Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)

Profile

General Information

Primary research interest: vertebrate palaeontology, particularly that of small Mesozoic tetrapods.

As a sixth form student in the earliest 1970s I believe I was the first to sample the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight using bulk screening techniques in an attempt to recover small vertebrate remains. A diverse assemblage was obtained from one horizon and I planned to undertake a comprehensive study in due course. I graduated from Oxford University in 1976; BA Hons., Natural Science (Geology). However, financial considerations precluded research for a PhD and I commenced work in the commercial sector of the oil industry. In the summer of 2001 I moved back to the Isle of Wight after an absence of 25 years and there met members of the University of Portsmouth who were participating in a BBC television series entitled “Live from Dinosaur Island”. I showed them my 1970s collection, which engendered considerable interest. Hearing of my earlier intention to make a detailed study of Wessex Formation microvertebrates I was asked if as a mature student I might still be prepared to do the work. Not knowing quite how much was involved I said that I would, the university generously provided a scholarship to undertake research for a PhD, and I attained the degree and fulfilled a long held ambition in the summer of 2007.

Professional Affiliations

• Fellow of the Geological Society, London
• Member of the Geologist’s Association
• Member of the Palaeontological Association
• Member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Research

During the course of PhD research more than 40 new tetrapod taxa and an as yet undetermined number of new fishes were recovered from the Barremian (Early Cretaceous) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight. This remarkable assemblage includes chondrichthyan and osteichthyan fishes, salamanders, frogs, albanerpetontids, the most diverse lizard fauna yet recorded form the Early Cretaceous, turtles, crocodiles, pterosaurs, ornithischian and saurischian dinosaurs, birds and mammals

To date I have published on four of the taxa concerned with manuscripts dealing with two more currently in review. In the short and medium term, priority will be given to publishing on the remainder of the tetrapod assemblage and its palaeobiogeographical and evolutionary significance. In addition, a number of potentially productive horizons within the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight have yet to be sampled due to lack of exposure. These will be monitored and samples taken when opportunities arise.

Trial samples taken from Valanginian and Hauterivian Wealden Supergroup strata of south-east England have also yielded previously unrecorded remains of small tetrapods and fragments of eggshell. This material will be reported in due course. In the longer term samples will also be taken from the Wessex Formation of mainland Britain in the hope of finding microvertebrate remains there.

International Conference Presentations

• 2002. Geological Conservation Group. Isolation of the microvertebrate fauna of the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, Southern England. (Oral presentation).
• 2002. SVPCA. Microvertebrate remains from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. (Poster presentation).
• 2003. SVPCA. Exciting new mammals from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, southern England. (Poster presentation).
• 2004. Geological Society of the Isle of Wight and Dinosaur Isle. Winning the lottery. (A palaeontological gamble pays off!). (Oral presentation).
• 2004. SVPCA.  Faunal diversity in a British Early Cretaceous (Barremian) ecosystem. (Oral presentation)
• 2006. Ninth international symposium on Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems and biota. The tetrapod microbiota of the Wessex Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, UK. (Oral presentation).
• 2006. SVPCA. Wealden (Early Cretaceous) mammals from southern Britain. (Oral presentation).

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications Before 2008

• SWEETMAN, S. C. 2007. Aspects of the microvertebrate fauna of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, 315 pp. + appendices.
• SWEETMAN, S. C and UNDERWOOD, C. J. 2006. A neoselachian shark from the non-marine Wessex Formation (Wealden Group: Early Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeontology, 49, 457-465.
• SWEETMAN, S. C. 2006b. The tetrapod microbiota of the Wessex Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, UK. 127-129. In BARRETT, P. M. and EVANS, S. E. (eds). Ninth international symposium on Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems and biota, abstracts and proceedings, 187 pp.
• SWEETMAN, S. C. 2006a. A gobiconodontid (Mammalia, Eutriconodonta) from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern Britain. Palaeontology, 49, 889-897.
• SWEETMAN, S. C. 2004. The first record of velociraptorine dinosaurs (Saurischia, Theropoda) from the Wealden (Early Cretaceous, Barremian) of southern England. Cretaceous Research, 25, 353-364.