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Canty Bay, East Lothian
Leaders: Dr Tom Challands, Stephen McDonald, Alison McInnes, John Wrench
‘Romer’s Gap’ was considered to be a hiatus in the fossil record of tetrapods in the Lower Carboniferous. The recent TW:eed project demonstrated a high diversity of tetrapods and other vertebrate groups in this time period.
This trip visits a new vertebrate fossil site at the very end of Romer’s Gap. Canty Bay preserves the uppermost Ballagan Formation dominated by semi-arid flood-plain sediments punctuated by conglomerate-filled channels. An active landslip situated next to the Drift café has recently exposed further flood-plain mudstones and siltstone yielding numerous vertebrate ‘bone beds’. The sections represent a dynamic sedimentary environment with a vertebrate fauna that is providing insight into this key stage of vertebrate evolution.