Kilmaluag Formation

Kilmaluag Formation
Stratigraphic range: Jurassic
Type Formation
Location
Region Scotland
Country United Kingdom

The Kilmaluag Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bathonian, in the Middle Jurassic period. It is part of the Great Estuarine Series of the Hebrides Basin, a series of sediments laid down when the Scottish Hebrides consisted of islands in a semi-tropical sea.[1]

The Kilmaluag Formation is composed of limestones and mudstones, indicating that it alternated between a shallow marine environment, and lagoonal mudflats, as sea levels rose and fell, and the basin subsided.[2] These mudflats sometimes dried out to form dessication cracks.

Many microvertebrate fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, and it has been explored by palaeontologists since the 1970s, when the mammal palaeontologist Robert Savage visited. He and Michael Waldman named two new species from the area: the Docodont Borealestes serendipitus, and the tritylodontid, Stereognathus hebridicus.[3] Many other fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, including members of other Mesozoic mammal groups, turtles, reptiles, and amphibians.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Andrews, J. E. 1985 The sedimentary facies of a late Bathonian regressive episode: the Kilmaluag and Skudiburgh Formations of the Great Estuarine Group, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 142, 1119-37.
  2. ↑ Barron, A. J. M., Lott, G. K. and Riding, J. B. 2012 Stratigraphical framework for the Middle Jurassic strata of Great Britain and the adjoining continental shelf. British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/11/06. British Geological Survey, Keyworth
  3. ↑ Waldman, M and Savage, R.J.G 1972 The first Jurassic mammal from Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 128:119-125


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