyritized wood and clay-ironstone nodules. These higher beds belong to the separate Red Cliff marine tract and are described in the fuller continuation below.

Depositional Environment

The Yaverland succession records a major environmental transition through the later Barremian into the Aptian. The Wessex Formation represents a seasonally dry to seasonally wet alluvial plain with river channels, point bars, crevasse splays, floodplain muds, shallow ponds and debris-rich plant beds that concentrated wood, fish, crocodiles, dinosaurs and other vertebrates; the dinosaur tracks formed on muddy floodplain or channel-margin surfaces and were rapidly buried beneath sand. The overlying Vectis Formation records replacement of that alluvial landscape by a low-energy lagoonal, estuarine and marginal-marine system with fluctuating salinity, periodic desiccation, ostracod- and bivalve-bearing muds, and the sandier Barnes High influx. The basal Atherfield Clay then marks a clear marine transgression, with an erosive bone bed and shallow shelf mudstone and sandstone above the top of the Wealden succession.

Wealden And Basal Perna Measurement Provenance

Radley’s Yaverland section records more than 50 m of upper Wessex strata. White’s historical Vectis log, reproduced by the GCR, comprises about 10.5 m of lower shales, 2.4 m of sandstone and 37 m of upper shales, followed by 1.15 m and 0.1 m for the two basal Perna units. These measurements belong to their stated historical or published sections; they are not combined into a newly measured present-day total. The 2019 field account differs in its sandstone estimate and gives a broader Vectis overview, so the chart uses a schematic succession and leaves disputed member totals unassigned.

Red Cliff to southern Culver: marine continuation

This is the marine tract already included in the guide’s main geology, northeast of the Wealden exposures. The sequence continues towards southern Culver and its lower Seaford chalk. Steep dip, slips and faults prevent one simple continuously accessible log. The younger northern Whitecliff, Newhaven, Culver Chalk Formation and Portsdown logs are outside this account; “Culver Cliff” is a locality, not proof that the Culver Chalk Formation crops out in this route.

LOWER GREENSAND GROUP

Atherfield Clay Formation — Above The Perna Member

Chale Clay Member

Brown basal and blue-grey overlying clay

The member’s reference lithology changes from chocolate-brown basal mudstone into paler clay. At Yaverland–Red Cliff the fauna is generally sparse, with occasional ammonite fragments, bivalves and poorly preserved Mecochirus.

Lower Lobster Member

Nodular, micaceous and sandy mudstones

BGS lists Red Cliff as a reference section, although landslips commonly obscure it. The member includes pale nodular mudstone and darker micaceous, sand-lensed intervals, ending in argillaceous sandstone. Type-site bed thicknesses are not local Red Cliff measurements.

The Crackers Member

Hard sandstone and fossiliferous doggers

Relatively resistant dark sandstone passes into harder brown sandstone with phosphatic seams and discontinuous doggers. The member is one of the more recognisable Atherfield divisions, but its entire Chale log is not copied here.

Upper Lobster Member

Alternating sandy mudstone and sandstone

Dark sandy mudstones alternate with firmer grey sandstone, with flat nodules low in the member’s definition. The upper transition leads into the Ferruginous Sands. No precise local thickness is asserted.

Ferruginous Sands Formation

Red Cliff succession (105 m in BGS 2015)

The reduced local succession is apparently complete, but only the lithological character of the upper reference units XII–XIV can be confidently recognised throughout their local exposure. A full set of Chale informal members is not assigned here.

Lower coarsening-upward sands

The local field account records cross-bedded, unevenly iron-cemented sands.

Pebble lag and glauconitic sand

A distinct lag precedes fine glauconitic sand carrying reworked Jurassic material.

Coarse pink-brown sandstone

Iron-rich clasts become larger and more abundant upwards within this separate sandy package.

Higher gravel-bearing glauconitic sandstone

Thin gravel-rich layers contain reworked Jurassic fossils. Their age records erosion of older rocks, not the depositional age of the Aptian sand.

Sandrock Formation

Pale sands and interbedded clay

Fine pale sands alternate with clay in the local estuarine succession. The modern formation contains repeated depositional and erosional episodes, not one homogeneous beach sand.

Upper erosional contact

The top is truncated beneath coarse pebbly Monks Bay sandstone. This marks the renewed Albian marine transgression.

Monks Bay Sandstone Formation (historical Carstone)

Pebbly ferruginous sandstone (up to 21.9 m at Red Cliff)

BGS records a much thicker local section than Compton’s1.8 m. Brown coarse sandstone and argillaceous gritstone are visible high in Red Cliff; the figures are locality-specific, not alternative estimates for Yaverland beach.

