Number 9 - Geological Curators Group

other side. I realised immediately that it must have beenlying in a river bed or moving water because the waterhad cut under the tree trunk forming a hollow, andpushed its way to the other side. It was obstructing astream of some kind. I realised also that any smallobjects in the water were likely to collect in the hollow.So I very carefully dug out about a hundred weight anda half, as much as I could carry that day in a couple ofgreat sacks. Iprocessed it and had three or four thousandteeth altogether. In it were two and a half mammal teeth;three or four species of dinosaur including an Iguanodonvertebra; a Megalosaurus tooth; some teeth similar tobut smaller than Megalosaurus; three unknown teeth,one of which may be named after me; three species ofcrocodile; some crocodile-like teeth with serratededgeswhich are not megalosaur (possibly Baryonyx?); all thefresh-water sharks teeth that Colin Patterson named inhis monograph (Patterson 1966); and a mass of fishteeth, mostly Lepidotus. They were there by the bucketfull."The two multituberculate mammalian teeth, aleftincisorand a left molar are the first mammalian remains fromthe Weald of the Isle of Wight, from midway betweenCompton Grange Chine and Hanover Point. They arerelated to Loxaulax sp. (Butler and Ford 1975). Theunknown teeth may include the first discovery of afabrosauriddinosaurfromthe Weald. They were studiedby Mike Howgate and may eventually be named afterthe finder. Crocodilian teeth (Bernissartia) were alsofound in this collection (Buffetaut and Ford 1979).The EoceneThe Eocene deposits (average 50 million years old) onthe island include, in sequence from oldest to youngest,the London Clay, the Bagshot Sands, the BrackleshamBeds, the Barton Beds and Lower Headon Beds(Osbome White 1921) with a similar terminology andcorrelation by Daley and Insole (1984). The strata haveyieldedfossil scutes and atmnk vertebraof Ophisaurus(Meszoely and Ford 1976), a lacertilian lizard from theLower Headon Beds (Upper Eocene) of Headon Hilland Fishboume, Isle of Wight. Richard found anddescribed a new species of frog, Albionbatrachuswightensis (Meszoely, Spinar and Ford 1984) from theLower Headon Beds of Alum Bay, Isle of Wight andnamed after the island. The holotype is a frontoparietalbone (MCZ 8784) and was found by Richard. Otherspecimens in his collection from the Eocene includedthe snakes Calamagras from Fishhourne, Dunnophisfrom Headon Hill, Totland Bay and Fishboume andVectophis wardi (Rage and Ford 1980) a new species(Holotype CGB 27), from the Lower Headon Beds,Totland Bay. His collection also consisted ofunidentified anura (Palaeobatrachidae andDisgolossidae), lizards (Glyptosaurinae) andsalamanders (Megalotriton) from Headon Hill (RageFigure 3. Ronzotherium tooth, from a primitive rhinocerosfrom the Hamstead Beds (Oligocene) of the Isle of Wight,collected by Richard Ford. About 5 times natural size.andFord 1980). Hecollectedmany thousands ofminuteteeth that appear as black specks on white card, untilwhen viewed under a microscope, their structure andbeauty was revealed. They are predominantly rodentslike dormice and hamsters, but also lizards amongothers. Some he discovered were new genera, newspecies or new to the Formation. They represent afauna1 array never previously known from thesehorizons. From the smallest to the largest animals,Richard Ford played a valuable role in the excavation,conservation and publication of these remains.The OligoceneThe Oligocene deposits (average 40 million years old)on the Isle of Wighi are, in order of sequence fromoldest to youngest, the Upper Headon Beds, OsborneBeds, Bembridge Limestone, Bembridge Marls andHamstead Beds (Osbome White 1921). The UpperHeadon Beds and the Osbome Beds are collectivelycalled the Headon Hill Formation, and the BembridgeMarls Member and the Hamstead Member arecollectively called the Bouldnor Formation by Daleyand Insole (1984). The fauna of these formations includea rich variety of mammals, reptiles, fish andinvertebrates. Gliravuspriscus, Gliravus devoogdi andGliravus fordi are Oligocene rodents, the family gliridae(doormice) from the Isle of Wight (Bosma and deBmijn 1979). The latter was a new species named inhonour of Richard and comes fromthe Lower Harnsteadbeds of Bouldnor Cliff, near Yarmouth. The typespecimen, a cheek tooth (M2) was found by Richardduring microscopic analysis of clay, and is in theGeological Institute, State University, Utrecht (BC64).Also from the HamsteadBeds he found teeth and bonesof Ronzotherium, a primitive rhinocerous (Ford 1971)(Figure 3); bones of the pig-like Elotherium; anastragulus of Oxacron courtoisi, a rabbit-sized ancestorof the deer (Caenotheriidae); and teeth of Peratherium,