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The Walcott-Rust Quarry: Middle Ordovician trilobite Konservat-Lagerstätten

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Carlton E. Brett ,
Thomas E. Whiteley ,
Peter A. Allison  and
Ellis L. Yochelson
Carlton E. Brett
Affiliation:
1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
Thomas E. Whiteley
Affiliation:
2105 White Village Drive, Rochester, New York 14625
Peter A. Allison
Affiliation:
3Department of Geology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, England SW7 5BP
Ellis L. Yochelson
Affiliation:
4Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20560
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Abstract

The Walcott-Rust Quarry, at Trenton Falls, New York, has yielded a large number of well-preserved, fully articulated fossils from the lower third of the Middle Ordovician Rust Formation, Trenton Group. Along with three species of the more common trilobites from the Trenton Group, fourteen species of rare and uncommon trilobites are found within a thin package of micritic limestones and shales. The first trilobites with preserved appendages, Ceraurus pleurexanthemus Green, 1832 and Flexicalymene senaria (Conrad, 1842), were described from one layer from this quarry. Unique specimens of Isotelus walcotti UIrich in Walcott, 1918, and Sphaerocorphe robusta Walcott, 1875, were found in the next higher bed. Re-excavation of the quarry yielded information about the taphonomy of the trilobites and stratigraphy of the trilobite layers. Nearly half of the beds surveyed (n = 50) yield direct evidence of obrution (i.e., rapid post-mortem or live burial) of benthic organisms. Unusual anaerobic microenvironments in partially enrolled trilobites of the Ceraurus layer facilitated very early calcification of appendages and other soft parts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 73 , Issue 2: Papers from the Second International Trilobite Conference, August 1997 , March 1999 , pp. 288 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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