A type of shrimp that died out hundreds of millions of years ago has been declared a new species and a Glaswegian.
The shrimp is believed to have swam in the Carboniferous seas surrounding Glasgow around 333 million years ago.
Its fossil was found at the same world-famous locality where the Bearsden Shark was excavated in the early 1980s.
The shrimp has been given the name Tealliocaris weegie after a scientific paper identified it as a Glaswegian crustacean.
Its authors thought that it would be appropriate to name the new species in honour of the people of Glasgow and the local dialect.
READ MORE: Dundee Contemporary Arts shortlisted for museum of the year
The paper was recently published in the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s journal Earth and Environmental Science Transactions.
Dr Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at The Hunterian and one of the paper’s authors, said: “It is quite rare that any fossil is recognised as a new species and particularly the fossilised remains of a shrimp.
“I am especially proud, as a Glaswegian myself, that we were able to name a fossil shrimp Tealliocaris weegie.
“Named after the people of Glasgow, this must surely be one of the oldest Weegies at over 330 million years old.”
READ MORE: New museum ‘cements legacy’ of George Wyllie in docks where he worked
Dr Andrew Ross, principal curator of palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland and the second author of the paper, said: “This new species of crustacean, along with others collected recently from the Scottish Borders, now in the collections of National Museums Scotland, add to our knowledge of life at the beginning of the Carboniferous, 350-330 million years ago, when back-boned animals were starting to colonise the land.”
Professor Rob Ellam FRSE, emeritus professor at the University of Glasgow and editor of the Earth and Environmental Science Transactions journal, said: “This new species of fossil crustacean is basically a tiny fossil version of what we eat as scampi today.
“This paper goes to show that there is still great science to be done with fossils that can be discovered on our own doorstep.
“Moreover, naming one of the new species T. weegie shows that there is still room in the serious world of professional palaeontology and scientific publishing for a welcome bit of light-hearted Glaswegian banter.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel