Old Red Sandstone Of Scotland Research Articles

Morphology and significance of super-mature calcretes from the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

Thick calcrete profiles occur in the Late Devonian–early Carboniferous Kinnesswood Formation of the Midland Valley of Scotland. These profiles consist of highly brecciated peloidal and coated grain fabrics with laminar calcrete horizons and linings to fractures. The profiles resemble supermature calcretes associated with late Cenozoic surfaces in the southwestern United States and reflect pedogenesis over periods of several hundred thousand years or more. The possible origins of the highly complex fabrics seen are reviewed and the polygenetic nature of such profiles is stressed. It is suggested that brecciation takes place co-incident with subaerial exposure of the calcrete. Mature profiles may be predisposed to brecciation and surficial weathering because of their susceptibility to soil erosion as a result of changes in vegetation cover. The calcretes underwent phreatic cementation, burial dolomitization and silicification.

Structure, generation and preservation of upward fining, braided stream cycles in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

ABSTRACTA sequence of upward fining cycles contain braid bar structures in the coarse member. Bars, medially placed in the stream are recognised either by radiating large foresets or by identifying bar tail sediments with converging dips to their foresets. Lateral bars are recognised by the growth of major sandstone sheets oblique to the direction of channel trend and over slough mudstone. The fine member contains structures which indicate a direction of flow in the same direction as the channel, suggesting that only the unlevéed part of the floodplain is preserved.The direction of transport for the Old Red Sandstone sediments is perpendicular to the direction of bar accretion. This is accounted for by assuming the section dealt with to be on the NNW margin of a cone which builds outward to the NE, and where the river building the cone swings from one side to the other. An upward increase in cycle thickness within the section is possibly the result of an increase in the size of the cone and the consequent amalgamation of the coarse members.

THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF HICKLINGIA EDWARDII KIDSTON AND LANG

SUMMARYRecent developments in the classification of the earliest vascular plants are discussed. The fertile parts of Hicklingia edwardii, a remarkably well preserved plant from the Middle Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, are described. It is concluded that this plant had lateral not terminal sporangia and may be assigned provisionally to the Zosterophyllophytina until more is known about its anatomy.

11.—Some Observations on the Fertile Parts of Zosterophyllum myretonianum Penhallow from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

SynopsisNew collections of Zosterophyllum myretonianum Penhallow have been made at a number of localities in the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. For the first time, details of the fructification are recorded and incorporated into an emended diagnosis of the species. A comparison with the remaining species of Zosterophyllum indicates that sporangial and stalk characteristics are most important in delimiting Z. myretonianum. Tentative explanations for the wide variation in the overall morphology of the fructifications are put forward.

A zosterophyllum fructification from the lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

A new specimen of Zosterophyllum is described from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Forfar, Scotland. It consists of a fructification, bifurcating at the base, and bearing two rows of sporangia on each branch. The sporangia are alternate and overlap the axis. The arrangement, shape and orientation of the sporangia are similar to those in Zosterophyllum fertile Leclercq, and the specimen is assigned to this species.

A New Upper Old Red Sandstone Fish Locality in Scotland

WITH the exception of sporadic scales and plates, finds of fish remains in the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, south of the Grampians, have been limited to the abundant excavation material from Dura Den, Fife, and the more restricted productions of Bracken Bay, Clashbennie, Earlston, Jedburgh, Chirnside, etc. The discovery of two rich fish beds in the Upper Old Red Sandstone in the grounds of Duns Castle, Berwickshire, is therefore a welcome event.

IX.—Two New Genera of Coccosteid Arthrodira from the Middle Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, and their Stratigraphical Distribution

SynopsisMaterial of a coccosteid fish, from various localities in Caithness, is described asDickosteus threiplandin.g., n.sp. The fish has previously been confused withCoccosteus cuspidatusMiller ex Ag. ( =Coccosteus decipiensAg.). A diagnosis of this new form is given and comparisons made withCoccosteusshow that it is quite distinct.Coccosteus flettiWatson is also redescribed and referred to the new genusWatsonosteus. The phylogenetic relations and stratigraphical distribution of these two genera are considered, and it is shown thatDickosteusoccurs in Caithness in the Thurso Flagstone Group above the Achanarras horizon, apparently replacingCoccosteus, and has a similar range in Orkney.Watsonosteusis characteristic of the Eday Flags. The stratigraphy of the Thurso Flagstone Group is critically reviewed and compared with the Orkney succession; the Ackergill Beds are shown to be the probable lateral equivalents of the Mey Beds, and the consequences of this are examined.

