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Palaeogeography of tropical seasonal coastal wetlands in northern Britain during the early Mississippian Romer's Gap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2018

David MILLWARD ,
Sarah J. DAVIES ,
Peter J. BRAND ,
Michael A. E. BROWNE ,
Carys E. BENNETT ,
Timothy I. KEARSEY ,
Janet E. SHERWIN  and
John E. A. MARSHALL
David MILLWARD*
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh EH14 4AP, UK. Email: dmill@bgs.ac.uk
Sarah J. DAVIES
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Peter J. BRAND
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh EH14 4AP, UK. Email: dmill@bgs.ac.uk
Michael A. E. BROWNE
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh EH14 4AP, UK. Email: dmill@bgs.ac.uk
Carys E. BENNETT
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Timothy I. KEARSEY
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh EH14 4AP, UK. Email: dmill@bgs.ac.uk
Janet E. SHERWIN
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
John E. A. MARSHALL
Affiliation:
Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
*
*Corresponding author
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Abstract

The lower Mississippian Ballagan Formation of northern Britain is one of only two successions worldwide to yield the earliest known tetrapods with terrestrial capability following the end-Devonian mass extinction event. Studies of the sedimentary environments and habitats in which these beasts lived have been an integral part of a major research project into how, why and under what circumstances this profound step in the evolution of life on Earth occurred. Here, a new palaeogeographic map is constructed from outcrop data integrated with new and archived borehole material. The map shows the extent of a very low-relief coastal wetland developed along the tropical southern continental margin of Laurussia. Coastal floodplains in the Midland Valley and Tweed basins were separated from the marginal marine seaway of the Northumberland–Solway Basin to the south by an archipelago of more elevated areas. A complex mosaic of sedimentary environments was juxtaposed, and included fresh and brackish to saline and hypersaline lakes, a diverse suite of floodplain palaeosols and a persistent fluvial system in the east of the region. The strongly seasonal climate led to the formation of evaporite deposits alternating with flooding events, both meteoric and marine. Storm surges drove marine floods from the SW into both the western Midland Valley and Northumberland–Solway Basin; marine water also flooded into the Tweed Basin and Tayside in the east. The Ballagan Formation is a rare example in the geological record of a tropical, seasonal coastal wetland that contains abundant, small-scale evaporite deposits. The diverse sedimentary environments and palaeosol types indicate a network of different terrestrial and aquatic habitats in which the tetrapods lived.

Keywords

Ballagan Formationcoastal wetlandsMidland Valley of ScotlandpalaeoenvironmentTournaisianTweed Basin
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 109 , Issue 1-2: Fossils, Function and Phylogeny: Papers on Early Vertebrate Evolution in Honour of Professor Jennifer A. Clack , March 2018 , pp. 279 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018 

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