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ICHTHYOLITES OF THE OLD RED SANDSTONE |
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CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF FOSSIL FISHES IN SCOTLAND
It stands to reason that the local inhabitants of certain ichthyolite rich areas of Scotland must have been aware of the strange 'figured stones' that lay in the rocks around them. Certainly on the continent there seems to have been work done in this field dating back to the fifteenth century. The first evidence of a Scottish fish fossil in a major collection is in 1697 when there is mention of a petrified sharks tooth from East Lothian in the combined collections of Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald. It is almost a century later in 1793 that we see the first published figures of early vertebrates (Rhizodus jaw and teeth of Megalichthys and Petalodus) from the collection of Prof. John Walker. The field then slumbered for another 30 years before exploding into the Murchison and Agassiz era of the 1830's. WORK IN PROGRESS |