Publications
Coleoptera from the upper peat bed at Horton Clay Pit, Small Dole, near Upper Beeding, West Sussex, by G. Russell Coope and John A. Cooper, published 2000 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 111 issue 3, article, pp.247-252) View Online
Abstract:In 1913 a series of beetle fossils were recovered from a peaty bed in the overburden of a clay pit near Small Dole, Upper Beeding in West Sussex. These remains were preserved in the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, though no attempt was made to identify them. This paper presents the results of a recent study of these fossils. Altogether, 38 taxa of Coleoptera have been recognized, enabling a detailed picture to be built up of the local environment, namely of a rather sour pool in largely open heathland with a sparse growth of coniferous trees. Mutual Climatic Range analysis of the coleopteran assemblage shows that, although mean July temperatures were only a degree cooler than those of the present day, mean January temperatures were about 6°C cooler than today. It is likely that these deposits date from the Brørup Interstadial near to the start of the last (Devensian, Weichselian) Glaciation.