Inverness city centre pavement fossil discovery surprise after Devonian fish remains found on flagstone outside Town House
Ancient fossils that predate the age of the dinosaurs by 140 million years have been found by an eagle-eyed man in the most unlikely of spots - right underneath the feet of Inverness city centre walkers.
James Ryan, who works for the National Trust for Scotland, spotted the surprise fossils embedded in a paving slab right outside Inverness Town House.
And, given his day job involves describing the famous fossil-related exploits of Cromarty’s Victorian geologist Hugh Miller to museum visitors, he was delighted to spot the scattered remains of ancient bony fish while wandering in Inverness.
“These fossils in the paving slab are the remains of ancient fish dating to around 385 million years ago - around 140 million years before the first dinosaur,” he explained.
“Caithness flagstone, of which the pavements in Inverness are made from, was laid down as sediment over a period of thousands of years at the bottom of a giant freshwater lake which stretched from the Moray coast up north to Orkney and Shetland. Today these rocks belong to the Old Red Sandstone formation - it is these rocks and fossils that Hugh Miller studied.”
As far as he is aware the fascinating fossil discovery was not previously known in Inverness - perhaps because without a trained eye most people would not recognise them for what they are.
In the case of the ones outside the Town House, the fossils date from the Devonian period in Earth’s history, and form several darker patches in the flagstone - with some areas containing what James said were large scales belonging to some of the common bony fish of the era, as well as some smaller scales from what was probably a different species.
Elsewhere, the flagstone contained likely bone fragments, and also evidence of a fin spine - a thin structure that forms the front of a dorsal fin.
The fossil remains are likely to prove intriguing for walkers, and it will be little surprise if some enterprising walking tour groups don’t add the spot to their itineraries in future.
But while their discovery was certainly something of a pleasant surprise, James explained that the fossil paving is not a unique phenomenon.
For the Caithness flagstones that paved the Highland capital also helped to pave and roof the world, with shipments out of the county from the fossil-rich Achanarras Quarry, and other locations such as Castletown, famously travelling to the farthest flung corners of the globe.
And ancient remains definitely travelled within those flagstones, for the new Inverness pavement discoveries are not the only such fossils that are known - even closer to home in Scotland.
Glasgow and Edinburgh's paving slabs are also known to have examples of fossils contained within them - with those in the capital being so numerous that the University of Edinburgh has even published tips online about places to go fossil spotting.
But as far as James is aware, his discovery outside the Town House is the first recorded among Inverness’s paving.
James said: “Whilst fossil fish are known in pavements in cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, to my knowledge these fossils [in Inverness[ seem to have gone amiss: I brought them to the attention of a palaeontologist who studies these fossils and they were not aware of them. The staff at Inverness Museum likewise were not aware of these fossils either.”
Who knows how many more are out there? Maybe you’ll be lucky to spot some next time you’re wandering along the city’s paving…
