Born Stanley Wood in Edinburgh, 1939, Wood left school aged 14 to work as a dockyard apprentice at Leith Harbour during a period of severe economic hardship, when Leith had acquired the reputation as one of the roughest neighbourhoods in post-war Britain.[2] Wood could put his hand to many things and served in the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer for a time, before being assigned to work for Brown Brothers, an engineering company.[3] He was encouraged to consider white-collar work and changed career to sell insurance with the Prudential.[4]
As a boy, Wood had been fascinated by Roman Britain, and was convinced that he could calculate the existence of "missing" Roman forts along the Antonine Wall but it wasn't long before he discovered he could also find "missing" fossil fish from rock strata even closer to home.[5] At the age of 29, with no training but with a natural enthusiast's eye for detail, Wood spent two years scouring the Wardie coastline for fossils but with no success. He made contact with the Royal Scottish Museum and found out that he had been looking at the wrong rock-type. Lesson learned, Wood started to build his own carefully curated collection of fossil fish.[6] He trained himself to recognise the signs for the presence of fossil fish at outcrop by visiting localities made famous by nineteenth century fossil hunters.[7] This paid off with his first significant discovery in 1971 and over the next few years, he amassed a valuable collection, which he sold to the museum, supplementing his income as an insurance salesman.
In 1974, Wood struck out at a new locality when he read that a new opencast coal mine was planned in Fife, convincing the National Coal Board to allow him on site to hunt for fossils. The following year, he uncovered a rich bone bed at the mine, which contained the first Carboniferoustetrapods to be discovered in the UK for almost 100 years. Wood convinced the contractor to interrupt their work and carefully strip a layer over 600m², bagging more than three tons of bone bed over a few weeks.[8] The resultant research material included rare discoveries, initiated a string of new Ph.Ds from Newcastle University, which gave Wood the recognition he needed to initiate projects at scale with research funding. Crucially, Wood was able to sell enough of what he found to break from selling insurance and become a full-time fossil hunter. Fully committed, Wood curated his own specimens by working as a technician in the vertebrate paleontology group of Dr Alec Panchen of Newcastle University,[9] completing a geology degree with the Open University,[10] and securing work on a new site on the Scottish Borders,[n 1] which created a series of research initiatives published in twelve scholarly papers in 1985.[11]
Local legend
The Bearsden Shark - Akmonistion zangerli
Once Wood had identified fossil-rich strata in a specific locality, he would follow through at scale, inspiring others to participate and research his finds, which attracted funding for new, sometimes ambitious projects to uncover new discoveries. In 1982, Wood had moved with his family to a housing estate at Bearsden and almost immediately uncovered rare fish remains from a burn running through the estate. Wood alerted the neighbouring Hunterian Museum[n 2] and persuaded the local council, the estate residents and local youth groups to join him in a huge muddy dig, which led to the discovery of the metre long Bearsden shark, regarded as the most complete skeleton of a Carboniferous shark ever found.[12][13][14] Wood was awarded the prestigious Worth Prize at the Geological Society of London in 1983,[15] and remains part of the community of Bearsden.[16] In the same year, Wood became "Stan, Stan the Fossil Man" in a BBCTelevision documentary about him,[17] receiving the BBC Enterprise Award presented to him by Prince Charles in 1986,[5] and appearing a few years later alongside David Attenborough in the BBC series Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives.[18]
Global impact
Lizzie - not a true lizard, a close relative of AmniotaEucritta, also discovered at East Kirkton Quarry
Arguably Wood's greatest single discovery came in 1984, when he opened up an abandoned Victorian quarry in East Kirkton near Bathgate.[19] The quarry revealed an abundance of fossil marine and terrestrial arthropods, along with examples of several classes of fish and early amphibians.[20][21] The most important single discovery was a tetrapod nicknamed "Lizzie", a small lizard-like animal (Westlothiana),[22] which is possibly the oldest known reptile.[23][24] Ever mindful of commercial opportunity, in 1986, Wood exhibited his large collection on tour,[n 3] opened by David Attenborough, entitled "Mr. Wood's Fossils" and hosted by three museums across the UK.[27][28] The following year, Wood opened a fossil shop in Edinburgh by the same name, which is still trading today.[29] East Kirkton was subsequently leased by Wood and systematically excavated by a dedicated research team from the Hunterian Museum. Their combined efforts were presented at a conference of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1992 and compiled in twenty-eight papers,[30] considered by the scientific community as a major milestone in the understanding of the evolution of the earliest known community of land animals and plants on the planet.[7]
Legacy
Wood spent the next fifteen years expanding global perceptions of ancient biology and palaeoecology, opening up another old quarry previously considered to have been "spent",[n 4] at Mumbie,[31] finding new and unusual Lower Carboniferous arthropods and Devonian fish,[32] reshaping the scientific understanding on the evolution of bony fish.[33]
All of Wood's excavations were Scottish sites, most often within easy reach of where he happened to be living at the time. Many were rejuvenations of excavations discovered by Victorian fossil hunters, casting new light on the early Carboniferous and its growing importance to our understanding of life on earth. By far the most important new site of Wood's was the major excavation he undertook in the bed of Whiteadder Water at Willie's hole near Chirnside.[34] For two years between 2008 and 2009 he recovered an extensive fauna of arthropods, fish and tetrapods, which led to the closing of Romer's Gap, inspiring a new generation of Ph.Ds, this time from Cambridge University.[35][36] The collection is still being studied and will be for many years to come.[37][n 5] In 2009, in recognition of four decades of world enlightenment, Wood received the Marsh Award for palaeontology, particularly for his work in inspiring young palaeontologists at the beginning of their careers.[38]
Site
Dates
New species
Collection
Wardie
1969-1973
1
National Museums of Scotland
Dora
1974-1976
2
National Museums of Scotland
Foulden
1979-1981
2
National Museums of Scotland
Bearsden
1981-1983
9
Hunterian Museum of Glasgow & National Museums of Scotland
East Kirkton
1984-1992
10
Cambridge Museum of Zoology & National Museums of Scotland
Mumbie
1981-1983
1
Natural History Museum & National Museums of Scotland
Tantallon
1999
0
Burnmouth
2006
2
Cambridge Museum of Zoology
Whitrope Burn
2006
3
National Museums of Scotland
Willie’s Hole
2008-2012
4
Cambridge Museum of Zoology & National Museums of Scotland
In 2011, Wood was diagnosed with terminalcancer, which made him determined to close Romer's Gap further. Confined to a wheelchair, Wood concentrated his efforts in a final surge of enthusiasm focused at end of the Devonian from a new excavation site at Jedburgh and then returning to his collection of raw field-specimens from Mumbie.
"With a will and a determination that astonished his carers, he prepared them all and, to his delight, discovered two new species of bony fish for his efforts"[7]
In a career that spanned more than forty years, Wood registered more than 5,500 specimens, discovered thirty-four new species,[n 6] eight of them named after him, prompting several multidisciplinary projects, changing the scientific understanding of the history of life on earth.[34]David Attenborough said of him:
‘‘... The fact that they shed light on a part of geological history that hitherto has been almost blank makes Stan Wood’s discoveries of worldwide importance...’’
Six years after his death, a Special Issue of the Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh was published as a tribute to Wood.[39] It had been thought that 350 million years ago, life on earth was restricted by low oxygen levels. Wood's discoveries have revealed this to be false, and that there was indeed a diverse fauna of tetrapods and arthropods living on land at the time.[1] His excavations at Willie's Hole alone have supplied a wealth of new material that, ten years after his death, continues to provide a focus for much research.[citation needed] His discoveries continue to yield important new material for future generations of scientists to unravel. Without knowing it, Wood had established Scotland at the centre of Early Carboniferous palaeobiology.[34] In 2022, the Palaeontological Association instituted the ‘’’Stan Wood Award’’’ for projects in vertebrate palaeontology, ideally involving fieldwork and fossil collecting.[40]
↑ Wood, Andrew Dick (1972). The High Constabulary of the Port of Leith; a short history. Loanhead: Macdonald Printers (Edinburgh) Ltd. ISBN978-0-9502550-0-2. OCLC629063.
↑ Anon. "Brown Brothers and Co". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Grace's Guide Ltd. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
↑ Panchen, A.L.; Smithson, T.R. (1985). The relationships of the earliest tetrapods. In Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods 1 Amphibians, reptiles, Birds. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp.1–32.
↑ Anon. "Westlothiana Lizzie". Natural Museums of Scotland. National Museums Scotland. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
↑ Smithson, T.R. & Rolfe, W.D.I. (1990): Westlothiana gen. nov. :naming the earliest known reptile. Scottish Journal of Geology no 26, pp 137–138.
↑ Ruta, M.; Coates, M.I. & Quicke, D.L.J. (2003): Early tetrapod relationships revisited. Biological Reviews no 78: pp 251-345.PDF
1 2 3 Fraser, Nicholas C.; Smithson, Timothy R.; Clack, Jennifer A. (2018). "A Legacy in Fossils: a Tribute to Stan Wood – Preface". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 108: 1–5. doi:10.1017/S1755691018000191. S2CID133898222.
↑ which initiated a long working relationship with the museum championed by its deputy Director at the time, Dr Ian Rolfe
↑ “Mr Wood’s Fossils" was mounted/assembled by the Hunterian Museum with support from the British Museum (Natural History) under the supervision of Ian Rolfe.[25][26] The specimens came from Wood's excavations, on loan from various museums he had sold them to.
↑ The exposure of the fossilifeous beds in the river at Glencartholm was exhausted. Wood believed they would be found deep underground further up-stream. After excavating a big hole he was proved right
↑ One animal that Stan discovered is called Mesanerpeton woodi which means 'wood's intermediary crawler' and has provided a new insight into the early development of walking in early tetrapods
Jennifer Alice Clack, was an English palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist. She specialised in the early evolution of tetrapods, specifically studying the "fish to tetrapod" transition: the origin, evolutionary development and radiation of early tetrapods and their relatives among the lobe-finned fishes. She is best known for her book Gaining Ground: the Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods, published in 2002 and written with the layperson in mind.
"Labyrinthodontia" is an informal grouping of extinct predatory amphibians which were major components of ecosystems in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. Traditionally considered a subclass of the class Amphibia, modern classification systems recognize that labyrinthodonts are not a formal natural group (clade) exclusive of other tetrapods. Instead, they consistute an evolutionary grade, ancestral to living tetrapods such as lissamphibians and amniotes. "Labyrinthodont"-grade vertebrates evolved from lobe-finned fishes in the Devonian, though a formal boundary between fish and amphibian is difficult to define at this point in time.
Romer's gap is an example of an apparent gap in the tetrapod fossil record used in the study of evolutionary biology. Such gaps represent periods from which excavators have not yet found relevant fossils. Romer's gap is named after paleontologist Alfred Romer, who first recognised it. Recent discoveries in Scotland are beginning to close this gap in palaeontological knowledge.
Robert "Bob" Lynn Carroll was an American–Canadian vertebrate paleontologist who specialised in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles.
Westlothiana is a genus of reptile-like tetrapod that lived about 338 million years ago during the latest part of the Viséan age of the Carboniferous. Members of the genus bore a superficial resemblance to modern-day lizards. The genus is known from a single species, Westlothiana lizziae. The type specimen was discovered in the East Kirkton Limestone at the East Kirkton Quarry, West Lothian, Scotland in 1984. This specimen was nicknamed "Lizzie the lizard" by fossil hunter Stan Wood, and this name was quickly adopted by other paleontologists and the press. When the specimen was formally named in 1990, it was given the specific name "lizziae" in homage to this nickname. However, despite its similar body shape, Westlothiana is not considered a true lizard. Westlothiana's anatomy contained a mixture of both "labyrinthodont" and reptilian features, and was originally regarded as the oldest known reptile or amniote. However, updated studies have shown that this identification is not entirely accurate. Instead of being one of the first amniotes, Westlothiana was rather a close relative of Amniota. As a result, most paleontologists since the original description place the genus within the group Reptiliomorpha, among other amniote relatives such as diadectomorphs and seymouriamorphs. Later analyses usually place the genus as the earliest diverging member of Lepospondyli, a collection of unusual tetrapods which may be close to amniotes or lissamphibians, or potentially both at the same time.
Crassigyrinus is an extinct genus of carnivorous stem tetrapod from the Early Carboniferous Limestone Coal Group of Scotland and possibly Greer, West Virginia.
Silvanerpeton is an extinct genus of early reptiliomorph found by Stan Wood in the East Kirkton Quarry of West Lothian, Scotland, in a sequence from the Brigantian substage of the Viséan. The find is important, as the quarry represents terrestrial deposits from Romer's gap, a period poor in fossils where the higher groups "labyrinthodonts" evolved.
Pederpes is an extinct genus of early Carboniferous tetrapod, dating from 348 to 347.6 Ma in the Tournaisian age. Pederpes contains one species, P. finneyae, 1 m long.
Spathicephalus is an extinct genus of stem tetrapods that lived during the middle of the Carboniferous Period. The genus includes two species: the type species S. mirus from Scotland, which is known from two mostly complete skulls and other cranial material, and the species S. pereger from Nova Scotia, which is known from a single fragment of the skull table. Based on the S. mirus material, the appearance of Spathicephalus is unlike that of any other early tetrapod, with a flattened, square-shaped skull and jaws lined with hundreds of very small chisel-like teeth. However, Spathicephalus shares several anatomical features with a family of stem tetrapods called Baphetidae, leading most paleontologists who have studied the genus to place it within a larger group called Baphetoidea, often as part of its own monotypic family Spathicephalidae. Spathicephalus is thought to have fed on aquatic invertebrates through a combination of suction feeding and filter feeding.