Gradational passage into Gault

Iron-rich sand gives way upward to gritty dark mudstone and then Gault clay. The basal erosion surface and upper gradational contact must remain distinct.

LOWER GREENSAND GROUP

Historical Redcliff lithological rows:1889 comparison

The original Redcliff log separately records the following intervals in ascending order. These older lithological rows are not forced into modern informal member boundaries, and uncertain numerical cells are left unassigned.

Pale-blue nodular clay

Pale nodules weather brown above the fossiliferous Perna package.

White clayey sand

A pale, fine sandy interval follows.

Lower grey clayey sand

Fine grey sediment precedes a separate red iron seam.

Blood-red iron seam

A discrete iron-rich band separates fine-sand intervals.

Upper grey clayey sand

Another fine grey sand occurs above the red seam.

Brown iron seam

A further iron-rich seam is distinguished.

Wood-bearing clayey sand

Nodules occur in its upper part, with iron-oxide veins.

Green sandy clay with nodules

Wood and a line of large nodules characterise this interval.

Brown-red sandstone

Iron-coated grains are abundant within the cliff-forming sand below the former fort.

Vivid-green sand and oyster layer

Clay lines interrupt green sand; broken oysters form a separate layer low in the package.

Iron-rich sand

Grains and flakes of iron oxide occur in the next sandy interval.

Dark clayey sand

Nearly black-green sediment succeeds the iron-rich sand.

Brown-green gritty sand

A distinct coarse sandy interval follows.

Greenish iron-seamed grit

Iron seams occur within gritty sediment.

Loose pale-green sand

A less cemented sandy interval is separately listed.

Brown pebbly grit

Quartzite and iron-rich particles occur in this coarse unit.

Pale-brown flaky sand

Iron-oxide flakes are scattered within sand.

Quartzite and iron-flake pebble band

A discrete pebble seam caps the preceding sand.

Pale-brown ferruginous sand

Another sand body separates the pebble seams.

Rolled-fossil pebble band

Phosphatised ammonite and bivalve moulds form reworked clasts.

Dark clayey sand above the fossil lag

A muddy sand follows the fossil-bearing pebble layer.

Soft yellow sand

A separate yellow sandy interval follows.

Phosphate and iron-pebble band

Small phosphate and iron-rich pebbles occur in this seam.

Dark-green clay and sand

Fine and coarser sediment are intermingled.

Higher small-pebble bands

Quartzite, phosphate and iron-rich particles are separately recorded.

Grey dark-coloured sand

A dark grey sand precedes a hard sandstone.

Hard brown sandstone

A resistant sandy bed lies below the overlying clay.

Blue and striped sandy clay

A substantial muddy interval was compared historically with the Blackgang clay; no modern one-to-one numerical crosswalk is imposed.

Lower white sand

Clean pale sand follows the clay.

Grey striped sand and clay

A separate laminated or striped package follows.

Yellow-white sand and basal iron band

The next sandy body has an iron-rich lower seam.

Higher iron seam

A separate iron band was recorded above the pale sand.

Clay and fine sand

Fine sediment forms the next interval in the historical succession.

Striped sand and clay above

A further alternating package is retained separately.

Pale sand with occasional clay lines

Clay partings interrupt mainly sandy sediment.

Interlaminated white sand and blue clay

Sand and clay alternate near the upper part of the old Sandrock package.

Loose brown sand and grit

Coarse loose sediment precedes the pebbly Carstone beds.

Brown quartzite-bearing sand

Scattered pebbles and phosphate concretions occur at several levels.

Upper small-quartzite pebble seam

A separate pebbly band interrupts the upper sand.

Brown clayey grit below Gault

The uppermost historical Lower Greensand row includes phosphate concretions and passes into the overlying mudstone.

SELBORNE GROUP

Gault Formation

Dark grey marine clay

The local Gault is comparatively sparsely fossiliferous; ammonites establish a middle Albian age in the published coastal account.

Upper glauconitic marker

A glauconitic sandy level marks the upper Albian transition and yields the ribbed bivalve Actinoceramus sulcatus. It is distinct from the glauconitic marl at the much younger Chalk base.

Upper Greensand Formation

Basal bivalve and serpulid interval

Near the start of Culver Cliff, the basal part yields large inoceramid shells, historically called Inoceramus lissa, with coiled serpulid tubes.

Bioturbated calcareous sand and concretions

Higher calcareous sand contains irregular concretionary lenses and small phosphatic clasts.

