Belemnite Marl	Black Ven Marl	Down Cliff Sands	Eype Clay Bed
Green Ammonite Bed	Junction Bed	Shales with Beef	Thorncombe Sands	Three Tiers Bed

Green Ammonite Bed

Overview

Named the Green Ammonite Bed after the limestone nodules that are found here were found to contain ammonites fossilised with green calcite filling in the septal chambers. Name was first used in 1863 by E.C.H. Day.

An alternative name for this division, [proposed in 1911 by Woodward & Ussher], was Wear Cliff Beds, due to it making up the coastal feature known as 'Wear Cliffs' located between Golden Cap and Seatown.

The Green Ammonite Bed (averaging 50-100ft at the coast), is best studied between St. Gabriel's Mouth and Seatown,  via  Golden Cap, where it forms the lower cliffs. It consists of 100ft of clays with three irregular limestone layers. Towards the top of the division, the beds become more sandy, eventually becoming a sandy loam in the uppermost 18ft.

The Red Band (Bed 126) at 1ft thick, is a bed of reddish weathered limestone concretions and marls that form a good marker in the middle of this division. Beneath this bed, and midway between it and the Belemnite Stone, is the Lower Limestone (Bed 123a), a band of small hard limestone nodules. Midway between the Red Band and the lowest tier of the Three Tiers Bed, is the Upper Limestone (Bed 129), formed by two bands of shaly limestone separated by some 3ft of blue-grey clay.

This division marks the base of the Upper Pliensbachian (Domerian) stage.

Exposures

Green Ammonite Bed as found between Lyme Regis and Charmouth:

Green Ammonite Bed as found between Charmouth and St. Gabriel's Mouth:

Green Ammonite Bed as found between St. Gabriel's Mouth and Seatown:

Fossils

Below the Red Band the ammonites Aegoceras, Androgynoceras, Tragophylloceras loscombi, Prodactylioceras davoei and Liparoceras are common, as are gastropods Coelodiscus, Nucula and Parainoceramus, especially around the Lower Limestone bed. 

Prodactylioceras davoei
sourced from Jens-Wilhelm Janzen

Towards the bottom of the division the Belemnites Hastites and Passaloteuthis are abundant. Above this band the ammonites Oistoceras and Liparoceras are common, as are some Brachiopods. 

In the top 10ft of the division, the ammonite Amaltheus stokesi starts to appear. 

Amaltheus stokesi ammonite
sourced from Herve Chatelier's Office

Within the Red Band the gastropod Nucula is found, as is the crinoid Balanocrinus.

Zones, sub-zones and beds

Beds, geology and fossils

Photographs

A fault line running through the Green Ammonite Bed at Wear Cliffs.

The Green Ammonite Bed running along the base of Golden Cap.

A closer view of the base of Golden Cap, showing much of the Green Ammonite Bed
covered by land-slipped material.

A better study of the Green Ammonite Bed
is along Wear Cliffs.

Providing the Green Ammonite Bed has not been
covered by land-slipped material.