Silvanerpeton miripedes gen. et sp. nov. is a small gracile anthracosauroid. The holotype is an almost complete articulated specimen in black shale. Its anthracosaur characters include tabular-parietial contact, with a tabular horn and a moderate surangular crest indicating relationship with the embolomeres. It has gastrocentrous vertebrae with poorly ossified centra and neural arches, and the presacral vertebral count is estimated to be over 30. There are a number of apparently primitive characters as found in other anthracosauroids include a closed palate, mobile basal articulation, and an intertemporal. It differs from the other recognised species of anthracosaur at East Kirkton, Eldeceeon rolfei, in vertebral count, number of ribs, interclavicle shape, relative limb length, and in having an unossified tarsus, and a pedal phalangeal count of 23455.

Disarticulated bones from East Kirkton including large limb and vertebral elements may belong to this taxon, to Eldeceeon rolfei or to as yet unidentified taxa.

Eldeceeon rolfei gen. et sp. nov. a primitive anthracosaur from the Brigantian of East Kirkton, Scotland, is described. Uniquely among non-mammalian tetrapods, its ribs are restricted to the anterior half of the presacral column. Eldeceeon lacks the diagnostic features of the two suborders of anthracosaur, the Anthracosauroideae and Seymouriamorpha, and may represent their sister group.

Westlothiana lizziae is known from the Brigantian of East Kirkton, Scotland. The skull resembles that of later amniotes in the large size of the parietal, the apparent loss of the intertemporal, and the absence of a squamosal notch, palatal fangs and labyrinthine infolding of the marginal teeth, but is primitive in the absence of a transverse flange of the pterygoid. The individual trunk vertebrae resemble those of amniotes; large intercentra are retained, but the neural arch is fused to the centrum. A surprising feature is the presence of 36 presacral vertebrae, as is the relative size of the very small but highly ossified limbs. The humerus is much shorter than the femur, but similar in configuration to that of early amniotes. There are three proximal tarsals as in primitive tetrapods, but an amniote phalangeal count. The presence of massive dorsal as well as ventral scales is a more primitive feature than that of most anthracosaurs.

Westlothiana is ‘reptiliomorph’, and is judged to be a stem-group amniote on features of the skull roof, the absence of an otic notch, the gastrocentrous vertebrae and the pedal phalangeal formula. It has not, however, reached the amniote condition in the structure of the tarsus, and the palate is more primitive than that of both early amniotes and the ‘diadectomorphs’.

Coprolites are most common in the transition zone between the East Kirkton Limestone and the Little Cliff Shale. One hundred and twenty five samples are classified in five groups on the basis of size and shape. Within these groups distinctive subgroups are described. Many of the coprolites are believed to have been produced by fish, but some could have been produced by eurypterids and aquatic tetrapods.

The Viséan sequence at East Kirkton was deposited in a shallow lake, set within a richly vegetated landscape formed of volcanic cones a few hundred metres high. There was little volcanic activity, however, while the lake existed, and the many tuff horizons within the sequence were washed in during weathering. The lake may have been generally cool, though of unusual water chemistry, as a result of which the spherulitic East Kirkton Limestone precipitated. At times, however, water temperatures may have risen sharply through localised hot-spring activity; both factors deterred ‘normal’ aquatic life.

The bulk of the preserved biota consists of plants (permineralisations and compressions) and dominantly land-living animals, including the oldest terrestrial tetrapods (amphibians and reptiliomorphs), large terrestrial-aquatic eurypterids, the first harvestman and rare millipedes. All these animals lived close to the lake, in a fire-prone forest dominated by gymnosperms and pteridosperms.

At a late stage in the history of the lake, deposition of spherulitic limestones was replaced by black shales, bearing a ‘standard’ Oil-Shale fish fauna, suggesting that the isolated lake had linked with a larger fish-bearing water body. This is coupled with a shift to a lycopod-dominated flora and may indicate a climatic change to wetter conditions. Finally the lake silted up with tuff, ending an existence of only a few tens of thousands of years.

Of all the localities that have yielded a diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods, the fossil assemblage at East Kirkton most closely resembles that of the Joggins locality in Nova Scotia. Both assemblages are dominated by dendrerpetontid temnospondyls and a smaller number of small anthracosaurs, which are thought to have been primarily terrestrial in habits. Both localities lack adelogyrinids and lysorophids, and such presumably deep water genera as Crassigyrinusand large embolomeres. The East Kirkton Limestone differs in the presence of aïstopods and a possible nectridean, which are associated with a shallow-water environment in other localities. The absence of amniotes and microsaurs may be explained by the later evolution of these groups, their limited geographical distribution, or the lack of any aspects of the depositional environment that would preferentially select primarily terrestrial animals.

The Lower Devonian plant- and arthropod-bearing cherts of the Rhynie area of Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, were deposited from silica-rich waters emanating from the hot-springs of a precious-metal (Au) bearing epithermal system. Cherts were deposited at temperatures up to 100°C. The hot-springs were active in the waning phase of local volcanism and reworked volcanic debris is associated with the hot-spring system. Plant and animal communities inhabited a low energy alluvial plain with small ponds. Hot-springs deposited surficial sinter and silicified standing plants and underlying plant litter in a generally terrestrial setting, but aquatic organisms were present in low temperature pools within areas of sinter deposition. Silicification also affected plants and sediment in the shallow subsurface. The cherts display massive, vuggy, laminated, lenticular, nodular and brecciated textures in laterally impersistent beds. Faunal and floral variation between beds is of local significance, possibly reflecting general water availability. Variations in preservation of plants reflect not only degrees of imperfection in the permineralisation process, but also silicification at different times in the cycle of plant growth and decay.

The Stephanian Konservat-Lagerstätte of Hamilton, Kansas, deposited in a marine-estuarine environment preserves a mixture of terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine fossil organisms. The marine component is the most diverse taxonomically, whereas one ostracod species, commonly interpreted as a fresh-water form, together with vascular plant debris dominates volumetrically. Well-preserved terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates and arthropods were embedded in rapidly deposited calcareous mud conducive to microbial early-diagenesis of vertebrate soft tissues in a tidal estuarine setting. Many vertebrate fossils show no evidence of preburial decay or disarticulation. Dark-coloured body silhouettes (‘skin preservation’) are composed of calcitic bacteria, calcite crystals and organic material, and have been interpreted to reflect preservation under saline conditions. The aquatic vertebrates had a broader tolerance of salinity than today. The fishes were perhaps migratory (anadromous or catadromous), and some used the estuarine environment for spawning. The tetrapods (dissorophid amphibians) retained their tolerance to salinity from their marine ancestors and were able to spawn in near-shore environments. The terrestrial biota was dominated by the conifer Walchia and was subjected to forest fires, as evidenced by preserved charcoal fragments.

A laminated, partly peloidal lacustrine limestone from the Lower Permian intermontane Döhlen basin in Saxony, Germany, contains one of the most diverse late Palaeozoic tetrapod faunas in Europe associated with a marine higher algal flora of Tethyan character. The surprising co-occurrence of these organisms and the lack of fishes is explained by the special position of this basin above the Elbe lineament, the influence of strong volcanism, of differentiated salinity in the lake and of the palaeowind systems, as well as by the action of stratigraphic, palaeogeographic and palaeoecological filters.