Late Triassic of Scotland

The Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation (Late Carnian) of Grampian, Scotland is famous for its reptile fauna. The outcrop is distributed in three fault-bounded blocks at Lossiemouth, Findrassie and Spynie, and in an east-west strip about 2 km south-west of Lossiemouth (Figure 4.12). Finds of reptiles are restricted to several small quarry workings at Spynie and Findrassie and the coast section at Lossiemouth, where finds came from excavations at Lossiemouth East and West Quarries. The largest fauna has been obtained from the last-named sites at Lossiemouth [NJ 236 707] and [NJ 231 704]: the archosaurs Ornithosuchus, Stagonolepis, Scleromochlus, Erpetosuchus and Saltopus (a dinosaur), the rhynchosaur Hyperodapedon, the sphenodontid Brachyrhlnodon and the procolophonid Leptopleuron. Spynie (quarries at [NJ 223 657]) has yielded specimens of Leptopleuron, Hyperodapedon and Ornithosuchus (and doubtfully Stagonolepis and Erpetosuchus), and Findrassie [NJ 207 652], [NJ 204 651] has produced good remains of Ornithosuchus and Stagonolepis. A glacially transported block of reptiliferous Lossiemouth Sandstone on the Hill of Meft, north-west of Urquhart [NJ 268 642], 5 km ESE of Spynie, has yielded a specimen of Leptopleuron, and possibly Stagonolepis scutes (Taylor, 1920). All the reptile-bearing localities can be correlated on the basis of identical reptile assemblages and on lithology, and it is likely that the Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation at Lossiemouth East and West Quarries is the same as that at Spynie and Findrassie. Three locations are selected as GCR sites:

1. Lossiemouth East Quarry [NJ 236 707], Upper Triassic (upper Carnian), Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation.

2. Spynie [NJ 223 657]. Upper Triassic (upper Carnian), Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation.

3. Findrassie [NJ 207 652], [NJ 204 651]. Upper Triassic (upper Carnian), Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation.

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