Kinzers Formation

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Kinzers Formation
Stratigraphic range: Cambrian Stage 4
Kinzers Formation Sgw01326.jpg
Reticulately weathered argillaceous-banded limestone of upper member of Kinzers Formation. USGS photo.
Type Sedimentary
Sub-unitsEmigsville Mb., York Mb., Greenmount Mb.
Underlies Ledger Formation
Overlies Vintage Dolomite
Lithology
Primary Limestone
Other Shale, marble
Location
Region Mid-Atlantic United States
Country United States
Extent Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia
Type section
Named for Kinzers, Pennsylvania
Named byStose, G.W., and Jonas, A.I. [1]

The Kinzers Formation is a geologic formation in Pennsylvania. It preserves fossils dating back to the fourth stage of the Cambrian Period.

Contents

The base of the Kinzers Formation is primarily a dark-brown shale. The middle is a gray and white spotted limestone and, locally, marble having irregular partings. The top is a sandy limestone which weathers to a fine-grained, friable, porous, sandy mass. [2]

Type section

Named from exposures at a railroad cut at Kinzers, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. [1]

Other outcrops

The Kinzers overlies the Vintage Dolomite at the type section of the Vintage at a railroad cut at Vintage, Pennsylvania.

A shelf at the University of Montana Paleontology Center containing various fossils from the Kinzers Formation. Kinzers specimens.png
A shelf at the University of Montana Paleontology Center containing various fossils from the Kinzers Formation.

High quality fossil specimens ( Lagerstätte ) were obtained from the Noah Getz Quarry, one mile north of Rohrerstown, Pennsylvania, but the quarry location is overgrown and disturbed by development. The fossils are from the Emigsville Member, and include the trilobite Olenellus thompsoni , the radiodont Lenisicaris pennsylvanica , the hymenocarine arthropod Tuzoia getzi , the edrioasteroid echinoderm Yorkicystis haefneri, and the hemichordate nest Margaretia dorus . [3] [4] [5] The Kinzers Formation is also notable for preserving one of the most diverse radiodont faunas of the Cambrian period, with at least ten species known, including members of the tamisiocarididae, anomalocarididae, and amplectobeluidae families. [6]

The sponge Hazelia walcotti has also been found in the Kinzers. It is one of few sponges known from the Cambrian period of North America. [7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Stose, G.W., and Jonas, A.I., 1922. The lower Paleozoic section in southeastern Pennsylvania, Washington Academy of Sciences, Journal v. 12, no. 5, p. 358-366
  2. ↑ Berg, T. M., Edmunds, W. E., Geyer, A. R., and others, compilers, 1980, Geologic map of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser., Map 1, 2nd ed., 3 sheets, scale 1:250,000.
  3. ↑ Zamora S, Rahman IA, Sumrall CD, Gibson AP, Thompson JR (March 2022). "Cambrian edrioasteroid reveals new mechanism for secondary reduction of the skeleton in echinoderms". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 289 (1970): 20212733. doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.2733. PMC   8889179 . PMID   35232240.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  4. ↑ Resser, C.E. & B.F. Howell. 1938. Lower Cambrian Olenellus zone of the Appalachians. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 49: 195-248, 13 pls.
  5. ↑ Noah Getz Quarry at mindat.org
  6. ↑ Pates, Stephen; Daley, Allison C. (2019). "The Kinzers Formation (Pennsylvania, USA): the most diverse assemblage of Cambrian Stage 4 radiodonts". Geological Magazine. 156 (7): 1233–1246. Bibcode:2019GeoM..156.1233P. doi:10.1017/S0016756818000547. S2CID   134299859.
  7. ↑ Rigby, J. Keith, 1987. Early Cambrian sponges from Vermont and Pennsylvania, the only ones described from North America. Journal of Paleontology, Volume 61, Issue 3, May 1987, pp. 451-461 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022336000028638


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