Discovery - first land animal was a Scot

The discovery was made by amateur fossil hunter Mike Newman. Scientists have decided that a fossil found near Stonehaven is the remains of the oldest creature known to have lived on land. It is thought that the one-centimetre millipede which was prised out of a siltstone bed is 428 million years old (refered from the BBC News website, 25 January, 2004)

Experts at the National Museums of Scotland and Yale University, US, have studied the fossil for months. They say the specimen is the earliest evidence of a creature living on dry land, rather than in the sea.

The discovery on the foreshore of Cowie Harbour was made by an amateur fossil hunter, Mike Newman. To recognise his role in the significant find, the new species - Pneumodesmus newmani - has been named after him. He says to BBC that Scotland has the best Palaeozoic, pre-Triassic, pre-dinosaur sites in the world

The fossil is believed to be some 20 million years older than what had previously been thought of as the oldest breathing animal, a peculiar spider-like creature in Aberdeenshire. The millipede had spiracles, or primitive breathing structures on the outside of its body, making it the oldest air-breathing creature to have been discovered.

Look out for spider animals too: the site near Stonehaven is well known in fossil collecting circles for its arthropods, animals with segmented bodies and jointed limbs, such as sea scorpions. There could be more interesting to find in this area.

Stein Morten Lund, 26 January 2004