THE GAULT CLAY (LOWER CRETACEOUS, MIDDLE AND UPPER ALBIAN)

AT COPT POINT, FOLKESTONE, KENT

The Gault Clay at Folkestone first appears at the top of the sea cliff beneath the East
Cliff Pavilion in Wear Bay Road where it sits conformably on the Folkestone Beds
and extends eastwards for around one kilometre, declining gradually to the foreshore
in East Wear Bay where it is overlain by the lower chalk.

The Gault is divided into Upper and Lower, equating to the Middle and Upper Albian
stages respectively. The Lower Albian is represented by the Folkestone Beds and
comprises the uppermost Lower Greensand. The Gault is further subdivided into
thirteen beds (Beds I to VII in the lower Gault and VIII to XIII in the Upper).

The fossils of the Gault provide a glimpse of life in a fairly shallow muddy-bottomed
marine sea which covered most of southern and eastern England towards the end of
the Lower Cretaceous epoch between 104 and 96 million years ago before the chalk
was formed.

The formation is best known for its beautifully preserved molluscs (coiled and
uncoiled ammonites, and bivalves and gastropods); bony fish remains, shark teeth and
vertebrae; crab and lobster carapaces; and for its extensive micro-fauna. Other
commonly found fossils include belemnite guards, scaphopods (tusk shells), solitary
corals, serpulid worms and goose-barnacle valves. Nautiloid cephalopods, sea urchins
and brachiopods are relatively uncommon. Teeth and vertebrae of large sea-going
reptiles are occasionally found but evidence of life on land is limited to drift-wood,
the remains of a few pterodactyls and very rare pine-cones.

Bulk clay sampling and processing is a highly effective method of collecting micro-
fossils. Washed residues can contain exquisitely preserved foraminifera, ostracods,
micro-gastropods and bivalves, fish and shark teeth, fish otoliths, parts of star fish,
brittle and feather starfish, and of fixed and floating crinoids.

Gault fossils can be collected in-situ (although it is undesirable to dig in the cliffs),
and from fallen blocks of clay at the foot of the sea cliffs or washed out between rocks
and boulders on the beach. Occasionally outcrops of clay offering excellent collecting
opportunities are exposed on the foreshore in East Wear Bay after beach sand has
been removed following winter storms. Fossils from the Lower Greensand can be
collected from the foreshore reef.

Care should always be taken when collecting on or below the sea cliffs and only when
tidal conditions permit.
Classic type section of the Gault clay, Copt Point, Folkestone Kent UK
 Zonal, Subzonal and typical Ammonites and Belemnite
(not to scale)

Hysteroceras orbignyi “
"cristatum" to "auritus" subzone Neohibolites minimus
(ubiquitous)
Euhoplites alphalautus
“varicosum” to "auritus" subzones

Dipoloceras cristatum
“cristatum” subzone

Anahoplites planus “dentatus"

to "inflatum” zones
Anahoplites daviesi
“daviesi” subzone

Euhoplites lautus
Euhoplites nitidus “lautus/nitidus” to
“lautus/nitidus” to "cristatum" subzone Dimorphoplites biplicatus
"daviesi" subzones
“subdelaruei" - "cristatum” subzones

Euhoplites loricatus
“intermedius” to "lautus nitidus"
Anahoplites praecox “intermedius” subzone

Mojsisoviczia spinulosum
"subdelaruei" subzone

Hoplites bennettianus Lyelliceras lyelli

Hoplites dentatus “bennettianus” subzone “lyelli” subzone
“dentatus” zone
 Gault Biostratigraphical Indicator
Fossils

Fig 1 x 1 x 1 Fig 3 x 1
x 1

Fig 2 Fig 4

x 1 x 1 x 8

Fig 5
x 3 Fig 6 Fig 8
Fig 7

Fig 10
x 0.5
x 1.5 x1

x 0.5

Fig 9

Fig 11 Fig 12

Fig 13 Fig 14
x7 x5

x 4

Fig 15
Fig 16

Bivalves Fig 1 Pectinucula pectinata; Fig 2: Birostrina concentrica; Fig 3: Birostrina sulcata; Gastropods Fig 4
Apporhais; Fig 5 Natica Crustacea: Fig 6 Cirripede tegrum: Cretiscalpellum; Fig 7 Crab Notopocorystes stokesii
Fig 8 Ostracoda: Fig 9 Echinoid Hemiaster sp; Fig 10 Crinoid ossicles; Isocrinus sp : Fig 11 Scaphopod Dentalium
decussatum; Fig 12 Heteromorph ammonite: Hamites sp ; Fig 13 Foraminifida various Nodosariid forams; Fig 14:
Shark Tooth Synechodus sp; Fig 15 Solitary Coral: Discocyathus fittoni; Fig 16 Bony fish otolith:
 USEFUL (AND INEXPENSIVE) GUIDES
TO IDENTIFICATION OF FOSSILS FOUND IN KENT

Title: FOSSILS (Eyewitness Handbooks)

Author: Cyril Walker and David Ward
Published by: 1992 by Dorling Kindersley
ISBN: Hardback: 0-7513-1004-2 Flexibound: 0-86318-921-0
Price: £16.99 (Hardback): Flexibound: Not known (around £12.00)

Title: FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE LONDON CLAY

(Field Guide to Fossils No. 1)
Author: Margaret Collinson
Published by: 1983 by The Palaeontological Association London
ISBN: 0-901702-26-9
Price: £7.95

Title: FOSSILS OF THE CHALK (Field Guide to Fossils No. 2)

Compiled by: Ellis Owen
Published by: 1987 by The Palaeontological Association London
ISBN: 0-901702-36-6
Price: £11.50

Title: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE BRITISH MIDDLE EOCENE

VERTEBRATES
Author: David Kemp, Liz Kemp and David Ward
Published by: David Ward - London October 1990
ISBN: None
Price: Around £8.00

Title: BRITISH CAENOZOIC FOSSILS (fifth edition)

Author: The Natural History Museum
Published by: HMSO
ISBN: 0-11-310024-8
Price: £7.95

Title: BRITISH MESOZOIC FOSSILS (fifth edition)

Author: The Natural History Museum
Published by: HMSO
ISBN: 0-11-310025-6
Price: £8.50

Title: BRITISH PALAEOZOIC FOSSILS (fourth edition)

Author: The Natural History Museum
Published by: HMSO
ISBN: 0-11-310026-4
Price: £9.95

Title: UNDERSTANDING FOSSILS (An Introduction to Invertebrate Palaeontology)

Author: Peter Doyle
Published by: 1995 John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-471-96351-8
Price: Not stated, but around £18.00
Title: MICROFOSSILS
Author: M.D. Brasier
Published by: 1980 George Allen & Unwin (fourth impression)
ISBN: Hardback: 0-04-562001-6 Paperback: 0-04-562002-4
Price: Not stated, but Paperback around £13.00

Title: MIDDLE ALBIAN STRATIGRAPHY IN THE ANGLO PARIS BASIN

Author: H.G. Owen
Published by: 1971 - Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History)
ISBN: None given (Supplement No 8 of the Geological (Palaeontological) Series
Price: Not stated. Can be purchased for around £12.00