A new terrestrial millipede fauna of earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) age from southeastern Scotland helps fill ‘Romer's Gap'

Ross, Andrew; Edgecombe, Gregory D; Clark, Neil D L; Bennett, Carys E; Carrià³, Vicen; Contreras-Izquierdo, Rubén; Crighton, Bill

A new terrestrial millipede fauna of earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) age from southeastern Scotland helps fill ‘Romer's Gap'

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Ross, Andrew

Edgecombe, Gregory D

Clark, Neil D L

Bennett, Carys E

Carrià³, Vicen

ORCID

Contreras-Izquierdo, Rubén

Crighton, Bill

Date published

July 16, 2018

Abstract

A diverse millipede (diplopod) fauna has been recovered from the earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) Ballagan Formation of the Scottish Borders, discovered by the late Stan Wood. The material is generally fragmentary; however, six different taxa are present based on seven specimens. Only one displays enough characters for formal description and is named Woodesmus sheari Ross, Edgecombe & Clark gen. & sp. nov. The absence of paranota justifies the erection of Woodesmidae fam. nov. within the Archipolypoda. The diverse fauna supports the theory that an apparent lack of terrestrial animal fossils from ‘Romer's Gap' was due to a lack of collecting and suitable deposits, rather than to low oxygen levels as previously suggested.