The Fish Bed Formation is a geological formation in Scotland, United Kingdom. The fluvial to lacustrine sandstones, shales, siltstones and conglomerates preserve flora, arthropods, among which eurypterids, invertebrates and early fish fossils dating back to the Wenlock epoch of the Silurian period.Fish Bed Formation at Fossilworks.org
Description
The fish beds are contained within red-bed sequences comprising conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones that exhibit sedimentological features suggestive of deposition in terrestrial–fluviatile and lacustrine environments (Bluck 2002). The sporomorph assemblage from the Fish Bed Formation indicates that it is entirely non-marine and was most likely deposited in a relatively permanent lacustrine setting (Wellman and Richardson 1993).Smithy Burn, Hagshaw Hills Inlier at Fossilworks.org
The formation, at the time part of Avalonia, was deposited during the Grampian orogeny.
Fossil content The Fish Bed Formation has provided fossils of:
Fish
Birkenia sp. Lanarkia sp. Lasanius sp.
Arthropods Casiogrammus ichthyerosWilson, 2005
Eurypterids
Lanarkopterus dolichoschelusPlotnick, 1999 Parastylonurus ornatus Hughmilleria sp.
Invertebrates Gastropods Ateleaspis sp.
Flora Plantae indet.
See also List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Scotland
References
Bibliography