On a Specimen of Eusthenopteron from the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

While examining the collection of Old Red Sandstone fishes in the Royal Scottish Museum, the writer found the frontoethmoid shield of a Crossopterygian fish, from Eoghole, on the Muckle Burn, near the boundary between Elginshire and the county of Nairn. Though imperfect, the skull fragment retains its natural shape, and at once recalled the similar region of Eusthenopteron, from the famous fish-bearing beds of Scaumenac Bay, Province of Quebec, Canada. Further comparison seems to prove the generic identification. The stratigraphical relationships of the find are known with some precision, and the implications are of considerable importance. It is especially opportune that Dr. Erik Jarvik, of Stockholm, has just finished an account of Eusthenopteron species from the Baltic and Russia, with a discussion of the stratigraphy of those localities which yield the fish. Certain features of the Canadian Eusthenopteron are discussed in the present paper for comparison with the Scottish form: this is in no way prejudicial to the monograph on the Scaumenac Bay material, now in preparation by Dr. Jarvik.

XIII.—On some Curious Fossils from the Downtonian and Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

Three curious types of fossil remains, collected by Mr D. Tait of the Geological Survey (Scottish Office), are here described. They are from the Downtonian (Upper Silurian) of Scotland, and are unknown from rocks of a corresponding age in England. The first type described deserves a name as being characteristic of Scottish Downtonian rocks. The other two forms are very rare, the third one described being represented by a single specimen (and counterpart), and the second by two specimens.It should be mentioned that the Geological Survey collection contains a specimen of the first type (designated Taitia catena) from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Tealing Hill, near Dundee. This example (No. T. 1251 h) was presented to the Survey by Mr Macnicol.

XXI.—Contributions to the Study of the Old Red Sandstone Flora of Scotland. III. On Hostimella (Ptilophyton) Thomsoni, and its Inclusion in a New Genus, Milleria. IV. On a Specimen of Protolepidodendron from the Middle Old Red Sandstone of Caithness. V. On the Identification of the Large “Stems” in the Carmyllie Beds of the Lower Old Red Sandstone as Nematophyton

In a preceding paper of this series it was pointed out that the smooth branched axes, which are so common in the Middle Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, cannot be assumed to belong to one kind of plant. They were therefore for convenience referred to as Hostimella sp. It was further shown that three distinct types of sporangia were associated with axes of this general type and, on the characters afforded by the reproductive organs, three species were distinguished. These were provisionally retained under the generic name Hostimella, as H. pinnata, H. globosa, and H. racemosa. In the same paper it was mentioned that the linear bodies borne on the peculiar fossil known as Ptilophyton Thomsoni, Dawson, were almost certainly sporangia. This afforded another reproductive structure borne on a vegetative region, which, if found separately, could only be placed in Hostimella sp. Since, as had been pointed out by Kidston, the generic name Ptilophyton is inadmissible for this fossil, it was placed in the purely provisional genus Hostimella as H. Thomsoni. In the present paper the nature of this interesting member of the Scottish Middle Old Red Sandstone Flora will be more fully considered.

XXIX.—Notes on Fossil Plants from the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. II. Nematophyton Forfarense, Kidston sp. III. On Two Species of Pachytheca (P. media and P. fasciculata) based on the Characters of the Algal Filaments

In 1897, a description was given of a silicified specimen from the Old Red Sandstone of Reswallie near Forfar which was named Cryptoxylon Forfarense. In this note evidence is brought forward for placing the plant in the genus Nematophyton.For an account of the specimen and of its structure reference may be made to the original description and the figures, which are based on photographs. The stem was shown to consist of an apparently parenchymatous tissue, in which groups of smaller cells occurred. These isolated groups form dark spots, which are arranged concentrically in the transverse section and are slightly elongated in the longitudinal direction. In discussing the affinities of the plant it was noted that it appeared to be essentially distinct from Nematophyton, since in that plant the tissue is entirely composed of long tubes.

XX.—Notes on Fossil Plants from the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. I. Hicklingia Edwardi, K. and L.