Ossinodus is an extinct genus of stem tetrapod. Fossils have been found from the Ducabrook Formation in Queensland, Australia dating back to the middle Visean stage of the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian). It was originally placed within the family Whatcheeriidae, but the absence of an intertemporal bone as suggested by a recent reconstruction of the skull based on fragmentary material may prove it to be stemward of all whatcheeriids.
East Kirkton Quarry, or simply East Kirkton, is a former limestone quarry in West Lothian, Scotland, now a renowned fossil site. The quarry is known for terrestrial and freshwater fossils about 335 million years old, from the late Viséan stage of the Mississippian subperiod. The quarry is a 200 meter-long depression located in the town of Bathgate. Geographically, it sits at the Bathgate Hills near the center of the Midland Valley, a fossil-rich region of southeast Scotland. The site is dominated by volcanic tuff, limestone, and silica deposits of large freshwater lakes associated with hot springs and local basaltic (high-iron) volcanism. Three geological intervals are exposed: the East Kirkton Limestone (oldest), Little Cliff Shale (middle), and Geikie Tuff (youngest).
Eldeceeon is an extinct genus of reptiliomorph from the Mississippian of Scotland. It is known from two fossil specimens found within the Viséan-age East Kirkton Quarry in West Lothian. The type and only species, E. rolfei, was named in 1994. Eldeceeon is thought to be closely related to embolomeres, but it has several distinguishing features including long limbs and a short trunk. Initially known from two crushed partial skeletons, additional specimens have been reported by Ruta & Clack (2006). Eldeceeon was redescribed by Ruta, Clack, & Smithson (2020). The redescription supported affinities with Silvanerpeton, reconstructed a skull with larger eyes and a shorter snout, and emphasized potential correlations for an enlarge puboischiofemoralis internus 2 muscle.
Blue Beach is a 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) stretch of cliff-bordered coastline at Avonport, Nova Scotia near the mouth of the along the Avon River in the southern bight of Minas Basin, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is best known as a globally significant fossil location for Lagerstätte of the Tournaisian Stage period.
The Ballagan Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland and England. It preserves fossils dating back to the early part of the Carboniferous period. Its name comes from the "Ballagan Beds" of Ballagan Glen, near Strathblane, which has a good example of this geological formation.
Papposaurus is an extinct genus of proterogyrinid embolomere which lived in the Mississippian of Scotland. It is known from a single species, Papposaurus traquiairi, which is based on an isolated femur discovered in ironstone near Loanhead. Though originally compared closely to reptiles, subsequent study has revealed closer similarity to basal embolomeres such as Proterogyrinus and Archeria. With such limited remains, Papposaurus may not be a valid genus. The femur was redescribed in 1986 by T. R. Smithson, who considered Papposaurus traquairi a nomen vanum possibly synonymous with Proterogyrinus scheelei.
Eobaphetes is an extinct genus of embolomere which likely lived in the Pennsylvanian of Kansas. The genus is based on several skull and jaw fragments of a single individual. They were originally described under the species Erpetosuchus kansasensis, but this was later changed to Eobaphetes kansasensis when it was determined that Erpetosuchus was preoccupied by a Triassic reptile.
Glencartholm is a location in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland, along the River Esk.
Tantallognathus is an extinct genus of four-limbed vertebrate ("tetrapod") from the Mississippian of Scotland. It is based on a small jaw fragment which shows similarities to Crassigyrinus, baphetids, and crown group tetrapods. This fossil was found near Tantallon Castle, and the species name honors famed Scottish fossil collector Stan Wood. Tantallognathus is one of the most advanced tetrapods found in the Ballagan Formation, a geological unit known for a diverse fauna of stegocephalians. Like other Ballagan Formation vertebrates, it helps to clarify a pulse of tetrapod evolution during Romer's gap, a time interval when fossils of tetrapods and their relatives are otherwise very rare.
Mesanerpeton is an extinct genus of four-limbed stem-tetrapod from the Mississippian (Tournaisian) of Scotland. It contains a single species, Mesanerpeton woodi, who based on a disarticulated specimen including a clavicle, vertebrae, and forelimb bones from the Ballagan Formation. The vertebrae are poorly-ossified and similar to Crassigyrinus, but the forelimb was robust. The shape and level of torsion present in the humerus are intermediate between Devonian stem-tetrapods and later Carboniferous tetrapods. This transitional condition, and the associated rerouting of the brachial artery and median nerve, may indicate that Mesanerpeton had a higher stride length and more efficient locomotion on land compared to its predecessors.
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