Hamilton Quarry Explained
Hamilton Quarry is a Late Carboniferous lagerstätte near Hamilton, Kansas, United States. It has a diverse assemblage of unusually well-preserved marine, euryhaline, freshwater, flying, and terrestrial fossils (invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants). This extraordinary mix of fossils suggests it was once an estuary. This type of Lagerstätte is considered a Konservat-Lagerstätte (or conservation lagerstätte), due to the quality the preservation of soft tissue (skin preservation).
The lagerstätte occurs within a paleovalley that was incised into the surrounding Carboniferous cyclothemic sequence during a time of low sea level and was then filled in during a subsequent transgression. The channel has a capping series of interbedded laminated limestones and mudstones for which are designated the Lagerstätte beds or ‘vertebrate horizon’. This facies contains a well-preserved mixed assemblage of terrestrial (conifers, insects, myriapods, reptiles), freshwater (ostracods), aquatic (amphibians, reptile), brackish or euryhaline (ostracods, eurypterids, microconchids, fish), and marine (brachiopods, echinoderms) fossils.
Paleobiota
According to thesis[1]
Vertebrates
Arthropods
Mollusks
Other animals
Lycophytes and ferns
| Lycophytes and ferns |
|---|
| Genus | Species | Notes | Images |
|---|
| Sigillaria | S. brardii | A tree-like lycophyte. | |
| Asterophyllites | A. equisetiformis, A. longiformis | Equisetid fern. | |
| Annularia | A. mucronata | |
| Paleostachya | P. sp. | | |
Seed ferns
Gymnosperms
| Gymnosperms |
|---|
| Genus | Species | Notes | Images |
|---|
| Cordaites | C. principalis | Gymnosperm in order Cordaitales. | |
| Cordaianthus | C. cf. pitcairniae | |
| Samaropsis | S. fluitans | |
| Emporia | E. cryptica, E. lockardii, E. royalii | Conifer in order Voltziales. | |
| Hanskerpia | H. hamiltonensis | |
| Barthelia | B. furcata | |
| Gomphostrobus | Indeterminate | Conifer in order Voltziales, stem and leaf. | |
| Walchia | W. hypnoides, W. piniformis, W. schneideri | Conifer in order Voltziales, leaves. | |
| Walchianathus | Indeterminate | Conifer in order Voltziales, male cone. | |
| Walchiastrobus | Indeterminate | Conifer in order Voltziales, female cone. | | |
Spores and Pollen
| Gymnosperms |
|---|
| Genus | Species | Notes | Images |
|---|
| Leiotriletes | L. sp. | Spore microfossils. | |
| Calamospora | C. sp. | |
| Triletes | T. sp. | |
| Acanthoriletes | A. teretriangulatus | |
| Nuskoisporites | N. trianguloris | Pollen microfossils. | |
| Potoniesporites | P. gtranulatus, P. neglectus | |
| Sulcatisporites | S. splendens, S. sp. | |
| Protohaploxypinus | P. samoilocichii | |
| Striatopodocarpites | S. sp (Two species) | |
| Hamiapollenites | H. perisporites, H. succatus | |
| Striatoabitites | S. multistriatus, S. sp. | |
| Alisporites | A. indarraensis, A. gracilis, A. nuthalensis | |
| Falcisporites | F. zapfei | |
| Limitisporites | L. sp. | |
| Lueckisporites | L. vickkiae | |
| Striatites | S. splendens | |
| Vittatina | V. cf. V. subsuccata, V. cf. V. verrucosa | | |
Fuslinids
| Fuslinids |
|---|
| Genus | Species | Notes | Images |
|---|
| Globivalvulina | Indeterminate | Fusulinid in family Biseriamminidae. | |
| Dunbarinella | D. ervinensis | Fusulinid in family Schwagerinidae. | |
| Triticites | T. cullomensis, T. plummeri, T. ventricosus | | |
References
- Comparisons of Paleoenvironments, Taxa, and Taphonomy of the Late Carboniferous Garnett and Hamilton Quarry Localities, Eastern Kansas . 2017-05-12 . Thesis . en-US . Randol . Wehrbein.
- Beck . Kimberly . Soler-Gijon . Rodrigo . Carlucci . Jesse . Willis . Raymond . 2014 . Morphology and histology of dorsal spines of the xenacanthid shark Orthacanthus platypternus from the Lower Permian of Texas, USA: palaeobiological and palaeoenvironmental implications . Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . 10.4202/app.00126.2014 . 0567-7920. free .
- Kjellesvig-Waering . E. N. . 1986 . A restudy of the fossil Scorpionida of the world . Palaeontographica Americana . 55 . 1–287.
- Cunningham . Christopher R. . 1993 . Hamilton Fossil-Lagerstätte (Upper Pennsylvanian, Greenwood County, Kansas): Internal Stratigraphy and Addition to the Microfossil Assemblage . Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science . 96 . 1/2 . 131–139 . 10.2307/3628324 . 3628324 . 0022-8443.
- Cunningham . Christopher R. . Feldman . Howard R. . Franseen . Evan K. . Gastaldo . Robert A. . Mapes . Gene . Maples . Christopher G. . Schultze . Hans-Peter . 1993 . The Upper Carboniferous Hamilton Fossil-Lagerstätte in Kansas: a valley-fill, tidally influenced deposit . Lethaia . en . 26 . 3 . 225–236 . 10.1111/j.1502-3931.1993.tb01524.x . 0024-1164.
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