Lossiemouth Sandstone

The Lossiemouth Sandstone is a Middle to Late Triassic (Ladinian to Norian) age geological formation. It is exposed on the south side of the Moray Firth near Lossiemouth and near Golspie in Sutherland.^[1] Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.^[2]

Lossiemouth Sandstone
Stratigraphic range: Carnian–Rhaetian ~237–201.3 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	New Red Sandstone Supergroup
Underlies	Stotfield Cherty Rock Formation
Overlies	Burghead Sandstone Formation or unconformably on Devonian beds
Thickness	up to 30 m (98 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone
Location
Coordinates	57.7°N 3.3°W / 57.7; -3.3
Approximate paleocoordinates	34.0°N 0.9°W / 34.0; -0.9
Region	Moray Firth
Country	Scotland
Type section
Named for	Lossiemouth
Lossiemouth Sandstone (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom Lossiemouth Sandstone (Scotland) Show map of Scotland

Fossil content

Vertebrates reported from the Lossiemouth Sandstone
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Dasygnathoides	D. longidens				Nomen dubium
Brachyrhinodon	B. taylori				A rhynchocephalian
Erpetosuchus	E. granti				A Pseudosuchian
Hyperodapedon	H. gordoni				A rhynchosaur
Leptopleuron	L. lacertinum				A procolophonid
Ornithosuchus	O. woodwardi				An ornithosuchid
	O. taylori				Junior synonym of O. woodwardi
Saltopus[3]	S. elginensis[3]			"Partial postcranial skeleton"[3]	A dinosauriform previously classified as a specimen of Leptopleuron
Scleromochlus	S. taylori				A possible avemetatarsalian
Stagonolepis	S. robertsoni				An aetosaur
Telerpeton	T. elginense				Junior synonym of Leptopleuron

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
  • List of stratigraphic units with indeterminate dinosaur fossils
• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Scotland
• Ischigualasto Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin, Argentina
• Candelária Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of the Paraná Basin in southeastern Brazil
• Molteno Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of the Karoo Basin in southern Africa
• Fremouw Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Antarctica

References

1. British Geological Survey. "Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units.
2. Weishampel et al., 2004, "Dinosaur distribution." pp.517-607
3. "Table 2.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 26.

Bibliography

• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (2004), The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–880, ISBN 0-520-24209-2, retrieved 21 February 2019

Further reading

• M. J. Benton and P. S. Spencer. 1995. Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain. Chapman & Hall, London 1–386
• R. L. Paton. 1975. A Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrates in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. Part Four / Amphibia & Reptilia. Royal Scottish Museum Information Series. Geology 5 1–38
• G. Tresise and W. A. S. Sarjeant. 1997. The Tracks of Triassic Vertebrates: Fossil Evidence from North-West England. 1-204