The unique specimen on which this description is based is in the Geological Department of the Manchester University Museum (No. L. 8549). It is on a slab of dark grey flagstone measuring 26 × 21 cm. from the Hill of Forss, Waas, Caithness, the plant being spread out on the surface of the stone like a very complete herbarium specimen (Plate fig. 1). It was referred to and briefly described, but not named, in 1888 by Mr G. Edward, who discovered it, and from whom it passed with other Old Red Sandstone fossils into the Manchester collections. In his paper, Mr Edward called attention to “three of the largest and most perfect Old Red Fossil Plants that may be seen in any museum in the kingdom,” which he had found during his collecting expeditions extending over some thirty years. Two of the fossil plants he refers to can be identified in the Manchester University Museum. The one we are concerned with here is described as “a lovely bush-like plant with hundreds of ribbon or grass-like leaves that have pod, or pocket, or flower-like terminations.”

III.—On the Occurrence of Haliserites in the Upper Silurian and Upper Devonian Rocks of Victoria, Australia

During the last few years there have passed through my hands for determination many specimens of a twig-like fossil-plant from the highest Silurian flaggy-sandstones of Victoria. These were usually too fragmentary to afford any very decided evidence as to their affinity, although their surfaces showed a close-textured and well-defined structure, referable to that of prosenchymatous wood-cells, and the stem had a definite central vascular axis, such as was first noticed by Hugh Miller in similar fossil remains from the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland.

L.— On the Genera Psilophyton, Lycopodites, Zosterophyllum, and Parka decipiens of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. Their Affinities and Distribution

For many years the flora of the Old Red Sandstone appears to have been much misunderstood. On the one hand, we find Psilophyton—a terrestrial plant—referred by the older geologists to the Algae; while on the other, the more recently established genus Zosterophyllum, of aquatic origin, has been regarded by some palaeobotanists as a species of Psilophyton . Again, Lycopodites of the Caithness flags has been identified with Psilophyton of the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Midland Scotland, though, strange to relate, not a trace of Lycopodites has been met with in the latter rocks. Parka has also been variously regarded by geologists as the fructification of a plant, and the egg-packets of molluscs and crustaceans. As the result, however, of exhaustive microscopical examinations made by Sir William Dawson and Professor Penhallow, we now know that Parka decipiens is a plant, possessing a creeping rhizome, narrow linear leaves, and sporocarp containing spores and prothalli. The recent discovery of sessile fruit in Lycopodites also confirms Salter’s determination (of 1858), with regard to the distinctive character of this genus. Parka is perhaps one of the earliest known plants of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. In 1831 Dr Fleming referred to it as occurring in association with grassy-looking leaves , and compared it with the fruit of Juncus or Sparganium,1 while somewhat later, Hugh Miller figured and described some plant-remains from the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty as fucoids.2 Six figures are given in plate vii. of Miller’s ‶Old Red Sandstone,″ five representing Psilophyton and

The Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

V.—Palæontological Considerations on the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland

However paradoxical it may appear, we have reason to believe that the occurrence of so-called ganoidian fishes—of a freshwater type—in the Old Red Sandstone affords the strongest evidence in favour of its marine origin. That recent representatives of the ganoids of the Old Red Sandstone inhabit rivers and lakes of the globe, is by no means a proof of the fresh-water origin of the latter fishes. The immense interval of time implied by the comparison renders its value somewhat problematical. Sir A. Geikie, in referring to the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, says: “That some of the fishes found their way to the sea, as our modern salmon does, is indicated by the occasional occurrence of their remains among those of the truly marine fauna of the Devonian rocks.”

III.—On the Physical Conditions under which the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland was Deposited

The physical conditions under which the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland was formed is a subject that has long occupied the attention of many of our leading geologists, from the time of Hugh Miller and Sir Roderick Murchison down to those of the present day. It has been variously regarded as of fresh-water and marine origin, as having been thrown down in lakes and in the open sea, or in inlets of the latter. But as yet the whole matter seems to remain an open question, which the unique physical and palæontological elements of the formation make difficult of solution.

