Middle Triassic of Warwickshire

Tuesday November 11 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (pick up and drop off at the ICC, Birmingham)

The historic town of Warwick in central England, UK is built on Middle Triassic sandstones which were actively quarried through the 19th Century and yielded numerous and diverse vertebrate fossils (body and trace), including rhynchosaurs, poposauroids, putative protorosaurs, temnospondyls, chondrichthyans and palaeonisciforms.

The morning will be spent at Guys Cliffe (North of Warwick), a Site of Special Scientific Interest exposing the Anisian (Middle Triassic) Helsby Sandstone Formation (formerly Bromsgrove Sandstone) of Warwickshire. We will discuss the depositional environment and broader context of the alluvial sandstones which crop out around Warwick.

A stop at a local country pub will provide attendees with the opportunity to purchase lunch.

The afternoon will be taken up visiting the collections of the Warwick Museum split between the Market Hall Museum in the centre of the historic city and the off site stores. We will focus on the Triassic vertebrate collections, principally material from the Helsby Sandstone and the overlying Carnian Arden Sandstone, including specimens described by Roderick lmpey Murchison, Hugh Strickland, Richard Owen and Rev Peter Brodie.

If attendees have a particular specimen they wish to look at, please contact Jon Radley and Ivan Sansom in advance.

Accessibility
Access to the Guys Cliffe riverside section involves some shallow steps, but is generally on flat ground

Recommended clothing or items to bring
Stout shoes and prepare for wet weather.

Transportation
Pick up/drop off will be from Cambridge Street, Birmingham B1 2EA (at the rear of the ICC and adjacent to the main conference hotels. Small coach provided for the whole day.

Trip Leaders: Ivan Sansom, University of Birmingham; Jon Radley, Warwick Museum; Stuart Burley, Keele University and Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group

Cost per person: £65

Minimum 10, maximum 16 attendees