Upper lenticular chert interval

The older Culver account records green sand with lenticular black chert and harder grey bands. This differs from the chert-poor western Compton facies.

Burrowed top

Burrowing modifies the upper surface beneath basal Chalk sediment. This omission surface is not confused with the lower Gault–Upper Greensand transition.

CHALK GROUP

GREY CHALK SUBGROUP

West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation

Glauconitic Marl Member

Basal cobble-bearing glauconitic beds

Basal chalk sediment contains reworked cobbles from the underlying strata. The local field account describes the Culver glauconitic interval as less fossiliferous than its Compton equivalent.

West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation — Above The Basal Member

Concretionary limestone and marl

The lower formation contains marls and harder limestone with ammonites and sponges.

Upper rhythmic marl–chalk beds

Bedding becomes more regular upwards. These cycles are directly documented on the Yaverland–Culver coastal route, without transferring the detailed Compton cycle numbering.

Upper burrowed limestone contact

BGS places the top at the erosion surface below the Cast Bed, associated with the Tenuis Limestone in complete sections.

Zig Zag Chalk Formation

Cast Bed

The basal fossiliferous silty chalk overlies the West Melbury boundary. It marks the change into the paler and more calcareous part of the Grey Chalk succession.

Lower marl and limestone alternations

The lower Zig Zag remains relatively marly, with thin hard limestone beds. The BGS Culver graphic records the local rhythmic succession.

Jukes-Browne Bed 7

A distinct calcarenitic, phosphatic interval lies within the formation and is explicitly marked on the BGS Culver log.

Upper pale chalk and sub-Plenus contact

Higher chalk is less conspicuously rhythmic and ends beneath the erosional base of the Plenus Marls. No Compton plotted metre positions are assigned to these Culver beds.

WHITE CHALK SUBGROUP

Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation

Plenus Marls Member

Basal marl–chalk succession

Interbedded marl and chalk overlie the sub-Plenus surface. The Culver column in Gale’s published correlation is distinct from Compton and Eastbourne; local thicknesses are not inferred from those other sections.

Gale’s Figure14 shows the Culver column independently: marl-rich lower intervals, intervening chalk-rich beds and a darker marly interval higher in the Plenus package. The plotted correlations can be compared with the classic numbered Plenus scheme, but the figure does not justify a confident individual lithological description of every local numbered bed. No thickness is taken from its drawing scale.

Melbourn Rock Member

Hard nodular basal chalk

The very hard nodular chalk above the Plenus interval contrasts with the softer marl–chalk beds below.

Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation — Above The Melbourn Rock

Shelly nodular chalk and thin marls

Higher nodular chalk contains abundant Mytiloides debris and thin marly partings. BGS gives up to 32 m for the local Holywell formation; the shelly higher beds are not identical to the relatively shell-poor basal Melbourn Rock.

Roveacrinus–Fagesia correlation level

Gale identifies a Roveacrinus Bed and Fagesia catinus level in the Holywell correlation framework and traces its position through the local column. This is the source’s correlated faunal marker; it is not a claim that every associated fossil has been collected from the present exposure.

Compton Pebble Marl correlative at Culver

The higher Holywell marker named Compton Pebble Marl is separately traced in Figure14. It is retained as a distinct correlation level above the Roveacrinus–Fagesia interval, without assigning the thicker Eastbourne interval to this site.

New Pit Chalk Formation

Massive chalk and marl seams

BGS records about 27 m at Culver, with massive pale chalk and thin marl seams. This is a separate local estimate from the thinner Compton section.

Upper nodular transition

The upper limit is placed below the hard nodular, glauconitic chalk at the base of the succeeding Lewes formation. Marine fossil-zone and rock-unit boundaries should not be treated as automatically coincident.

Lewes Nodular Chalk Formation

Spurious Chalk Rock

The GCR records this hard nodular marker in situ and in fallen blocks between Whitecliff Ledge and the Nostrils, on the southern Culver flank.

Southerham Marl 1

The first grey marl above the basal hard chalk is separately identified in the local GCR account.

Caburn Marl and Bicavea horizon

A second grey marl is followed by the historically identified Bicavea rotaformis horizon. The older name is retained as source nomenclature.

Lower Lewes Tubular Flints

The southern Nostrils section includes a conspicuous lower tubular-flint system.

Lewes Marl

A distinct marl with Micraster leskei lies above the lower tubular flints.

Upper Lewes Tubular Flints

A separate tubular-flint level succeeds the Lewes Marl in the actual local figure.

Cuilfail Zoophycos Bed

The conspicuous trace-fossil interval is independently identified in the upper Lewes succession.

