The Waaipoort Formation is a geologic formation in South Africa. It preserves fossils dating back to the Visean, in the Carboniferous period.[1]
The Waaipoort formation consists of mudstones, siltstones, and fine sandstones and is around 35 meters thick. Fish-bearing localities are common and in most of these, the fish are present in calcitic or phosphatic nodules. At the Schiethoogte locality in the Eastern Cape, a 15 cm thick black layer made up of siltstone and fine sandstone contains two horizons where actinopterygian fossils are closely packed. These are thought to represent mass mortality events.[1]
The Waaipoort formation has most commonly been interpreted as a marginal marine environment, possibly a lagoon or a delta. The fauna, composed mostly of paleoniscoids, is a large divergence from the predominantly placoderm- and sarcopterygian- dominated faunas of previous Witteberg Group formations like the Witpoort Formation.[1]
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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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| Bivalvia
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| 2 undescribed species of ?Unionidae[2]
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2 undescribed species of ?Unionidae
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?Unionidae
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