Also known as Isle of Eigg

Where: Scotland, United Kingdom (56.9° N, 6.1° W)

• Paleocoordinates: 40.7° N, 15.8° E (Wright 2013)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Lealt Shale Formation (Great Estuarine Group), Bathonian (168.3 - 166.1 Ma)

• "When Miller made his collections little was known about the Jurassic stratigraphy of Eigg. The first reasonably modern account of this was by Judd (1878), who introduced the name Great Estuarine Series for the Middle Jurassic rocks but did not mention the Reptile Bed. Miller's localities were re-discovered by the Geological Survey, and a few vertebrate fossils were collected which add little to Miller's collection. The Reptile Bed was referred to the Lower Shales of Barrow's local succession in the Great Estuarine Series. Lists of invertebrate fossils from the Reptile Bed and associated beds were given for the first time; they were referred to as from the 'reptile bed', the 'fish bed', etc. but no measured section was given to identify the sequence of these named beds (Barrow 1908). Hudson (1962a) published a general account of the stratigraphy of the Great Estuarine Series which showed that its age is Upper Bajocian and Bathonian. Barrow's Lower Shales were shown to be the equivalents of the Estheria Shales of Skye. The outcrop north of Kildonan, which contains the Reptile Bed, was chosen as the type locality of the Mytilus Shales, a lower subdivision (or member) of the Estheria Shales."

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal; lithified, shelly/skeletal, gray limestone

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by H. Miller; J. D. Hudson, B. H. Newman in 1844; 1959–1961; reposited in the BMNH

Collection methods: surface (float),

Primary reference: J. D. Hudson. 1966. Hugh Miller's reptile bed and the Mytilus shales, Middle Jurassic, Isle of Eigg, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 2(3):265-281 [M. Carrano/H. Street]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 105872: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Hallie Street on 26.02.2011, edited by Matthew Carrano

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)