Chirnside fossils could provide key to Romer’s Gap Already the collection has revealed one notable amphibian specimen that has been nicknamed ‘Ribbo’ due to its prominent and well-preserved ribs, providing scientists with enough information to interpret what the creature may have looked like as it roamed the Tweed basin around 350 million years ago.
Logan, William Edmond (1842). "On the coal-fields of Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia". Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. 3: 707–712. From p. 712: "At Horton Bluff, ten miles north of Windsor [, Nova Scotia], … he also obtained a slab which appears to him to exhibit foot-marks, … "
During 1841–1842, Scottish geologist Charles Lyell visited North America, including Nova Scotia. In 1843, Lyell mentioned Logan's discovery of footprints in the Carboniferous deposits of Horton Bluff. English paleontologist Richard Owen claimed that Logan's footprints were those of a reptile. See:
By 1955 (perhaps even earlier), Romer states that few good fossils of tetrapods have been recovered from early Carboniferous deposits. See: Romer, Alfred Sherwood (presented: November 11, 1955 ; published: June 28, 1956) "The early evolution of land vertebrates," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 100 (3) : 151-167; see especially page 166. Available on-line at: JSTOR.
