Talk by Rob Coram, University of Bristol.
The Otter Sandstone exposed in the cliffs around Sidmouth was deposited by rivers in a desert landscape during the Middle Triassic, about 245 million years ago. Life on land was in the process of recovering from the Earth’s greatest mass extinction that took place a few million years earlier and the Otter Sandstone is an internationally important window onto this time. Its fossils, mostly fragmentary remains of amphibians and reptiles older than the dinosaurs, have been collected and studied for over 150 years.
However, many of the most important specimens and scientific findings are very recent. This has been a result of increased collecting effort focussed on previously overlooked smaller (and sometimes more complete) fossils, coupled with more sophisticated investigative techniques such as CT scanning.
This presentation will provide an overview of the Otter Sandstone fauna and flora with an emphasis on new findings and interpretations, along with a nod to various people and institutions that are helping to bring this ancient world back to life.
Rob Coram is a palaeontologist and research associate at the University of Bristol. He has collected fossils along the Jurassic Coast since a young boy, focussing on the remains of land-living organisms rather than the more abundant and better-known marine fossils.
He did a PhD on fossil insects from the Isle of Purbeck and then switched attention to the much older ‘red rocks’ of the Devon Coast, particularly around Sidmouth. There are still no decent insect fossils to report, but a steady trickle of other interesting finds that make the visits worthwhile.