Kilmaluag Formation
| Kilmaluag Formation Stratigraphic range: Middle Jurassic ~166.5 myo |
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|---|---|
| Type | Formation |
| Underlies | Skudiburgh Formation |
| Overlies | Duntulm Formation |
| Location | |
| Region | Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Extent | Throughout Inner Hebrides, inclduing Isle of Skye, Isle of Muck, and Isle of Eigg |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Kilmaluag Bay in the North of Skye |
The Kilmaluag Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back around 165 million years to the Bathonian, in the Middle Jurassic Period. It is part of the Great Estuarine Group of the Hebrides Basin, a series of sediments laid down when the Scottish Hebrides was part of a warm shallow sea running between what is now mainland Scotland the Outer Hebrides.
The Kilmaluag Formation is composed of dolomitised limestones, fine grain sandstones, and mudstones, indicating that it alternated between a shallow marine environment, and lagoonal mudflats as the basin subsided and rose, causing sea levels to fluctuate. These mudflats sometimes dried out to form desiccation cracks. The Kilmaluag is unusual among the Estuarine Group for the freshwater environment it preserves - whereas many other Formations in this group are predominantly brackish to marine in nature. In many beds you can find freshwater gastropods and bivalves including Viviparus and Unio, and freshwater ostracods such as Darwinula.
Many microvertebrate fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, and it has been explored by palaeontologists since the 1970s, when the mammal palaeontologist Robert Savage visited on the advice of his friend, Michael Waldman. Savage and Waldman named two new species from the area: the Docodont Borealestes serendipitus, and the tritylodontid, Stereognathus hebridicus (although S. hebridicus has been suggested to be a junior synonym to S. ooliticus). Many other fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, including members of other Mesozoic mammal groups, turtles, reptiles, and amphibians. The most recent discoveries in the Kilmaluag Formation include Palaeoxonodon ooliticus and Wareolestes rex.
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