The Palaeoecology of the Top Hosie Shale (Lower Carboniferous) at a Locality Near Kilsyth

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Abstract
Summary: The sizes, conditions of preservation and environment of some 5000 fossils collected from two feet (measured vertically) of a calcareous shale of Lower Carboniferous age are analysed and the lithology of the sediment described. Where possible, the modes of life of the fossil species are determined and ecological comparisons made with related living species. It is shown that many of the fossils are “drift” shells or fragments, which were washed into their present position in the shale. Some shells, however, have maintained the position occupied by the living animal. Two benthonic fossil communities are recognized, comparable with the living benthonic communities described by C. G. J. Petersen ( Rep. Danish Biol. Stat. 1918). A mud-surface community, consisting principally of Posidonia corrugata , arenaceous foraminifera and the ostracod Waylandella cuneola , lived in the relatively quiet depositional environment of the basal four inches of shale. Increase in the strength of currents sweeping the substratum, as evidenced by coarser sediment and shell fragments, is correlated with the disappearance of this community and the introduction of a community of burrowing forms which characterize the following 20 inches of shale. This new community consists chiefly of the burrowers Lingula squamiformis, Nuculopsis gibbosa and Sanguinolites costellatus , certain surface animals more variable in abundance than the burrowers, and a microfauna similar to that of the Posidonia band. I. Introduction The work described in this paper was undertaken in an attempt to elucidate the palaeoecology of benthonic fossil communities, and to gain a better understanding of the depositional environment of

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