Abbey Wood
Basic information
Sample name: Abbey Wood

Reference: J. J. Hooker. 2010. The mammal fauna of the early Eocene Blackheath Formation of Abbey Wood, London. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society 164(634):1-162 [ER 3930]
Geography
Country: United Kingdom

State: Greater London


Coordinate: 51.486961° N, 0.131661° E
Coordinate basis: unpublished field data

Formation: Blackheath

Time interval: Early Eocene

Ma: 55.119999

Age basis: Ar-Ar

Geography comments: The Abbey Wood locality is situated in the Lesnes Abbey Woods in the London Borough of Bexley

The locality has been correlated with multiple sites, including the Wa3a zone of the Bighorn Basin

It is correlated with layers bracketing the -17 ash layer of the North Sea borehole 81/46a (Lott et al. 1983; Knox 1990; Jolley 1996, fig. 35)

"Storey et al. (2007) have obtained a Ar/Ar date of 55.12 +/- 0.12 Ma from the -17 ash in Denmark"

Environment
Lithology: siliciclastic (mixed)

Taphonomic context: paleosol

Habitat comments: "sandy pebbly shell bed"

"The shell bed facies (Lessness Shell Bed) is the main source of the mammals...although a few have been found in the laterally interfingering buff sand"

"The fauna is preserved in a nearshore marine high-energy sedimentary environment and has therefore been transported there from its habitat on land"

If the Blackheath Sea was <20 m deep at the time of deposition (a likely depth based on shoreline facies), there would have been land within 2 km of the depositional site which the mammalian fauna could have occupied, indicating the community structure may have not been altered upon deposition

Methods
Life forms: bats,carnivores,primates,rodents,ungulates,other large mammals,other small mammals

Sampling methods: quarry,screenwash

Sample size: 320 specimens

Sampling comments: "Since 1992, one-day TRG-run excavations have taken place annually"

Counts excluded:
Sparnacomys sp. /questionably assigned - 1
Chiroptera indet. - 1
Rodentia gen. et sp. undet. - 1
Amphilemuridae? indet. - 2
Wyonycteris? sp. - 1
Prototomus sp. - 1
Ailuravinae indet. - 1

Metadata
Sample number: 4332

Contributor: Jack Nesbitt

Enterer: Jack Nesbitt

Created: 2023-07-18 12:06:44

Modified: 2023-07-18 03:44:34

Abundance distribution
39 species
10 singletons
total count 320
geometric series index: 68.7
Fisher's α: 11.644
geometric series k: 0.8956
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.8989
Shannon's H: 2.8536
Good's u: 0.9689
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
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