page_title: Harbury
section_title: Natural History and Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Harbury / Natural History and Geology
caption_attribution_description: Macroplata tenuiceps, a pliosaur from the Early Jurassic of Europe, pencil drawing
context_page_description: Harbury is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. It is about 3 miles west-southwest of Southam and about 5 miles southeast of Royal Leamington Spa. The parish includes the hamlet of Deppers Bridge. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,420.
  The village is on a ridge of lias up to 390 feet high that runs roughly northeast – southwest. The parish covers 3,397 acres. It is bounded by the River Itchen to the east, Fosse Way to the northwest, a minor road to the south and field boundaries on its other sides. Adjoining parishes are Bishop's Itchington, Bishop's Tachbrook, Chesterton, Ladbroke and Southam.
  The A425 road and the Chiltern Main Line pass through the parish just north of Harbury village. Junction 12 on the M40 motorway is about 3 miles south of the village.
context_section_description: Harbury lies on the Blue Lias, a Lower Jurassic marine sediment that also forms the unstable sea cliffs at Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast. As at Lyme Regis, the Blue Lias at Harbury is rich in marine fossils. In 1927 and 1928 the skeletons of two marine reptiles were found in Harbury quarry. They are an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur, and both fossils are now in the Natural History Museum, London. The plesiosaur is the unique example of the early Jurassic species Macroplata tenuiceps.
caption: Macroplata: the Harbury plesiosaur
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