Puenmodesmus Newmani Fossil & the H B F. EarthCache
Puenmodesmus Newmani Fossil & the H B F.
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The co ordinates will take you to a small parking area where the information can be found. Some of this area is a little uneven, but I feel it is wheelchair accessible, if you think it is not please let me know so I can change the terrain.
Puenmodesmus Newmani Fossil and the Highland Boundary Fault.
There is no doubt that Stonehaven is an outstanding geological location at the eastern end of the Highland Boundary Fault. It is also the place where the fossil of the world's earliest air-breathing creature, the 428 million-year-old Pneumodesmus newmani, was found. Scientists have discovery that life as we know it began in Stonehaven after a fossil picked up in the town last year was confirmed as the oldest air-breathing creature ever discovered. The find is enormously significant because it is the earliest evidence of a creature living on dry land rather than in the oceans. The Stonehaven millipede is 20 million years older than anything previously found on terra firma and has forced scientists to adjust their understanding of when life forms crawled from the sea and land life as we know it began The millipede is less than 1cm long but lived around 420 million years ago, when Aberdeenshire was part of a giant continent spanning the equator
The Highland Boundary Fault is much younger than the Puenmodesmus Newmani, it was formed 390 million years ago and traverses Scotland diagonally from Arran on the south west coast to Stonehaven, on the north east, separating two distinctly different physiographic regions, that is the Highlands from the Midland Valley. To the north and west lie hard Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks of the Dalradian group and to the south and east softer, sedimentary rocks of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, principally the Old Red Sandstone. Stonehaven lies on the Highland Boundary Fault and marks the edge of the Highlands of Scotland . The thin black topsoil of the hills to the North turns into the thick rusting-red loam of the Howe of the Mearns which can be seen in the fields in winter as you approach Stonehaven on the A90 from the south. The best view of the HBF can be gain from the cliffs above. The above information was gleaned from Life on earth began in... Stonehaven (visit link) and The tide height may make these tasks more or less difficult so it may be usefull to look at the tidetable before your visit. (visit link)
In order to claim this Earthcache please answer the following questions.
1. Apart from Puenmodesmus Newmani other fossil specimens can be seen here, they indicate a mixed landscape, name them ?
2. In what and where did Mike Newman find his fossil ?
3. You can observe the Highland Boundary Fault along the foreshore, looking like a ploughed field. In what direction does it run ?
4. Take a photograph of you and or your GPSr with the HBF in view. This element is optional as required in the updated rules. PLEASE EMAIL ANSWERS BEFORE CLAIMING.
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