Ardross Castle
Geological Conservation Review site | GCR #2759 | Palaeontology | Carboniferous - Permian Fish / Amphibia
Scotland's geosites are chosen because of their local, national or international importance. Take only photos, leave only footprints: avoid causing any damage to this site. You can walk almost anywhere in Scotland without the need to ask permission or keep to paths, but you have a responsibility to care for your own safety, to respect people's privacy and peace of mind and to cause no damage.
This site is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage the protected natural features of a SSSI, and this includes unauthorised sample collection.
The right of access does not extend to quarries, building sites or any land where public access is prohibited, or to the collection of geological samples.
Summary
Although fishes from Ardross are rare, the specimens which have been found here are scientifically important and some are unique to the site. Most specimens are complete and are important because they come from a relatively low horizon in the Lower Carboniferous, (the Visean Calciferous Sandstone Measures) so that this plus the slightly older site at Glencartholm have together yielded some of the earliest representatives of several families of fishes eg Rhabdoderma ardrossense, which is unique to this site and is one of two earliest known coelacanths. Eleven species had been described from here, and it is the type locality for five species, and the only known locality for four of these.
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