A new large embolomere from East Kirkton

Abstract

The well-known late Mississippian/early Carboniferous locality of East Kirkton in Scotland has the earliest described fauna of terrestrial tetrapods. Seven species are now known, represented by articulated skeletons of moderate-sized animals with snout-vent length of up to 200 mm, and each is unique to East Kirkton. Here we describe the skull bones of a much larger tetrapod that closely resembles those of embolomeres from the Pennsylvanian. Although the new material is too incomplete to be named as a new species, it enhances the taxonomic diversity of the East Kirkton tetrapod fauna, predates the embolomeres from other sites in Scotland and extends the range of the group earlier into the Mississippian.