Fossils from one of the world’s earliest tetrapods to go on show at Elgin Museum
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FOSSILS of global importance found in the local area are to return to Elgin Museum for the upcoming season.
A new exhibition at the High Street attraction will include remains from the first four-limbed animal whose body can be reasonably reconstructed from fossil evidence.
Teeth and bones from Elginerpeton pancheni – the crawler from Elgin – were discovered in the local area in the 19th Century.
Soon dispersed far and wide, support from the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund is allowing fossils from National Museums Scotland to return to Elgin for the forthcoming season.
The tetrapod fossils were originally thought to be fish remains and their significance in the evolution of fins to feet only became apparent in the 1990s.
This important transition allowed life to move out of the water and on to land, making these early tetrapods our own very distant forebears.
At the Water’s Edge opens at Elgin Museum on March 28 and runs until October 31.
Per Ahlberg first realised the fossils were early tetrapod bones when he was a research student at the University of Cambridge and subsequently named the animal Elginerpeton pancheni.
Now an evolutionary biologist at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, Per is excited they are finally being brought home, albeit temporarily.
He said: "I'm thrilled to see Elginerpeton return home to Elgin after so many years. North-east Scotland is one of the most important areas in the world for understanding the origin of tetrapods – this key event in the development of the global ecosystem and the evolution of our own distant ancestors. Visitors will be able to see not only the bones of Elginerpeton but also the even older tetrapod footprints from Tarbat Ness. These are fossils of great local interest but also of global importance."
At up to 1.5 metres long, Elginerpeton was a top predator in the Devonian fish-eat-fish world. Fragments from the jaw show that this was long and narrow, perfect for snapping at fast moving prey.
Bones from the shoulder girdle and pelvis indicate that the animal could support its body weight on its forelimbs only and could thus crawl but not walk.
The loan from National Museums Scotland is supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund.
Created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund, the programme is the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable smaller and local authority museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.
The fossils on loan from NMS will be displayed alongside additional material from the British Geological Survey and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Models of Elginerpeton pancheni Elginerpeton and an earlier animal, Tiktaalik, will also be on display.
A trackway recording tetrapod footprints made 380 million years ago at Tarbat Ness has been 3D printed especially for the exhibition from a cast made of the tracks in 1990.
Sophia Weston, Garfield Weston Foundation Trustee, said: "The imminent arrival of ‘the crawler from Elgin’ will fuel visitors’ imaginations, young and old.
"The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund is something of a museums’ match-maker, enabling the telling of compelling stories through new loans.
"At The Water’s Edge is a great example of a number of institutions coming together to share objects and knowledge and we wish it, in this Year of Coasts and Waters, every success."
Entry to the museum is free. For more information, including opening hours, visit the Museum's website.
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