Devonian tetrapods (limbed vertebrates), known from an increasingly large number of localities, have been shown to be mainly aquatic with many primitive features. In contrast, the postDevonian record is marked by an Early Mississippian temporal gap ranging from the earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian and early Viséan) to the mid-Viséan. By the mid-Viséan, tetrapods had become effectively terrestrial as attested by the presence of stem amniotes, developed an essentially modern aspect, and given rise to the crown group. Up to now, only two localities have yielded tetrapod specimens from the Tournaisian stage: one in Scotland with a single articulated skeleton and one in Nova Scotia with isolated bones, many of uncertain identity. We announce a series of discoveries of Tournaisian-age localities in Scotland that have yielded a wealth of new tetrapod and arthropod fossils. These include both terrestrial and aquatic forms and new taxa. We conclude that the gap in the fossil record has been an artifact of collection failure.Ballagan Formation | end-Devonian mass extinction | terrestriality | rhizodonts | lungfish

The Foulden Site of Special Scientific Interest is one of the few Cementstone Group localities that yields significant fauna and flora. Excavations in 1980 and 1981 removed a 1·3 m2 slab of the Fish Bed for laboratory study of the vertical and spatial distribution of the biota. Layer by layer analysis revealed an almost mutually exclusive relationship between the vertical distribution of the palaeoniscoid fishes and malacostracan crustaceans, as well as a horizon crowded with juvenile acanthodians. Elongate elements of this biota showed slight preferred orientations at that prolific horizon. Some 27 m of strata including the Fish Bed, Plant Bed and Shell Bed are recorded in detail, and their biota noted. Interim results of work on the main groups collected are summarised in associated papers in this part of Transactions. Brief reports are given here on the euryhaline marine bivalve mollusc Modiolus latus (Portlock), a rare durophagous bradyodont shark tooth and an Eogyrinus-like amphibian scute.