The scleractiniamorph coral Kilbuchophyllia clarksoni at Kilbucho

Abstract

The first well authenticated Palaeozoic examples of a scleractiniamorph coral were described by [Scrutton and Clarkson (1991)][1]. The material was collected from fossiliferous mid-Ordovician (Caradoc) silt-grade greywackes of the Kirkcolm Formation in Tract 2 (of the accretionary prism model) of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands at Kilbucho, near Biggar. Subsequently, further material became available ([Scrutton 1993][2]), including a new, small specimen from the greywackes at Kilbucho which demonstrated hexameral cyclic septal insertion with much greater clarity than any of the original material. The range of the type species, Kilbuchophyllia discoidea, was extended to further localities along strike to the southwest and a new species, K. clarksoni, was described. The new material from these additional localities, Wallace’s Cast, Glenkip Burn, Snar Water and Duntercleuch, was all found in a poorly sorted, matrix-supported, quartz pebble conglomerate facies. However, despite extensive collecting no kilbuchophyllids had been found in the fossiliferous conglomerates underlying greywackes at Kilbucho. This note is to record the finding of a single specimen of K. clarksoni from the conglomerate facies at Kilbucho during a visit in August 1995, the first record of this species from any facies at that locality. This find provides further evidence to support the likelihood that throughout Tract 2, the kilbuchophyllids are occurring in fossiliferous conglomerate and greywacke obrution deposits at a single level in the Kirkcolm Formation ([Clarkson et al. 1992][3]). One further additional observation since the publication of [Scrutton (1993)][2] has been the rediscovery of the fossiliferous conglomerate localities in Glenkip Burn . . . [1]: #ref-5 [2]: #ref-4 [3]: #ref-2