Brymbo Fossil Forest
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
  Location within Wrexham | |
| Location | Clwyd |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | SJ 2958 5345 |
| Coordinates | 53°04′26″N 3°03′11″W / 53.07382°N 3.05318°W |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 0.52 hectares (56,000 sq ft) |
| Notification | 14 July 2015 |
| [1] | |
The Brymbo Fossil Forest is a palaeobotanical site[2] near Brymbo, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is known as a significant area of Early Carboniferous fossils, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Description[edit]
It is located on the former iron and steelworks site closed in 1990, it is roughly the size of half an association football pitch, and is home to a wide variety of fossilised plants and trees such as arborescent club mosses and horsetails,[3] dating over 300 million years ago, from the Early Carboniferous period.[2][4]
Some fossils were transferred and conserved at National Museum Wales, with them set to return should a suitable venue be ready.[5] Discovered during coal-mining in 2003,[6] with many fossils discovered the following year,[7] it was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest by Natural Resources Wales in 2015.[1][8][9] Local councillors describe the site to be a potential World Heritage Site, with hopes to become the county borough's second site of such designation.[5] A tourist attraction including a museum and visitor centre, to provide a safe home for the fossils, is proposed on the site, using the old former steelwork buildings.[8][10][11]
Upon the forest's discovery, six tree-sized plants were found in a small area, with later work revealing more than 20 speciments, although the forest containing a "large number" of two types of tree-sized plants, the Calamites and Lepidodendron.[12]
Natural history[edit]
The coal seams of the area were deposited as plant debris thick mats approximately 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous. During this time, modern-day North Wales, would have been situated around the equator, therefore any prehistoric forest would have been hot and humid, housing tropical animals. The forest at this time contained no flowering plants, with connections between prehistoric and living flora on the same site proving difficult. In between the layers of coal at the site are mudstone and sandstone layers, which represent flash flooding events which would have buried much of the river delta, located in the area, with sediment.[7]
See also[edit]
- List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Clwyd
- List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wrexham
References[edit]
- ^ a b "SITE OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST: CITATION - WREXHAM COEDWIG FFOSIL BRYMBO FOSSIL FOREST" (PDF). Natural Resources Wales.
- ^ a b Roberts, Raymond (2019-12-01). "Brymbo Fossil Forest: a Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) Approach to Geoconservation and Geotourism". Geoheritage. 11 (4): 1325–1334. doi:10.1007/s12371-019-00371-4. ISSN 1867-2485. S2CID 182006858.
- ^ Appleton, Peter; Malpas, Jacqui; Thomas, Barry A.; Cleal, Christopher J. (May 2011). "The Brymbo Fossil Forest". Geology Today. 27 (3): 107–113. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2451.2011.00796.x. S2CID 129043060.
- ^ "Fossil forest found at steelworks". 2006-03-17. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b Bagnall, Steve (2017-09-07). "Could this 300 million year old North Wales fossil forest be next World Heritage Site?". North Wales Live. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Brymbo Fossil Forest". wrexham.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
- ^ a b "Brymbo Fossil Forest | Brymbo Heritage Trust". My Site. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b "Brymbo's fossil forest given SSSI protected status". BBC News. 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Fossil forest gets national recognition and protection". ITV News. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Heritage centre hopes for Brymbo steelworks site". BBC News. 2015-02-08. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ Porter, Gary (2015-07-22). "LOOK: Wrexham fossil forest safeguarded amid plans to make it a tourist attraction". North Wales Live. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Find out how you could become a fossil hunter in Brymbo's 300 million year old forest". The Leader. 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2023-08-01.