The Southern Uplands-Down-Longford Terrane (SUDLT) saw exploration for coal in Ordovician-Silurian marine rocks for several centuries, including well after it was understood that land plant coals would not occur in such rocks. Some lithologies were so carbonaceous that a fuel of sorts was mined. The record of this exploration and mining activity is mostly forgotten, but there are diverse sources to show that it was widespread. Exploration was mostly inspired by outcrops of Moffat Shale, in which deformation and hydrocarbon generation left coal-like products. The hydrocarbon origin conferred high calorific value to the fuel, so it did burn and encouraged exploration. The deposits show that an accretionary prism can be a reservoir of locally abundant carbon.

The descriptions of two co-occurring cardioid crustaceans from the Ballagan Formation (Tournaisian, Lower Carboniferous) of Chirnside, Scottish Borders, help to resolve the taxonomy of the genus Tealliocaris. Tealliocaris robusta Peach, 1908 is assigned to Schramocaris to form S. robusta (Peach, 1908) comb. nov. on the basis of morphological characters such as the rugosity and position of the branchial carinae as well as the nature of the pleon, and becomes the earliest representative of this genus in Scotland. A new species of Tealliocaris is also recognised from this locality and is described as T. briggsi sp. nov., based on the smooth carapace, lack of pleonic grooves and the number of spines on the scaphocerite and lateral margin of the anterior carapace. The systematic position of the Pendleian specimens identified by Peach (1908) as ‘Tealliocaris robusta var.’ is finally resolved and described as T. weegie sp. nov.

The early tetrapod Eoherpeton watsoni is known from the mid- to late Carboniferous (late Viséan to Namurian, approximately 346–313 Ma) of Scotland. The holotype is made up of a nearly complete but crushed skull with postcranial fragments. The skull anatomy of Eoherpeton was first described over 40 years ago; however, many details are obscured due to deformation of the specimen, including internal bone surfaces, the palatal bones and dentition, and suture morphology. Most phylogenetic analyses place Eoherpeton as an embolomere/reptilomorph on the lineage leading to amniotes, making it a key taxon for understanding anatomical changes during the fish-tetrapod transition. In this paper, we scanned the holotype using micro-computed tomography and digitally prepared the specimen. Based on these data, we present a revised description of the skull, including sutural morphology, that supplements and amends previous descriptions. New anatomical findings include the presence of a previously unknown tooth-bearing vomer, additional information on the shape of the basipterygoid processes and jaw joint, the ability to visualise the full extent of the pterygoid, and confirmation of the arrangement of the coronoid series. We also note the size of the pterygoid flange, which is larger than previously described for Eoherpeton. The pterygoid flange is widely considered to be characteristic of amniotes and serves as the origin of the medial pterygoideus muscle. The differentiation of the adductor muscles and appearance of medial pterygoideus are thought to have permitted a static pressure bite in amniotes, potentially resulting in greater bite forces and increased dietary range. Thus, the presence and extent of the pterygoid flange in Eoherpeton suggests this feature (and associated changes in feeding mechanism) may have evolved earlier than previously thought. Finally, the skull was digitally repaired and retrodeformed to create a new, hypothetical three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull of Eoherpeton.