Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting

Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting is a 3.6 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1989. It consists of two parts, Teffont Evias Quarry (grid reference ST990310), and Teffont Evias Lane Cutting (grid reference ST994309). Forest trees are currently growing on both sites, but there are small accessible exposures on the sides of quarry and roadway cuttings. The sites offer exposures of a mid-Purbeck Lagerstätte, fine-grained limestone rock with good conditions for fossilization. These rocks and fossils were deposited after shallow seas receded about 146 million years ago. They record a warm environment of lakes and coastal lagoons, with occasional marine transgressions such as the Cinder Bed. Large fossils are rare, but there are insects of at least four Orders, fish, and crocodilians, also remains of vegetation, including a large tree and Charales. The charophytes, Clavator reidi, may have grown in a lake 1-2m deep or somewhat more.