The Early Jurassic sequence of Lyme Regis, Dorset, England and its place in the history of geology and palaeontology

Abstract

The cliffs and foreshore at Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast expose a sequence of Early Jurassic marine limestones and mudstones of the Blue Lias Formation and the overlying Charmouth Mudstone Formation, the lowest units of the Hettangian-Aalenian Lias Group. Known for its fossils since at least the mid-seventeenth century, this coastal section became famous in the early nineteenth century for the bones of ‘fossil crocodiles’. Many of the most significant discoveries were made by a family of fossil dealers whose best-known member was Mary Anning (1799–1847). Anning and her family recovered the first scientifically described ichthyosaurs, the first complete plesiosaur, and the first British pterosaur to be identified. Anning's finds from Lyme Regis formed the basis of the pioneering palaeoenvironmental reconstruction Duria antiquior . Her geologist friends, some with close personal associations to the town, did much to publicise her discoveries and contribute to both her fame and that of the locality. This famous coastal section, with its important historical associations with a key period in the development of geology and the source of so many significant discoveries in the early nineteenth century, now lies within the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site.