A LOWER DEVONIAN SPOROMORPH ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE MIDLAND VALLEY OF SCOTLAND

A sporomorph assemblage recovered from the Sandy's Creek Beds, which c onstitute a diminutive fault bounded inlier on the west coast of the M idland Valley of Scotland, is described. Four species of trilete spore and the genus Fustisispora, a monospecific cryptospore genus, are pro posed as new. The sporomorph assemblage is attributed an early Devonia n, late-early to early-late Lochkovian age, and is interpreted as accu mulating in a continental environment. The Sandy's Creek Beds are corr elated herein with the upper part of the Arbuthnott Group which crops out in the north-east of the Midland Valley. Comparison with other spo romorph assemblages of similar age indicates that minor regional varia tion exists. It is suggested that this is related to small-scale regio nal variation in the composition of vegetation.