"WWT Caerlaverock WWT Caerlaverock is wetland nature reserve in southwest Scotland, one of nine reserves in Britain operated by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust founded by Sir Peter Scott. It covers a 587 hectare site at Eastpark Farm, on the north shore of the Solway Firth to the south of Dumfries. It is a wild nature reserve with a network of screened approaches and several observation towers. There is a visitor centre and farmhouse accommodation. Caerlaverock is home to one of only two UK populations of the ""living fossil"" ""Triops cancriformis"", the horseshoe shrimp. Almost the entire Svalbard population of"
"legally protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). This species is considered to be one of the oldest living species on the planet at around 200 million years old. Fossils of this species from the Upper Triassic (Norian) period appear virtually unchanged compared to modern day members of the species. ""Triops cancriformis"" has a very fast life cycle, and individuals become mature in about two weeks after hatching. Their populations can be gonochoric, hermaphroditic or androdioecious. The latter is a very rare reproductive mode in animals, in which populations are made of hermaphrodites, with"
"fossil from , ""Rhyniella praecursor"", is the oldest terrestrial arthropod, and was found in the famous Rhynie chert of Scotland. Given its morphology resembles extant species quite closely, the radiation of the Hexapoda can be situated in the Silurian, or more. Fossil collembola are rare. Instead, most are found in amber. Even these are rare and many amber deposits carry few or no collembola. The best deposits are from the early Eocene of Canada and Europe, Miocene of Central America, and the mid-Cretaceous of Burma and Canada. They display some unusual characteristics: first, all but one of the fossils from"
"Plesiadapis Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal genera which existed about 55–58 million years ago in North America and Europe. ""Plesiadapis"" means ""near-Adapis"", which is a reference to the lemuriform of the Eocene period, ""Adapis"". ""Plesiadapis tricuspidens"", the type specimen, is named after the three cusps present on its upper incisors. The first discovery of ""Plesiadapis"" was made by François Louis Paul Gervaise in 1877, who first discovered ""Plesiadapis tricuspidens"" in France. The type specimen is MNHN Crl-16, and is a left mandibular fragment dated to the early Eocene epoch. This genus probably arose in North America"
"range of this characteristically Middle Devonian fish by occurring in the middle of the Senecan Series or middle Frasnian. The ""Asterolepis"" of Stromness is believed to be the oldest organism discovered in the most ancient geological system of Scotland. Several species within the genus have been described: ""Asterolepis concatenata"", ""Asterolepis maximus"", ""Asterolepis ornata"", ""Asterolepis verrucosa"", ""Asterolepis estonica"", ""Asterolepis chadwiki"", ""Asterolepis cornutus"", ""Asterolepis dellei"", ""Asterolepis essica"", ""Asterolepis radiata"", and ""Asterolepis sysasiensis"". Asterolepis has two sister taxa, ""Microbrachium"" and ""Pterichthys"". Both sister taxa are also carnivores and ""Pterichtyhs"" is similarly blind. Taxa considered to be sisters to ""Asterolepis"" are ""Microbrachium"" and ""Pterichthys."""
