page_title: Ludford, Shropshire
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Ludford, Shropshire / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Ludford Corner Upper Silurian rocks exposed at Ludford Corner - the Ludford Bone Bed has fragmented remains of primitive fish from about 400 million years ago.
context_page_description: Ludford is a small village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England. The parish is situated adjacent to the market town of Ludlow and was, until 1895, partly in Herefordshire.
  The village is situated on the south bank of the River Teme, with Ludlow on the north bank, and is connected to the town by the grade I listed Ludford Bridge. The village is geologically notable with its Ludford Corner.
context_section_description: Ludford contains the world-renowned fossil site known as Ludford Corner, where the Ludlow bone beds can be viewed. It is situated in the centre of the village, at the junction of the B4361 ('Overton Road') and the road to Wigmore ('Ludford Lane' or 'Whitcliffe Road'). Being adjacent to the highway, it is can be readily viewed by the public.
  In 1832 Dr Thomas Lloyd, a Ludlow doctor and amateur geologist, met Roderick Murchison at Ludford Corner to study the rocks exposed along the River Teme and on Whitcliffe, advancing Murchison's theory for a Silurian System that he was to publish in 1839. Immediately above the topmost layer of the marine rock sequence forming Murchison's Silurian period was a thin layer of dark sand containing numerous remains of early fish, especially their scales, along with plant debris, spores and microscopic mites. In contrast to the underlying sediments of the Ludlow Series which were deposited in a shallow warm sea some 400 million years ago, the Ludlow Bone Bed represents terrestrial (land) conditions and thus a fundamental change in the landscape. At the time, this was believed to be the earliest occurrence of life on land. Murchison thus took the Ludlow Bone Bed as the base of his Devonian Period, although over a century later this boundary was to be moved a little higher, the overlying rocks being ascribed to the Pridoli. The science of geology has taken a number of local names from these studies and now applies them worldwide, in recognition of the importance of this area to scientific understanding, for example Ludlow Series and Whitcliffe Formation. The site is now an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and still attracts international studies.
  The geological period of the Ludfordian stage (part of the Ludlow epoch) is named after the village.
caption: Ludford Corner
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