II. On an Occurrence of Sanguinolites abdenensis

Abstract

The genus Sanguinolites was instituted by M’Coy1 in 1844 to include a group of shells previously classed with Sanguinolaria. In 1877 R. Etheridge, Jun.,2 described and figured certain lamellibranchs obtained from a bed of shale near the base of the Lower Limestones at Abden, Fife. He referred them to Sanguinolites ? and on account of differences from the described species of this genus he adopted abdenensis as a specific name. The shore section at Abden (see Fig. 22) was detailed in the Geological Survey Memoir of Central and Western Fife and Kinross-shire, published in 1900.3 Sanguinolites abdenensis was recorded more precisely in this memoir as occurring in fossiliferous shales lying below the first Abden Limestone. Part of the section there given is:— ft. ins. Limestone (First Abden Limestone) .. .. 10 — Shale with nodules of limestone and marine fossils 1 — Green and red tuffs .. .. .. .. .. 6 — Dark shale with brachiopods and lamellibranchs 1 6 Soft pale marly shale or fireclay .. .. .. 1 6 Dark shales with a lamellibranch fauna including Sanguinolites abdenensis .. .. .. .. 2 11 Bone bed with numerous fish remains .. .. — 1 In 1910 the Geological Survey Memoir on the neighbourhood of Edinburgh was published.4 In this work reference was made to a brachiopod-bearing shale underlain by a “bone bed” discovered by the late Mr. A. Macconochie. In the Burdiehouse Burn these beds were found underlying a limestone which occurs 130 ft. below the Gilmerton Limestone. This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract