Hurst Hill, Oxfordshire

Hurst Hill or Cumnor Hurst is a 20.6-hectare (51-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Oxford in Oxfordshire.[1][2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]

Hurst Hill
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Area of SearchOxfordshire
Grid referenceSP 476 041[1]
InterestBiological
Geological
Area20.6 hectares (51 acres)[1]
Notification1986[1]
Location mapMagic Map

The site is owned by All Souls College, Oxford,[4] and its mosses and liverworts have been monitored for more than fifty years. The hill is also important geologically. In 1879 a fossil of a Camptosaurus prestwichii, a large herbivorous dinosaur dating to the Upper Jurassic 143 million years ago, was found on the site.[5] The fossil belongs to a typically North African genus, and provides evidence of a land bridge across the proto-Atlantic in the Late Jurassic.[6]

The hill is mentioned in Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy.[4]

References
  1. "Designated Sites View: Hurst Hill". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  2. "Map of Hurst Hill". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  3. "Chawley Brickpits, Cumnor Hurst (Jurassic - Cretaceous Reptilia)". Geological Conservation Review. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  4. Hopkins, Gerard Manley (2015). The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Oxford University Press. p. 371, n. 625.
  5. "Dinosaurs in the Museum" (PDF). Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  6. "Hurst Hill citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.