The ‘Elgin Marvel’ fossil is a block of reddish sandstone containing a natural mould of a skull and jaw of Permian dicynodont found in the Hopeman Sandstone Formation near Elgin, Scotland. According to new research, the specimen belongs to Gordonia traquairi, a species of dicynodont that lived between 254 and 252 million years ago, when Earth was comprised of a single land mass known as Pangea.
An artist’s impression of Gordonia traquairi. Image credit: Scott Reid.
Gordonia traquairi is from an extinct group of species known as dicynodonts, which are characterized by their squat bodies, beak and tusks.
This creature lived relatively soon before the worst mass extinction event in history, the end-Permian extinction (the Great Dying), which occurred about 252 million years ago and eliminated much of life on Earth.
The Elgin Marvel specimen is among the best preserved of a series of fossils collected close to Elgin in the north-east of Scotland.
These are collectively called the Elgin Reptiles, even though some of them, such as Gordonia traquairi, are more closely related to mammals.
In a new study, University of Edinburgh paleontologist Hady George and colleagues carried out micro-CT scans of a cavity formed by the animal in a sandstone rock, before its bones degraded.
Their scans offer a three-dimensional representation of the anatomy of the skull, including details of the brain.
These insights can aid understanding of the animal’s likely behaviors and the biology underlying them, offering clues on the evolution of this and other species.
Gordonia traquairi shares many physical characteristics with similar fossils found in China, indicating that the dicynodonts were diversifying across the globe shortly before the cataclysmic Great Dying.
The Elgin Reptiles represent the only known example of this type of fossil in Western Europe.
The paleontologists hope that the increasing use of micro-CT scanning as a tool to examine fossils in detail, in combination with a trend towards open sharing of data, will offer opportunities to add to the body of knowledge in the discipline.
“The Elgin Marvel is a fascinating fossil of an ancient mammal relative that is among the best preserved of the world-renowned Elgin Reptiles,” Dr. George said.
“These famous fossils were mostly found over a century ago, and it’s only now that new technologies are allowing us to finally reveal them in detail, and glean valuable insights into their skull and brain anatomy as well as their genealogy.”
“As hard as it is to imagine, around 250 million years ago Scotland was a desert covered in sand dunes, and primitive cousins of mammals such as Gordonia had dominion in this world,” said University of Edinburgh’s Professor Steve Brusatte.
“By studying them, we can learn about some of the earliest phases of our own evolution.”
The research is described in a paper in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
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Hady George et al. Micro-CT data reveal new information on the craniomandibular and neuroanatomy of the dicynodont Gordonia (Therapsida: Anomodontia) from the Late Permian of Scotland. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, published online June 18, 2024; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae065
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