The Fish Bed Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland, United Kingdom. The fluvial to lacustrine sandstones, shales, siltstones and conglomerates preserve flora, arthropods, among which eurypterids, invertebrates and early fish fossils dating back to the Wenlock epoch of the Silurian period.[1]
| Fish Bed Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Wenlock ~ | |
| Type | Formation |
| Unit of | Glenbuck Group |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Sandstone, conglomerate |
| Other | Shale, siltstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 55°30′N 3°54′W / 55.5°N 3.9°W |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 17°54′S 18°18′W / 17.9°S 18.3°W |
| Region | South Lanarkshire |
| Country |  Scotland |
  Fish Bed Formation (Scotland) | |
Description
edit
The fish beds are contained within red-bed sequences comprising conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones that exhibit sedimentological features suggestive of deposition in terrestrial–fluviatile and lacustrine environments (Bluck 2002). The sporomorph assemblage from the Fish Bed Formation indicates that it is entirely non-marine and was most likely deposited in a relatively permanent lacustrine setting (Wellman and Richardson 1993).[2]
The formation, at the time part of Avalonia, was deposited during the Grampian orogeny.
Fossil content
editThe Fish Bed Formation has provided fossils of:[1]
Fish
editArthropods
editEurypterids
editInvertebrates
edit- Gastropods
Flora
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Fish Bed Formation at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Smithy Burn, Hagshaw Hills Inlier at Fossilworks.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Plotnick, 1999
- ^ Wilson, 2005
Bibliography
edit- Wilson, H. M (2005), "Zosterogrammida, a new order of millipedes from the middle Silurian of Scotland and the upper Carboniferous of Euramerica", Palaeontology, 48 (5): 1101–1110, Bibcode:2005Palgy..48.1101W, doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2005.00498.x
- Plotnick, R. E (1999), Habitat of Llandoverian-Lochkovian eurypterids, in A. J. Boucot, J. D. Lawson (eds.), Paleocommunities - a case study from the Silurian and Lower Devonian, pp. 106–136