Kinzers Formation

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Kinzers Formation
Stratigraphic range: Cambrian Stage 4
File:Kinzers Formation Sgw01326.jpg
Reticulately weathered argillaceous-banded limestone of upper member of Kinzers Formation. USGS photo.
TypeSedimentary
Sub-unitsEmigsville Mb., York Mb., Greenmount Mb.
UnderliesLedger Formation
OverliesVintage Dolomite
Lithology
PrimaryLimestone
OtherShale, marble
Location
RegionMid-Atlantic United States
CountryUnited States
ExtentPennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia
Type section
Named forKinzers, 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.

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] Wilshusen formally divided the Kinzers into three members along these lines in his 1979 map of York, Pennsylvania. The members are called the Earthy Buff Limestone Member, Pure Limestone Member, and Shale Member.[3]

Type section

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

Other outcrops

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

File: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.[4][5][6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b 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 [1]
  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. ^ Wilshusen, J. P., 1979. Environmental geology of the greater York area, York County, Pennsylvania, Environmental Geology Report 6, Pennsylvania Geological Survey.
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ 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. [2]
  6. ^ Noah Getz Quarry at mindat.org
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ 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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