Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T17:29:18.360Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coprolites and ostracods from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

John E. Pollard
John E. Pollard
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Coprolites of four distinct shapes, cylindrical, discoidal, beaded and irregular masses, are described from 11 horizons within Bed 16 of the Foulden sequence. These coprolites are composed of either phosphatic or claystone material, although they have not been analysed mineralogically or chemically. Their producers appear to have been fish, probably both nektonic predators and nekto-benthonic scavengers or detritus feeders.

Ostracods are poorly preserved and of two broad types, thick shelled paraparchitids including Shemonaella scotoburdigalensis and thin shelled podocopids, possibly species of Carbonita or Cavellina. This ostracod assemblage represents a conservative ‘carbonaceous fades’ fauna which occurs widely in plant-rich sediments in lower Carboniferous (Courceyan) sequences of northern England and southern Scotland. Other microfauna includes spirorbid worm tubes, fish scales, arthropod cuticle fragments, spat of myalinid bivalves, plant fragments and spores. No significant changes in the vertical distribution of the microfauna could be detected.

The microfauna indicates a general fresh to brackish water lacustrine or lagoonal environment possibly with access to quasi-marine conditions.

Keywords

bivalve spatfish Carboniferouslacustrine environmentparaparchitid ostracodsspirorbid worms
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , 1985 , pp. 49 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bless, M. J. M. 1983. Late Devonian and Carboniferous ostracode assemblages and their relationship to the depositional environment. GEOL BULL SOC BELG GEOL 92, 31–53.Google Scholar
Connell, A. 1836. Analysis of coprolites and other organic remains imbedded in the Limestone of Burdiehouse near Edinburgh. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 13, 283–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, W. N. 1927. Lower Carboniferous plants from Foulden Berwickshire. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 55, 287.Google Scholar
Etheridge, R. 1880. A contribution to the study of British Carboniferous tubicolar Annelida. GEOL MAG 17, 109–15, 171–4, 215–22, 258–66, 305–7, 362–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, E. H. 1983. Carboniferous. In Craig, G. Y. (ed.) Geology of Scotland 2nd edn, 253–96. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hibbert, S. 1836. On the Fresh-water Limestone of Burdiehouse in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 13, 169–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J. H. 1934. A coprolite horizon in the Pennsylvanian of Chaffee and Park Counties, Colorado. J PALEONT 8, 477–9.Google Scholar
Latham, M. H. 1932. Scottish Carboniferous Ostracoda. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 57, 352–95.Google Scholar
Loftus, G. W. F. 1984. Lacustrine carbonate deposition in the eastern Midland Valley of Scotland. In Abstracts of First European Dinantian Environment Meeting, 16–18. Milton Keynes: Department of Earth Sciences, Open University.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. E. 1969. Three ostracod-mussel bands in the Coal Measures of Northumberland and Durham. PROCS YORKS GEOL SOC 37, 239–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. E. 1978. The Carboniferous. In Bate, R. H. and Robinson, J. E. (eds) A stratigraphical index of British Ostracoda, 123–66. GEOL J SPEC ISSUE 8.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. E. 1980. Ostracod faunas. In Frost, D. V. and Holliday, D. W. Geology of the country around Bellingham, 51–6. MEM INST GEOL SCI.Google Scholar
Waterston, C. D. 1985. Chelicerata from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 76, 25–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, S. P. & Rolfe, W. D. I. 1985. Introduction to the palaeontology of the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 76, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar