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The Granton ‘shrimp-bed’, Edinburgh—a Lower Carboniferous Konservat-Lagerstätte

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

D. E. G. Briggs ,
N. D. L. Clark  and
E. N. K. Clarkson
D. E. G. Briggs
Affiliation:
D. E. G. Briggs, Department of Geology, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, England.
N. D. L. Clark
Affiliation:
N. D. L. Clark, Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
E. N. K. Clarkson
Affiliation:
E. N. K. Clarkson, Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, Scotland.
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Abstract

Newly discovered crustaceans from the Granton ‘shrimp-bed’ (Dinantian, Lower Oil Shale Group) are described: Bairdops elegans, Minicaris sp., Palaemysis, Tealliocaris cf. woodwardi, Pseudogalathea ornatissima, Anthracocaris scotica, Paraparchites cf. okeni, Beyrichiopsis plicata, and Eocypridina cf. aciculata, and new observations on Waterstonella grantonensis are reported. Tealliocaris woodwardi alone is recorded from bed o, a level ca 1 m below the ‘shrimp-bed’. The Granton ‘shrimp-bed’ biota is reviewed—the geological and lithological context of the deposit, the distribution and taphonomy of the biota, its life environment, palaeoecology, the likely causes of mortality, and comparisons are made with contemporaneous shrimp biotas. The nature of this unusual Konservat-Lagerstätte reflects conditions in the sheltered, periodically emergent lagoon which it represents.

Keywords

CarboniferousCrustaceaMalacostracaenvironmenttaphonomysalinitybrackish water
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , 1991 , pp. 65 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1991

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