Spynie, quarry 2, near Elgin (Triassic to of the United Kingdom)

Also known as Leptopleuron holotype site

Where: Scotland, United Kingdom (57.7° N, 3.3° W: paleocoordinates 34.0° N, 0.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation, Carnian to Carnian (237.0 - 208.5 Ma)

• Age of the Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation is based upon vertebrate biostratigraphy, with comparisons made to the faunal assemblages from the lower part of the Maleri Formation (India), the upper part of the Santa Maria Formation (Brazil) and the Ischigualasto Formation (Argentina). This is suggestive of a late Carnian to early Norian age (Benton & Walker 2011).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: dune; lithified sandstone

• "Foreset analysis indicates a prevailing south-westerly wind forming barchan dunes. Dunes up to 20 m high migrated across the flood plain during arid intervals"
• General description of Lossiemouth Sandstones: "The Lossiemouth Sandstones are white, buff, yellow, or pinkish. Grain size is usually uniform with grains well-rounded. The rock is composed of quartz, feldspar, and rare brownish chert and quartzite. Cements are usually overgrowths of secondary quartz and feldspar, but calcite and fluorspar may also occur. The sandstones may be finely laminated, but more usually they show large-scale cross-beds on well-weathered surfaces. These features, as well as the absence of pebbles, the rarity of micas and heavy minerals, strongly suggest aeolian deposition".

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression

Collected by William Young in 1851; reposited in the BGS

• NMS (also RSM): National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Primary reference: G. A. Mantell. 1852. Description of the Telerpeton elginense and observations on supposed fossil ova of batrachians in the Lower Devonian strata of Forfarshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 8:100-109 [R. Butler/R. Butler]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 89011: authorized by Richard Butler, entered by Richard Butler on 28.04.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Parareptilia - Procolophonidae
"Telerpeton elginense n. gen. n. sp." = Leptopleuron lacertinum
"Telerpeton elginense n. gen. n. sp." = Leptopleuron lacertinum Owen 1851 parareptile
NMS 1891.92.528 (holotype; also the type of L. lacertinum), articulated skull and skeleton; additional BGS specimen