Abstract
The foraminifera of the Gault Clay Formation, exposed in the Munday's Hill Quarry (Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, UK), are described. This quarry, which is worked for the underlying Woburn Sands, is periodically 'refreshed' and the Gault Clay overburden removed. This cleaning of the quarry was undertaken in 2018 and provided access to a fresh clay succession. An 11.4 m section of the Gault Clay Formation was logged and samples collected for micropaleontological analysis, ranging from the Hoplites spathi Subzone to the Hysteroceras varicosum Subzone. A total of 58 specieswere identified from a total of 11,345 foraminifera examined in 20 samples. Two distinctive assemblages are evident; the Lower Gault Clay contains abundant aragonitic foraminifera, while the Upper Gault Clay is dominated by agglutinated foraminifera. This distribution is repeatedly recorded across South-Eastern England and is likely due to ecological constraints such aswater depth, but taphonomic processes cannot be dismissed. The succession at Munday's Hill Quarry is compared to comparable successions in East Anglia, Sussex (Glyndebourne Borehole) and Kent (Copt Point, Folkestone).
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