British Carboniferous fossil reptile sites

Abstract

Within the past decade two possible Carboniferous reptiles have come to light in Britain, one from the Lower Carboniferous of West Lothian, Scotland and the other from the Upper Carboniferous of Newsham, Northumberland. The Scottish material, collected by Mr Stanley Wood and the National Museums of Scotland, came from the Lower Carboniferous (Brigantian) East Kirkton Limestone near Bathgate, West Lothian, and forms part of an important terrestrial assemblage that includes some of the earliest recorded temnospondyl amphibians, eurypterids, myriapods, scorpions and the earliest known opilionid (harvestman). Two ‘reptile’ specimens have been collected from different horizons; the type from bed 82, the black shale member (Smithson, 1989), and the second from bed 76 (Smithson et al., 1994). There are two further specimens (A.R. Milner, pers. comm., 1994).