Elgin Reptiles
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Elgin Reptiles is the name given to the
Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...
and
Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
fossils found in the
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
deposits in and around the town of
Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...
, in
Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. They are of historical and scientific importance, and many of the specimens are housed in the Elgin Museum, and some in the Hunterian in Glasgow, and the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
in Edinburgh. The Elgin Reptiles include the dinosauriform ''
Saltopus ''Saltopus'' ("hopping foot") is a genus of very small bipedal dinosauriform containing the single species ''Saltopus elginensis'' from the late Triassic period of Scotland. It is one of the most famous Elgin Reptiles. Description ''Saltopu ...
elginensis'', the
dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ...
'' Gordonia'', and the
pareiasaur Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Per ...
''
Elginia ''Elginia'' is an extinct genus of pareiasaurid known from the Late Permian of Scotland and China. It was named for the area around Elgin, Moray, Elgin in Scotland, which has yielded many fossils referred to as the Elgin Reptiles. Discovery ...
''. There are also many footprints and tail-drags associated with the same Permian and Triassic sandstone deposits.


History

The sandstone in the Elgin area was originally quarried for building materials. The quarries were where the first reptile fossils were found, and they have continued to yield fossils to this day. The first Elgin Reptile was discovered in 1844, but because it was only a few scales scientists of the time believed it was an
Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...
fish fossil, which were relatively well-known from sites across Northern Scotland. In 1851 a second indisputably reptilian fossil was found. Fossils of '' Gordonia'' were first found by Scottish naturalist Ramsay Heatley Traquair in 1885 and E.T. Newton described several key fossil specimens. Elgin Museum is Scotland's oldest independent museum. The Elgin Reptiles, footprints, and older fish fossils held by the Elgin Museum are “recognised” by the Scottish Government as a Collection of National Significance due to the major part played by the Museum’s founders and associated geologists in helping answer questions about geological succession that challenged 19th century naturalists. The Museum has many original papers, including letters from
Hugh Miller Hugh Miller (10 October 1802 – 23/24 December 1856) was a Scottish geologist, writer and folklorist. Life and work Miller was born in Cromarty, the first of three children of Harriet Wright (''bap''. 1780, ''d''. 1863) and Hugh Miller ...
, and correspondence with
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 â€“ 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
.


Geological background

The land North of Elgin consists of fragments of
Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...
,
Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
and
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...
bedrocks on the edge of the
Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...
Basin, south of the Great Glen Fault. The Elgin Reptiles come from the Permian and Triassic rocks. These are called the Hopeman Sandstone Formation and the Burghead Sandstone Formation, both part of the
New Red Sandstone The New Red Sandstone, chiefly in United Kingdom, British geology, is composed of beds of red sandstone and associated rocks laid down throughout the Permian (300 million years ago) to the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years a ...
Supergroup. Some marine reptiles have been found in a
glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...
of Jurassic strata. Most of the sandstones are wind-blown desert dune deposits, but there are some river deposits and the later Jurassic deposits include mudstones.Friend, P. 2012 Scotland: Looking at Natural Landscapes. The New Naturalist Library. These rocks overly much older
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...
lake deposits from Lake Orcadie. The intervening Carboniferous sediments were eroded before the Permian deposition, leaving a 100 million year gap in the stratigraphy. This unusual sequence of rocks confused 19th century geologists for many years. The Moray Firth Basin has been exploited for offshore oil deposits. Scotland lay at about 20 degrees North in the Late Permian-Early Triassic, and was moving North. Permian, Triassic and Jurassic rocks are rare in Scotland, but some can be found along the Northern edge of the
Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...
, and in the Inner Hebrides, particularly on the
Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...
. The Hopeman Sandstone Formation quarry at Clashach is designated as a SSSI ( Site of Special Scientific Importance) for its fossils.


Fossils

Many of the Elgin Reptile fossils contain no actual bone: they are often voids in the sandstone that used to contain bone, but are now virtually empty. This made them difficult to identify and study. In the 19th century until the late 20th century, the most common method to explore them was to infill the void, then break the surrounding rock.Walker AD. 1973. The age of the Cuttie's Hillock Sandstone (Permo-Triassic) of the Elgin Area. Scottish Journal of Geology 9:177-183. More recently, CT-scanning has been used to see inside the rock and reconstruct the fossils digitally. These can also be printed or cast as models to facilitate study and as museum pieces. Elgin Museum has such a cast of the dicynodont '' Gordonia''. The reptiles of Cutties Hillock, Quarrywood and the Hopeman Sandstones are Late Permian, around 250 million years old, while most other reptile fossils are found in the early Triassic rocks of
Lossiemouth Lossiemouth () is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, Moray, Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the ...
, Spynie and Findrassie, and are about 220 million years old. The fossils are “recognised” by the Scottish Government as a Collection of National Significance. Many of the type and significant specimens are on display, with more fossils and archives in the collection at Elgin Museum, available for study and research. More recent fossil discoveries from Elgin have been footprints, with over 200 found prior to 1997. These range in size from 0.5 cm to 24 cm wide, and most belong to
therapsids Therapsida is a clade comprising a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals and their ancestors and close relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including li ...
. Numerous taildrags have also been recovered and studied, many from therapsids.


Archosaurs


†Rhynchosaurs


Sphenodontids


†Procolophonids


†Dicynodonts


†Pareiasaurs


References

{{Reflist Permian Scotland Fossils of Scotland History of Moray Elgin, Moray Collection of National Museums Scotland