Type Formation Region Scotland | Country United Kingdom | |
The Kilmaluag Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bathonian, in the Middle Jurassic period. It is part of the Great Estuarine Series of the Hebrides Basin, a series of sediments laid down when the Scottish Hebrides consisted of islands in a semi-tropical sea.
The Kilmaluag Formation is composed of limestones and mudstones, indicating that it alternated between a shallow marine environment, and lagoonal mudflats, as sea levels rose and fell, and the basin subsided. These mudflats sometimes dried out to form desiccation cracks.
Many microvertebrate fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, and it has been explored by palaeontologists since the 1970s, when the mammal palaeontologist Robert Savage visited. He and Michael Waldman named two new species from the area: the Docodont Borealestes serendipitus, and the tritylodontid, Stereognathus hebridicus. Many other fossils are found in the Kilmaluag, including members of other Mesozoic mammal groups, turtles, reptiles, and amphibians.