The oldest-known air-breathing land animal is the millipede Pneumodesmus newmani, found in the Cowie Harbour Fish Bed at Stonehaven, Scotland. Here we report the youngest, most concordant 238U-206Pb zircon age from ash below the fish bed of 413.7±4.4 Ma (±2σ), whereas the youngest age from a tuffaceous sandstone above the fish bed is statistically indistinguishable at 414.3±7.1 Ma. The Cowie Harbour Fish Bed thus appears to be lowermost Devonian (Lochkovian), contrary to the previously accepted mid-Silurian age based on palynomorphs from adjacent exposures. This has implications for the evolutionary timetable of land colonization, as the Cowie ages overlap late Lochkovian zircon ages reported elsewhere for andesite below the nearby (~50 mi) Rhynie Chert, which has more advanced terrestrial biota. The results postdate the possible late Silurian Ludford Lane locality in Shropshire, England. Pneumodesmus newmani is thus not the earliest air-breathing land animal, unless the Ludford Lane locality is younger than presently assigned.
The Ludlow Bone Bed (Welsh Basin) is a critical stratigraphic horizon and contains a rich assemblage of fish scales. Units above provide insights into the early evolution of animal and plant life. The bed has not yet been radioisotopically dated. Here, we report 207 secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) ages from 102 zircon (ZrSiO4) grains from the Ludlow (n = 2) and stratigraphically higher Downton (n = 1) bone beds. SIMS ages are middle Ordovician (471.6 ± 20.7 Ma) to late Devonian (375.7 ± 14.6 Ma, 238U–206Pb, ±1σ analytical uncertainty). Cathodoluminescence images show that the youngest ages appear affected by alteration. Chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) U–Pb geochronology was utilized to improve precision. Detrital zircon grains from Downton yield 424.91 ± 0.34/0.42/0.63 Ma and from Ludlow 424.85 ± 0.32/0.41/0.62 Ma (n = 5 each, 238U–206Pb, ±2σ analytical, tracer or systematic uncertainty). These ages provide a maximum deposition age. Results overlap the basal Přídolí age (423.0 ± 2.3 Ma) in its stratotype (Požáry Section, Reporyje, Prague, Czech Republic). The Ludlow Bone Bed marks the base of the local Downton Group, which has previously been correlated with the base of the Přídolí Series. The CA-ID-TIMS ages are older than those for other land arthropod-bearing sediments, such as the Cowie Harbour Fish Bed and Rhynie Chert.Supplementary material: An Excel file containing detailed information on the SIMS analyses, a figure showing calibration curves for AS3 standards sputtered over sessions 1 and 2, and a figure showing CA-ID-TIMS U–Pb age data (concordia and weighted mean plots) are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5087031
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