Palaeoecology of the dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight

Palaeoecology of the dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight

based on

INSOLE, A. N. and HUTT, S. 1994. Palaeoecology of the dinosaurs of the Wessex Formation (Wealden Group, Early Cretaceous), Isle of Wight, southern England. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 112, 135-150.

with alterations based on recent finds

The Landscape of the Wessex Basin during the Barremian

During the Barremian age of the Early Cretaceous, the Isle of Wight was very different to the way it is now. The temperature was higher, from hot to very warm, and was semi-arid. The dinosaurs prospered in equable humid periods, with low climatic variability, but were constantly living in the area. There was spasmodic rainfall, nearly 1200 mm per year, although this would have been in the uplands, but the Wessex Basin was dryer than the neighbouring Weald Basin, which covers what is now Sussex and South-East England. The low-lying lands would have experienced droughts lasting up to four months, during which forest fires are known to have occured, but there would also be occasonal rainstorms, and flash flooding would happen frequently.