The Amazing Story of “Deadly Doris” at Westbury Cement Works

It does not exist nothing as interesting that to be working in the cement industry!

This industry has everything! For example: Dinosaurs, Natural history and more. Did I said Dinosaurs? Yes!

The Deadly Doris story

The afternoon of the 12 of May 1994 for the for the employees working at the Quarry of the Westbury Cement Work at the clay area everything was moving as usual, and for them was not strange to see there a Simon Carpenter, an amateur geologist that it regularly visited the quarry looking for prehistoric remains. Simon was there because a new cycle of excavation had started, hoping that the new excavations could reveal some interesting specimens. High up in the corner of the quarry he noticed a line of bone fragments, in that moment he thought that potentially it could be a significant find.

The next day Simon contacted the quarry manager, David Beatty to inform him of the discovery, and request him protect the area to avoid damage the bones, as well he called for support to the Dorset collector Steve Etches to continue the excavations. Days later they confirmed that the skeleton belonged to a pliosaur.

In that moment they realised that they will need the help of more people, coordination of specialised expertise for that reason Simon contacted Peter Crowther at Bristol City Museum and updated him of the progress. From that point the excavation of the pliosaur became the responsibility of the Bristol City Museum and Bristol University.

The skeleton was identified as a new species of pliosaur by Dr. Glenn Storrs of Bristol University. It was later named Pliosaurus Carpenteri in honour of its discoverer and is one of the most complete specimens of its kind ever to be found.

Simon spent almost 20 years collecting specimens from the Kimmeridge clay sedimentary layer that the clay quarry excavation exposed (rare turtle fossil, remains of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurus, pliosaurs and crocodiles).

Deborah Hutchinson, geology curator at Bristol City Museum, remarks the importance of the discovery :

The discovery of Pliosaurus Carpenteri is significant as the first and currently the only known example of the species

In 2017 before Bristol Museum and Art Gallery was to put Pliosaurus Carpenteri on display, the public voted to named "Doris" to the 150 million year old predator.

Roger Vaugh, the geology conservator at the museum spent 10 years to clean and put in condition to be displayed, but also a life-size, interactive model of "Deadly Doris".

Conclusion

1. Every quarry has the potential to find specimens of animals that lived there hundreds of millions year ago.
2. If we are working in the cement industry, we have the possibility to support the development of the Geology and Natural History sciences.

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