Abstract

The Jarrow fossil assemblage in County Kilkenny preserves, in coal and shale, a rare and diverse fauna of Carboniferous amphibians and fish. At Jarrow we get a rare glimpse of the Carboniferous world, particularly the lush equatorial rainforest swamps, which were teeming with fish and the first backboned animals that ventured onto land. However, despite its significance, this fossil site it is poorly known, likely a result of the poor appearance of the fossils themselves in which bone has been altered and coalified.

This talk will cover three aspects. First, we will look at the different animals that populated the estuaries, rivers and swamps of Carboniferous Kilkenny and that are now preserved at Jarrow. Amphibians from Jarrow will be visualised using a combination of micro-computed tomography and 3D visualisation to investigate their taxonomy and highlight their importance to our understanding of early amphibian evolution and ecology. Second, we will look at the palaeoecology of these animals and the palaeoenvironment in which they lived. Third, we will investigate the unique way in which these animals were preserved and what caused the alteration seen in preserved bone.