"of the Paleozoic Era (570–248 million years ago) with other primitive arthropods like the trilobites. The four species of horseshoe crab are the only remaining members of the Xiphosura, one of the oldest classes of marine arthropods. The extinct diminutive horseshoe crab, ""Lunataspis aurora"", from head to tail-tip, has been identified in 445-million-year-old Ordovician strata in Manitoba. Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as living fossils, as they have changed little in the last 445 million years. Forms almost identical to this species were present during the Triassic period 230 million years ago, and similar species were present in the"
"the earliest lissamphibians. Triadobatrachus Triadobatrachus is an extinct genus of salientian frog-like amphibians, including only one known species, ""Triadobatrachus massinoti"". It is the oldest member of the frog lineage known, and an excellent example of a transitional fossil. It lived during the Early Triassic about 250 million years ago, in what is now Madagascar. ""Triadobatrachus"" was long, and still retained many primitive characteristics, such as possessing at least 26 vertebrae, where modern frogs have only four to nine. At least 10 of these vertebrae formed a short tail, which the animal may have retained as an adult. It probably swam"
"Scelidosaurus Scelidosaurus (; with the intended meaning of ""limb lizard"", from Greek ""skelis""/σκελίς meaning 'rib of beef' and ""sauros""/σαυρος meaning 'lizard') is a genus of herbivorous armoured ornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic of England. ""Scelidosaurus"" lived during the Early Jurassic Period, during the Sinemurian to Pliensbachian stages around 191 million years ago. This genus and related genera at the time lived on the supercontinent Laurasia. Its fossils have been found near Charmouth in Dorset, England, and are known for their excellent preservation. ""Scelidosaurus"" has been called the earliest complete dinosaur. It is the most completely known dinosaur of the British"
"contain the oldest known terrestrial animals, and Arthropleuridea, which contain the largest known land invertebrates. The earliest known land creature, ""Pneumodesmus newmani"", was a long archipolypodan that lived 428 million years ago in the upper Silurian, and has clear evidence of spiracles (breathing holes) attesting to its air-breathing habits. During the Upper Carboniferous (), ""Arthropleura"" became the largest known land-dwelling invertebrate on record, reaching lengths of at least . Millipedes also exhibit the earliest evidence of chemical defence, as some Devonian fossils have defensive gland openings called ozopores. Millipedes, centipedes, and other terrestrial arthropods attained very large sizes in comparison"
"Pneumodesmus Pneumodesmus newmani is a species of millipede that lived in the Paleozoic. Its exact age is uncertain. It was originally interpreted as living , in the Late Silurian; however, the study conducted by Suarez ""et al."" (2017) indicates that it actually lived in the Early Devonian (Lochkovian). It is the first myriapod, and the oldest known creature to have lived on land. It was discovered in 2004, and is known from a single specimen from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The fossil of ""P. newmani"" was found by Mike Newman, a bus driver and amateur palaeontologist from Aberdeen, in a layer"
"250 million years old, while most other reptile fossils are found in the early Triassic rocks of Lossiemouth, Spynie and Findrassie, and are about 220 million years old. The fossils are “recognised” by the Scottish Government as a Collection of National Significance. Many of the type and significant specimens are on display, with more fossils and archives in the collection at Elgin Museum, available for study and research. More recent fossil discoveries from Elgin have been footprints, with over 200 found prior to 1997. These range in size from 0.5 cm to 24 cm wide, and most belong to therapsids."
"Trix (dinosaur) Trix is a ""Tyrannosaurus rex"" specimen excavated in 2013 in Montana, USA by a team of paleontologists from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden in the Netherlands. It is the oldest known ""Tyrannosaurus"" specimen, with an age of more than thirty years, and has been considered the third most complete tyrannosaurus found, with between 75% to 80% of its bone volume recovered. The specimen was named Trix after the Dutch former Queen Beatrix and is the only ""Tyrannosaurus"" specimen on permanent exhibit in mainland Europe. In 2012, Naturalis Biodiversity Center at Leiden, the largest natural history museum of"
"years later. Fossilized footprints found in New Brunswick have been attributed to ""Hylonomus"", at an estimated age of 315 million years. This animal was discovered by John William Dawson in the mid-19th century. The species' name was given it by Dawson's teacher, the geologist Sir Charles Lyell. While it has traditionally been included in the group Protothyrididae, later studies have shown that it is probably more closely related to diapsids. ""Hylonomus lyelli"" was named the Provincial Fossil of Nova Scotia in 2002. Hylonomus Hylonomus (; ""hylo-"" ""forest"" + ""nomos"" ""dweller"") is an extinct genus of reptile that lived 312 million"
"and allowing the desertification characteristic of the Permian. Arthropleura Arthropleura (Greek for ""jointed ribs"") is a genus of extinct millipede arthropods that lived in what is now northeastern North America and Scotland around 315 to 299 million years ago, during the late Carboniferous Period. The larger species of the genus are the largest known land invertebrates of all time, and would have had few, if any, predators. ""Arthropleura"" species ranged in length from and a width up to . ""Arthropleura"" was able to grow larger than modern arthropods, partly because of the greater partial pressure of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere"
"of a prehistoric kangaroo. It was not until more postcranial elements were found did anyone realize that ""Palorchestes"" was actually a different kind of diprotodontid, and not a kangaroo. Palorchestes Palorchestes ('ancient leaper or dancer') is an extinct genus of terrestrial herbivorous marsupial of the family Palorchestidae. The genus was endemic to Australia, living from the Late Miocene subepoch through the Pleistocene epoch (around 11.6 mya – 11,000 years ago), and thought to be in existence for approximately . One species, ""Palorchestes azael"", was almost as large as a horse, being around in length with a weight of about ,"
"Triceratops Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago (mya) in what is now North America. It is one of the last known non-avian dinosaur genera, and became extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. The name ""Triceratops"", which literally means ""three-horned face"", is derived from the Ancient Greek words τρί- (""tri-"") meaning ""three"", κέρας (""kéras"") meaning ""horn"", and ὤψ (""ōps"") meaning ""face"". It has been documented by numerous remains collected since the genus was first described in 1889,"
"species are known from the Cenozoic, three from the Mesozoic, and at least seven from the Paleozoic. The 410-million-year-old ""Eophalangium sheari"" is known from two specimens, one a female, the other a male. The female bears an ovipositor and is about long, whilst the male had a discernable penis. Whether both specimens belong to the same species is not definitely known. They have long legs, tracheae, and no median eyes. Together with the 305-million-year-old ""Hastocularis argus"", it forms the suborder Tetrophthalmi. ""Brigantibunum listoni"" from East Kirkton near Edinburgh in Scotland is almost 340 million years old. Its placement is rather"
"a small proportion of males. Due to this lack of males, early researchers thought Triops were parthenogenetic. The presence of testicular lobes scattered amongst their ovaries confirmed they were in fact hermaphroditic. Fertilized females or hermaphrodites produce diapausing eggs or cysts, able to survive decades in the sediment of the ponds and lakes they inhabit. These eggs are resistant to drought and temperature extremes. In 1801, Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc made the first officially recognised species description of ""Triops cancriformis"". He named this species ""Apus cancriformis"". Other authors used the name ""Apus cancriformis"" over the years but often with the"
"of moth fossils. Yet there are fossils, some preserved in amber and some in very fine sediments. Leaf mines are also seen in fossil leaves, although the interpretation of them is tricky. Putative fossil stem group representatives of Amphiesmenoptera (the clade comprising Trichoptera and Lepidoptera) are known from the Triassic. Previously, the earliest known lepidopteran fossils were three wings of ""Archaeolepis mane"", a primitive moth-like species from the Jurassic, about , found in Dorset, UK, which show scales with parallel grooves under a scanning electron microscope and a characteristic wing venation pattern shared with Trichoptera (caddisflies). In 2018, the discovery"