Navigation Hardgrounds

Hardground levels occur below the Navigation marls; they are retained as separate surfaces.

Navigation Marls

The marly marker package overlies the hardgrounds.

Cliffe Hardground

A strongly phosphatic surface forms a distinct upper Lewes marker.

Fossil-rich interval beneath Hope Gap

The graphic separately records Micraster normanniae and Cremnoceramus waltersdorfensis between the main hardground levels.

Hope Gap Hardground

A conspicuous glauconitic hardground follows. The upper Lewes section is strongly condensed here compared with Compton.

Upper laminated and intraclast beds

Only about 6–7 m separate Hope Gap and Shoreham Marl in the local GCR account. Lamination and intraclasts characterise this attenuated interval.

Shoreham Marl 1

The conspicuous marl near the Lewes–Seaford boundary is fault-associated at the Nostrils cave. The local graphic’s tentative identification is retained as such rather than treated as an unfaulted universal datum.

Seaford Chalk Formation — Lower Culver Continuation

Lower soft chalk, sheet flints and inoceramid beds

The earliest Seaford continuation around the southern headland contains conspicuous Platyceramus and Volviceramus shell bands, with sheet flints.

Belle Tout Marl 1

The first named Belle Tout marl is about 13 m above Shoreham in the GCR local account; this relative spacing does not measure the entire Seaford formation.

Belle Tout Marls 2–3

Separate higher marl levels occur among shell-rich lower Seaford chalk in Figure 3.67.

Seven Sisters Flint Band

The conspicuous flint band with large potstone forms and shell-rich chalk lies in the southern headland continuation. The full northern Whitecliff/Newhaven succession is not added beyond it.

Correlation and research limits

Historical White and Radley bed schemes remain separate. The local upper-Wessex graphic supports the described bed relationships, while the Vectis sample codes V1–V3 do not define additional formal beds. No unverified graphical thicknesses are assigned. The marine continuation is restricted to the guide’s Red Cliff–southern Culver tract.

References

White, H.J.O. (1921). A Short Account of the Geology of the Isle of Wight.
Stewart, D.J. (1978; 1981a) on the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Isle of Wight Wessex Formation and coastal marker beds.
Daley, B. & Stewart, D.J. (1979). Formalization of the Wessex Formation and Vectis Formation terminology for the Isle of Wight Wealden succession.
Radley, J.D. (1994). Published numbered section and footprint-bearing horizons in the Yaverland Wessex Formation.
Sweetman, S.C. & Insole, A.N. (2010). The plant-debris beds of the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight and their significance.
Huggett, J.M., Gale, A.S. & Hazell, C. (2018) on the basal Vectis Formation at Yaverland and its palaeosols, salinity changes and environmental interpretation.
Lockwood, J.A.F., Lockley, M.G. & Pond, S.B. (2014) and later reviews of the Yaverland dinosaur footprints and in-situ track horizons.
Steel, L., Martill, D.M. and co-authors (2005) on the Yaverland pterosaur material from the Wessex Formation.
British Geological Survey Lexicon entries: Wessex Formation, Vectis Formation, Cowleaze Chine Member, Barnes High Sandstone Member, Shepherd’s Chine Member, Atherfield Clay Formation and Perna Member.
British Geological Survey, Geology of the Isle of Wight, part sheets 300, 331, 344 and 345: brief explanation.
Geological Conservation Review and JNCC site accounts for the Yaverland dinosaur beds and the Lower Cretaceous coast of eastern Sandown Bay.

Checked source links: Hopson and Farrant (2015), Isle of Wight: Wealden and Lower Greensand groups; Benton and Spencer (1995), GCR 10: Yaverland, historical section afterWhite1921; Radley (1994), Stratigraphy, palaeontology and palaeoenvironment of the Wessex Formation at Yaverland; Sweetman (2007), Wessex Formation microvertebrate thesis; Sweetman and Martill (2019), The Cretaceous succession between Yaverland and Culver Cliff; Huggett, Gale and Hazell (2018), Early diagenesis of the lower Vectis Formation, Sandown.

Additional sources: Sweetman and colleagues (2015), Figure 2; Sweetman(2006), pp890–891; GCR 23, southern Culver map and logs; Bristow, Reid and Strahan(1889), Redcliff and Culver sections.

Gale(1995), Cenomanian cyclostratigraphy, Figure14, printed p194: separate Compton and Culver correlation columns.

Sweetman and Underwood (2006), A neoselachian shark from the Wessex Formation, pp.459–460: Bed38 thickness, contacts and shark-teeth provenance.