Geological Notes

DEVONIAN ROCKS OF BELGIUM.—We have just received the first descriptive memoir issued by the Geological Survey of Belgium. It is a quarto pamphlet of some seventy pages by Prof. Malaise, containing an account of fossiliferous Devonian and Cretaceous localities. The author has been at work collecting his materials for more than twenty years, and he now publishes a list of 173 places in Belgium from which Devonian fossils have been obtained. These places are arranged stratigraphically, and the names of the fossils found at each are given. As a contribution to the local geology of Belgium the pamphlet will doubtless prove of service. It is evidently a piece of laborious and painstaking work, of the kind that ought to precede the broad generalised summaries which the Survey will eventually be able to present for the information of the world. There is attached to it an index map, on which each of the fossiliferous localities is marked with a coloured spot, to which is attached a symbol indicating its geological horizon. Though the map is not, in the ordinary sense, a geological one, it tells its story clearly, and will be a convenient guide to those who purpose to visit the fossiliferous sites among the Belgian Devonian rocks. Prof. Malaise prefixes to his statistics a short introduction, in which he traces the history of Devonian classification in his own country and gives the subdivisions of the Devonian system which his own labours have led him to adopt. He modifies Prof. Gosselet's arrangement, taking the Couvin shales and limestone with Calceola out of the Inferior and placing it in the Middle Devonian group, together with the Givet limestone, but leaving the shales with Spirifer cultrijugatus in the Lower. These shales he regards as containing a fauna transitional between that of the Lower and that of the Middle division of the Devonian system. Prof. Gosselet has observed that if the Couvin limestone is bracketed with that of Givet, we must also place there the limestone of Frasne, as was done by Dumont. But M. Malaise replies that Dumont's classification was founded on mere lithological considerations, and that we can now trace palæontological differences among these subdivisions. It is interesting to observe among his fossils from the Upper Devonian Psammites du Condroz some of the forms which occur in the Barnstaple and Marwood beds of Devonshire, with remains of fishes (Holoptychius nobilissimus) of the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, and of ferns (Palœopteris Hibernica) identical with those of Kiltorcan in Ireland.

On the Discovery of Plants in the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Neighbourhood of Callander

1. Introduction .—Before proceeding to describe the plants from the localities in question, and their geological horizon, we append a brief historical outline of the vegetable remains of the Scotch Old Red Sandstone. The gradually accumulating evidence of a terrestrial flora in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland since the first discovery of plants in that formation by the Rev. Dr. Fleming and Hugh Miller, and the reference of many of them to land rather than aquatic forms, by Charles William Peach, leads all observers interested in the subject to hope that ere long botanists may be in possession of sufficient material to enable them to illustrate the flora of that remote period in a more satisfactory manner than can be done at present, and to restore, in some degree at least, the bygone vegetable organisms which then existed. As a slight contribution to this end, we have now the pleasure of announcing the discovery by one of us (R. L. J.) of land plants in the Old-Red-Sandstone series of the neighbourhood of Callander, during the progress of the Geological Survey of that district under the direction of Prof. Geikie, F.R.S. 2. Bibliography .—One of the earliest notices which has come under our observation is a short paper, in 1811, by the Rev. Mr. Fleming, entitled, ‘A Mineralogical Account of Papa Stour, one of the Zetland Islands’, wherein it is stated that in Bressay, near Lerwick, “the sandstone includes beds of slate-clay, and contains vegetable impressions similar to those common in the

XV. Notes on Glacial Mounds near Balquhidder, Perthshire

In this Paper the author described some remarkable glacial mounds which occur in the neighbourhood of Balquhidder, Perthshire. They had attracted his attention when passing through the district several years ago, and more recently he had had an opportunity of looking at them again. The locality, as the members were aware, is on the line of railway between Callander and Killin. Proceeding from the Bridge of Allan to Callander, we cross the great belt of the old red sandstone of Scotland, deeply covered in many places with till and “upper drift,” and strewn here and there with erratics, some of considerable size. Near Callander we come upon the conglomerate at the base of the system, which extends north-east by Crieff and Dunkeld, and south-west by Aberfoyle, and through Loch Lomond to the Firth of Clyde. Here we observe some well-marked instances of striation. Leaving Callander, we enter the schistose region at the Pass of Leny; and as we pass along the shores of Loch Lubnaig, we see striking examples of ice-work on the hill sides and along the bottom of the valley. From Callander our course has been nearly due north, but at Kingshouse the upper part of Strathyre bends sharply round to the west, extending about two miles in that direction to Balquhidder, at the foot of Loch Voil. This beautiful, lonely lake stretches some four or five miles further west towards the lofty range of mountains, several of them about 3000 feet in height, which forms the watershed