The sandstone in Corncockle Quarry is the
Corncockle Sandstone Formation and dates from the
Cisuralian, the Lower
Permian between 298.9 - 272.3 Mya. Fossil footprints were found there in the early 1800s, uncovered during quarrying. They are often wrongly referred to as dinosaur footprints, but dinosaurs did not exist at this time. They belong instead to other extinct reptiles such as
therapsids - the group that would eventually lead to mammals, and includes animals like
Dimetrodon. The footprints from Corncockle were the first ever described scientifically, by Mr. J Grierson, and the Reverend
Henry Duncan in 1828. Rev Duncan then published his paper on the footprints in 1831. The name for the study of fossil footprints and other trace marks,
ichnology, was coined by
Sir William Jardine, whose book
The Ichnology of Annadale was about the trackways found in Corncockle Quarry, part of his ancestral estate. The prints were then described by
William Buckland following correspondence with Rev Duncan. The fossils are displayed at
Dumfries Museum and the
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. ==Commercial Use==