Manse Burn

Also within

Dunbartonshire County

Condition (NatureScot)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Carboniferous · Rock Type: Limestone

Description

Manse Burn Manse Burn, located in the suburb of Bearsden, is of national and international importance as one of the best Carboniferous fossil fish sites in the world, and also as one of the most important fossil shark sites (of any age) in the world. The site has a unique fossil fauna. It is the source of 14 species of fishes, including complete and superb specimens of sharks, and several unique bony fishes. The fauna includes excellent specimens of the shark Stethacanthus with its peculiar dorsal ‘brush organ’; the first complete brayodont from Britain; the first known Carboniferous acanthodian brain-case; the only complete and well preserved specimen of the large chirodontid Chirodus crassus; and eleven new palaeoniscid species, with complete, well preserved specimens of many such as Elonichthys, Rhadinichthys, and Mesopoma. The fossils occur within a sequence of alternating freshwater and marine shales which forms the ‘Shrimp Member’ of the ‘Manse Burn Formation’. Well-preserved fossil fishes of this age (around 328 million years old) are universally rare, and the Bearsden sharks are the best-preserved cartilaginous fishes known from the Palaeozoic, matched only by species from the Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana.