Statoliths from the Jurassic succession of south-west England, United Kingdom

Abstract

The occurrence of statoliths within the Jurassic succession of south-west England and other parts of Europe is reviewed. Five ‘morphospecies’ have been identified, ranging in age from Hettangian to Kimmeridgian. With so little published information on statoliths, the presently known geological record is incomplete, although new occurrences are continually being discovered. The occurrence of statoliths, in the absence of soft-bodied fossils, may ultimately provide a more complete indication of the distribution of the soft-bodied host animals. At the present time, however, only one of the statolith ‘morphospecies’ can be, tentatively, linked to a known species of teuthid.