Hornsleasow

In 1987 Kevin Gardner and his six year old daughter Lisa found some fossils in Hornsleasow quarry near Cheltenham. They thought there might be a dinosaur nearby, but actually there were dozens and more.

Careful excavation revealed a snapshot of Gloucestershire 175 million years ago in the Jurassic period. The quarry had once been part of a tropical freshwater pool similar to the Everglades of Florida. Most of the fossils were tiny micro-fossils sieved out of a clay `lens' in the surrounding limestone. They included teeth and bones of crocodiles, small furry reptiles such as Stereognathus, turtles, flying pterosaurs and many more. In amongst them were tiny teeth of some of the very earliest mammals, as well as the remains of the earliest salamander and frog yet found. Larger fossils included those of the vast Cetiosaurus, predatory Meglalosaurus and Coelurosaurus, armoured Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus, and others. In all there were over 200 kg of dinosaur bones recovered.