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Lummaton QuarryDesignations: GCR (No: 471), SSSI The site where the Lummaton Shell beds within the Devonian limestone led to the naming of the Devonian Period. Arguably the most important single fossiliferous locality of Devonian age in Britain and possibly the world. Known by Sedgwick and Murchison and later described by Davidson and Whidborne. GCR block / key theme: Marine Devonian Associated SSSI: Lummaton Quarry SSSI GCR Statement of Interest: "This quarry in the Devonian Walls Hill Limestone shows a good example of a stromatoporoid reef. This locality is, however, more important for its exposure of the lower horizons of the overlying Barton Limestone, the Lummaton Shell Beds Member. This unit comprises discontinuous pockets and lenses containing an extremely rich shelly fauna of Givetian age. Although the exact position and extent of the outcrop varies with quarrying operations, this locality is now unique as other exposures of the Lummaton Shell Beds are no longer available. A key palaeontological site in the Torquay Limestone." |