Hamilton Quarry

Hamilton Quarry Stratigraphic range: ~300–298 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Type	Lagerstätte
Location
Location	near Hamilton, Kansas
Coordinates	37°58′49″N 96°6′50″W / 37.98028°N 96.11389°W / 37.98028; -96.11389Coordinates: 37°58′49″N 96°6′50″W / 37.98028°N 96.11389°W / 37.98028; -96.11389
Country	United States

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). This extraordinary mix of fossils suggests it was once an estuary. 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.

External links[]

• Hamilton Quarry is managed by the Johnston Geology Museum at Emporia State University.
• The Surficial Geology of the Hamilton Quarry Area, Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) Open-file Report 2005-13.