Heritage and Culture Warwickshire’s Geology Collections
190 million year-old fossil brachiopod – a type of shellfish – from the Jurassic ironstone of Edge Hill.
Skull of a 200 million year-old Jurassic ichthyosaur from Binton. Collected in the nineteenth century by the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society.
Heritage and Culture Warwickshire’s geology collection comprises approximately 16 000 rock, mineral and fossil specimens of local, regional, national and international provenance. The main strengths of the collections lie in Warwickshire specimens, notably Triassic vertebrate fossils and Lower Jurassic fossils in general.
The roots of the geological collections lie in the nineteenth century activities of the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society. At that time there were dozens of small quarries in the county and the society collected large numbers of rocks and fossils for display and demonstration at Warwick’s Market Hall.
Highlights of the collection include:
- Triassic reptile and amphibian remains from Warwick. These represent the wildlife of a subtropical river floodplain ecosystem, dating back nearly 250 million years.
- Jurassic marine reptile skeletons – ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs – that swam in Warwickshire’s Jurassic seas 200 million years ago.
- Jurassic carnivorous dinosaur remains from Little Compton.
- Specimens collected by the Reverend Peter Brodie during the nineteenth century; a record of local scientific investigation during the early decades of geology as a modern science.
