Swimming Hundreds of Millions of Years Ago
I took a walk out along the coastline to the Cletts at Exnaboe earlier this summer looking for fossil fish. I found a couple of nice examples, including the one photographed above - the first time I've seen fossils in Shetland. Amazing to think of them swimming so long ago in rivers and lakes above what would become Shetland. I'm not going to hazard a guess at the species or age, but the Shetland Amenity Trust's South Shetland Geology leaflet explains the sandstones and mudstones at the Cletts were formed 390 million years ago!
Note, the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is protected by law. Please leave the fossils in the rocks for others to enjoy.
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Image #832