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).[1] The habitat of some of these faunal elements, as for anamniotic stegocephalians, is debated; although some of these have traditionally been interpreted as freshwater inhabitants,[2] some may have been euryhaline.[3][4] This extraordinary mix of fossils suggests it was once an estuary.[5] 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[6]
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Color key
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Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.
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Vertebrates
Arthropods
Mollusks
Other animals
Lycophytes and ferns
Seed ferns
Gymnosperms
| Gymnosperms
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| Genus
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Species
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Notes
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Images
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| Cordaites
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C. principalis
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Gymnosperm in order Cordaitales.
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| Cordaianthus
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C. cf. pitcairniae
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| Samaropsis
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S. fluitans
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| Emporia
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E. cryptica, E. lockardii, E. royalii
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Conifer in order Voltziales.
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| Hanskerpia
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H. hamiltonensis
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| Barthelia
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B. furcata
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| Gomphostrobus
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Indeterminate
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Conifer in order Voltziales, stem and leaf.
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| Walchia
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W. hypnoides, W. piniformis, W. schneideri
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Conifer in order Voltziales, leaves.
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| Walchianathus
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Indeterminate
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Conifer in order Voltziales, male cone.
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| Walchiastrobus
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Indeterminate
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Conifer in order Voltziales, female cone.
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Spores and Pollen
| Gymnosperms
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| Genus
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Species
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Notes
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Images
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| Leiotriletes
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L. sp.
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Spore microfossils.
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| Calamospora
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C. sp.
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| Triletes
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T. sp.
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| Acanthoriletes
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A. teretriangulatus
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| Nuskoisporites
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N. trianguloris
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Pollen microfossils.
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| Potoniesporites
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P. gtranulatus, P. neglectus
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| Sulcatisporites
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S. splendens, S. sp.
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| Protohaploxypinus
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P. samoilocichii
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| Striatopodocarpites
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S. sp (Two species)
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| Hamiapollenites
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H. perisporites, H. succatus
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| Striatoabitites
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S. multistriatus, S. sp.
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| Alisporites
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A. indarraensis, A. gracilis, A. nuthalensis
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| Falcisporites
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F. zapfei
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| Limitisporites
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L. sp.
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| Lueckisporites
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L. vickkiae
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| Striatites
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S. splendens
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| Vittatina
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V. cf. V. subsuccata, V. cf. V. verrucosa
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Fuslinids
| Fuslinids
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| Genus
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Species
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Notes
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Images
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| Globivalvulina
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Indeterminate
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Fusulinid in family Biseriamminidae.
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| Dunbarinella
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D. ervinensis
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Fusulinid in family Schwagerinidae.
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| Triticites
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T. cullomensis, T. plummeri, T. ventricosus
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References
- ^ a b 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. doi:10.2307/3628324. ISSN 0022-8443. JSTOR 3628324.
- ^ Gray, Jane (1 January 1988). "Evolution of the freshwater ecosystem: The fossil record". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 62 (1): 1–214. Bibcode:1988PPP....62....1G. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(88)90054-5. ISSN 0031-0182.
- ^ Schultze, Hans-Peter; Maples, Christopher G.; Cunningham, Christopher R. (January 1993). "The Hamilton Konservat-Lagerstätte: Stephanian terrestrial biota in a marginal-marine setting". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 84 (3–4): 443–451. Bibcode:1993EESTR..84..443S. doi:10.1017/S0263593300006246. ISSN 1755-6929.
- ^ Laurin, Michel (30 December 2024). "Habitat of early stegocephalians (Chordata, Vertebrata, Sarcopterygii): a little saltier than most paleontologists like?". Fossil Record. 27 (3): 299–332. doi:10.3897/fr.27.123291. ISSN 2193-0074.
- ^ a b 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. 26 (3): 225–236. Bibcode:1993Letha..26..225C. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1993.tb01524.x. ISSN 0024-1164.
- ^ Wehrbein, Randol (2017-05-12). Comparisons of Paleoenvironments, Taxa, and Taphonomy of the Late Carboniferous Garnett and Hamilton Quarry Localities, Eastern Kansas (Thesis thesis).
- ^ 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. doi:10.4202/app.00126.2014. ISSN 0567-7920.
- ^ Müller, Johannes; Reisz, Robert R. (1 January 2005). "An early captorhinid reptile (Amniota, Eureptilia) from the Upper Carboniferous of Hamilton, Kansas". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 25 (3): 561–568. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0561:AECRAE]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634.
- ^ Reisz, Robert; Haridy, Yara; Müller, Johannes (9 November 2016). "Euconcordia nom. nov., a replacement name for the captorhinid eureptile Concordia Müller and Reisz, 2005 (non Kingsley, 1880), with new data on its dentition". Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology. 3. doi:10.18435/B53W22. ISSN 2292-1389.
- ^ deBraga, Michael; Reisz, Robert R. (1995). "A new diapsid reptile from the uppermost Carboniferous (Stephanian) of Kansas". Palaeontology. 38 (1): 199-212.
- ^ Kjellesvig-Waering, E. N. (1986). "A restudy of the fossil Scorpionida of the world". Palaeontographica Americana. 55: 1–287.
External links