Lepidosauromorph reptiles from the Middle Jurassic of Skye

Abstract

The Middle Jurassic Kilmaluag Formation (previously known as the Ostracod Limestones) of the Great Estuarine Group in Skye, Scotland, has yielded an assemblage of Bathonian terrestrial vertebrates including mammals, tritylodonts, crocodiles and turdes. This paper presents the first description of Jurassic lepidosauromorph reptiles from Scodand. Two genera are represented: a crown-group lizard referable to the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous genus Paramacellodus (Squamata: Scincomorpha) and a stem-group lepidosauromorph, Marmoretta Evans, 1991, first described from the late Bathonian of Kirdington, Oxfordshire. The Skye material of Marmoretta includes the first associated skull and postcranial remains. These confirm the original description and reconstruction, and provide fürther support for a hypothesis of relationship which places Marmoretta as the sister taxon of Lepidosauria.