"as 20 years before beginning their development and consuming the spider. One female trapdoor spider, first recorded in a survey in 1974 in Western Australia, is known to have lived for 43 years. ""Megarachne servinei"" was thought to be a giant mygalomorph from the Upper Carboniferous (ca. 350 million years ago), but was later found to be an eurypterid. Thus, the oldest known mygalomorph is ""Rosamygale grauvogeli"" (Hexathelidae) from the Triassic of north-east France. No mygalomorphs from the Jurassic have yet been found. The number of families and their relationships have both been undergoing substantial changes since a cladogram showing"
"Crassigyrinus Crassigyrinus (meaning ""thick tadpole"") is an extinct genus of carnivorous stem tetrapod from the Early Carboniferous of Scotland and possibly Greer, West Virginia. The type specimen was originally described as ""Macromerium scoticum"" and lacked a complete skull. With subsequent discoveries, ""Crassigyrinus"" is now known from three skulls, one of which is in articulation with a fairly complete skeleton, and two incomplete lower jaws. ""Crassigyrinus"" grew up to 2 meters in length, coupled with tiny limbs and unusually large jaws. ""Crassigyrinus"" is taxonomically enigmatic, having confused paleontologists for decades with its apparent fish-like and tetrapod features. It was traditionally placed"
"other genus of Notostraca, ""Lepidurus"", by the form of the telson (the end of its 'tail'), which bears only a pair of long, thin caudal extensions in ""Triops"", while ""Lepidurus"" also bears a central platelike process. Only 24 hours after hatching they already resemble miniature versions of the adult form. ""Triops"" are sometimes called ""living fossils,"" since fossils attributable to this genus have been found in rocks of Carboniferous age, an estimated , and one extant species, ""Triops cancriformis"", has hardly changed since the Jurassic period (approximately ). ""Triops"" can be found in Africa, Australia, Asia, South America, Europe (including"
"Jason Dunlop. One of the most recently discovered chasmataspid to be recognised is ""Loganamaraspis dunlopi"" from a famous Silurian fossil locality near Lesmahagow in Scotland. Described by Erik Tetlie and Simon Braddy, it was placed in Diploaspididae, but interpreted as being somewhat more intermediate in form between the ""Chasmataspis"" and ""Diploaspis"" body plans. The order contains:<br> †Chasmataspidida Chasmataspidida Chasmataspidida (often referred to informally as ""chasmataspids"") is an extinct group of rare chelicerate arthropods. Chasmataspids are probably related to horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) and/or sea scorpions (Eurypterida). The first species to be discovered were thought to be unusual fossil horseshoe crabs, while"
"Triadobatrachus Triadobatrachus is an extinct genus of salientian frog-like amphibians, including only one known species, ""Triadobatrachus massinoti"". It is the oldest member of the frog lineage known, and an excellent example of a transitional fossil. It lived during the Early Triassic about 250 million years ago, in what is now Madagascar. ""Triadobatrachus"" was long, and still retained many primitive characteristics, such as possessing at least 26 vertebrae, where modern frogs have only four to nine. At least 10 of these vertebrae formed a short tail, which the animal may have retained as an adult. It probably swam by kicking its"
"320–310 million years ago, in the swamps of the late Carboniferous period, when the first reptiles evolved from advanced reptiliomorph labyrinthodonts. The oldest known animal that may have been an amniote, a reptile rather than an amphibian, is ""Casineria"" (though it has also been argued to be a temnospondyl amphibian). A series of footprints from the fossil strata of Nova Scotia, dated to 315 million years, show typical reptilian toes and imprints of scales. The tracks are attributed to ""Hylonomus"", the oldest unquestionable reptile known. It was a small, lizard-like animal, about 20 to 30 cm (8–12 in) long, with"
"is believed to have evolved from ""Dinohippus"" via the intermediate form ""Plesippus"". One of the oldest species is ""Equus simplicidens"", described as zebra-like with a donkey-shaped head. The oldest fossil to date is ~3.5 million years old from Idaho, USA. The genus appears to have spread quickly into the Old World, with the similarly aged ""Equus livenzovensis"" documented from western Europe and Russia. Molecular phylogenies indicate the most recent common ancestor of all modern equids (members of the genus ""Equus"") lived ~5.6 (3.9–7.8) mya. Direct paleogenomic sequencing of a 700,000-year-old middle Pleistocene horse metapodial bone from Canada implies a more"
"Archipolypoda Archipolypoda is an extinct group of millipedes known from fossils in Europe and North America and containing the earliest known land animals. The Archipolypoda was erected by Scudder (1882) but redefined in 2005 with the description of several new species from Scotland. Distinguishing characteristics include relatively large eyes with densely packed ocelli (sometimes interpreted as compound eyes), and modified leg pairs on the 8th body ring. Some species had prominent spines while others had a flattened appearance. The Archipolypoda as currently recognized consists of four orders, many with monotypic families and genera, as well as five species of uncertain"
"stretches back some 12 million years or so. A considerable number of prehistoric species are known, with the oldest, ""Grus miocaenicus"" (Middle Miocene of Credinţa, Romania) perhaps not a crane but a junior synonym of the swimming-flamingo ""Palaelodus ambiguus""; (""""Grus"" problematica"" certainly is). The Late Pleistocene Mediterranean ""Grus primigenia"" was hunted by Stone Age humans. Several other fossil gruiforms are now considered not to belong here. """"Grus"" prentici"" is now in ""Paragrus"", """"Grus"" princeps"", """"Grus"" excelsa"" and """"Grus"" hordwellianus"" are placed in ""Palaeogrus"", and """"Grus"" excelsa"" in ""Balearica"". """"Grus"" marshi"" belongs in ""Aletornis"". More uncertain is the position of ""Probalearica"""
"vertebrate on land, ""Tiktaalik"", is 50 million years younger than ""Pneumodesmus"". During the Silurian, the rocks that would later be part of Scotland were being laid down on the continent of Laurentia, in a tropical part of the Southern Hemisphere. Pneumodesmus Pneumodesmus newmani is a species of millipede that lived in the Paleozoic. Its exact age is uncertain. It was originally interpreted as living , in the Late Silurian; however, the study conducted by Suarez ""et al."" (2017) indicates that it actually lived in the Early Devonian (Lochkovian). It is the first myriapod, and the oldest known creature to have"
"However, others have cast doubt on this assignment and even the validity of ""Sarcolestes"". Sarcolestes Sarcolestes (meaning ""flesh robber"") is an extinct genus of ankylosaurian ornithischian dinosaur from the Oxford Clay of England. The current type and only species is S. leedsi, and the holotype is a single partial left mandible. The genus and species were named in 1893 by Richard Lydekker, who thought they belonged to a theropod. ""Sarcolestes"" was first named in 1893 by Richard Lydekker, and its type species was designated as ""S. leedsi"". The specific name was to honour Alfred Nicholson Leeds, the discoverer of the"
"a distinct family, Spathicephalidae. The analysis also found ""Eucritta melanolimnetes"", an older species from the Viséan stage of Scotland, to be the most basal member of Baphetoidea. Below is a cladogram showing the results of their analysis: The enigmatic Carboniferous tetrapod species ""Doragnathus woodi"" may be related to ""Spathicephalus"". In two papers published in 1993 and 1994, Russian paleontologist O. A. Lebedev proposed that ""Doragnathus"" was a junior synonym of ""Spathicephalus"". ""Doragnathus woodi"", named by Smithson in 1980 from the Dora Open Cast Mine in Fife, Scotland (the same mine where paleontologist Stanley P. Wood discovered remains of ""S. mirus""),"
"Arthropleura Arthropleura (Greek for ""jointed ribs"") is a genus of extinct millipede arthropods that lived in what is now northeastern North America and Scotland around 315 to 299 million years ago, during the late Carboniferous Period. The larger species of the genus are the largest known land invertebrates of all time, and would have had few, if any, predators. ""Arthropleura"" species ranged in length from and a width up to . ""Arthropleura"" was able to grow larger than modern arthropods, partly because of the greater partial pressure of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere at that time and because of the lack"
"of synonymy to support it. This was in a taxonomic review of the Notostraca that also supported using the genus name ""Triops"" instead of ""Apus"". In 1958, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) recognised the name ""Triops cancriformis"" (Bosc, 1801–1802) (ICZN name no. 1476) as officially the oldest. They also recognised the genus name ""Triops"" Schrank instead of ""Apus"". They followed Longhurst in these decisions. Although members of the genus ""Triops"" usually have no economic importance, the Beni-kabuto ebi albino variant of ""Triops cancriformis"" has been used to control mosquitoes and weeds in Asian rice fields. ""Triops cancriformis"" is"