Fossil burrows in mudshale (top of the Sunbury Shale, Lower Mississippian; Tener Mountain roadcut, southern Ohio, USA) 3

            Burrowed mudshale from the Mississippian of Ohio, USA.

The Sunbury Shale is a black mudshale succession in Ohio - it is the oldest fully Mississippian-aged unit in the state.  It occurs above the Berea Sandstone and below the Cuyahoga Formation.  The Sunbury essentially identical to the older Ohio Shale.  Compared with the Ohio Shale, the Sunbury is considerably thinner.  Sunbury outcrops are uncommon, but an extensive exposure is present at the Tener Mountain roadcut in southern Ohio.  The unweathered rocks are black mudshales, but weathered material consists of medium- to light-colored chips.  I have not observed fossils in the Sunbury at this site, but the literature refers to lingulid brachiopod fragments in the lower Sunbury.

The light-colored areas in this shale sample are fossil burrows.  Such structures are called trace fossils, which are any indirect evidence of ancient life.  They refer to features in rocks that do not represent parts of the body of a once-living organism.  Traces include footprints, tracks, trails, burrows, borings, and bitemarks.  Body fossils provide information about the morphology of ancient organisms, while trace fossils provide information about the behavior of ancient life forms.  Interpreting trace fossils and determination of the identity of a trace maker can be straightforward (for example, a dinosaur footprint represents walking behavior) or not.  Sediments that have trace fossils are said to be bioturbated.  Burrowed textures in sedimentary rocks are referred to as bioturbation.  Trace fossils have scientific names assigned to them, in the same style & manner as living organisms or body fossils.

The burrow fills are light gray-colored mud derived from the overlying Borden Formation.

Stratigraphy: uppermost Sunbury Shale, Kinderhookian Stage, lower Lower Mississippian

Locality: Tener Mountain roadcut along the northwestern side of Rt. 32 (= Appalachian Highway), at the Rt. 32-Union Hill Road intersection, just southwest of the Adams County-Pike County line, far-northeastern Adams County, southern Ohio, USA (39° 01' 11.11" North latitude, 83° 16' 48.68" West longitude)

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Taken on: January 22, 2020

Tags:

Sunbury

Shale

Tener

Mountain

Ohio

Kinderhookian

shales

burrow

burrows

fossil

fossils

trace

traces « less

Sets appears in: • Ohio Rocks, Minerals, Fossils • Sunbury Shale (Lower Mississippian; Ohio, USA) more » • Mississippian Rocks & Fossils • Traces & Trace Fossils « less

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