Palynology of the ‘Lower Old Red Sandstone’ at Glen Coe, Scotland

Abstract

Abstract‘Lower Old Red Sandstone’ deposits preserved by cauldron subsidence at Glen Coe, Scotland have hitherto lacked secure biostratigraphical age constraint. A sporomorph assemblage recovered from basal sediments of these deposits permits age determination, despite being highly carbonized. The sporomorph assemblage is correlated with the micrornatus-newportensis Sporomorph Assemblage Biozone, indicating a late early-early late Lochkovian age (early Devonian). Sporomorph assemblages from basal sediments of the ‘Lower Old Red Sandstone’ sequence at nearby Lorne, a suggested correlative of the Glen Coe deposits, are older (latest Pridoli-earliest Lochkovian age). However, the new biostratigraphical data do not preclude the possibility that the Glen Coe and Lorne deposits are lithological correlatives and the basal sediments are diachronous.