Abstract
The Upper Kimmeridgian Wattendorf Plattenkalk, the oldest of the Solnhofen-type plattenkalks of southern Germany, has yielded a high number of exceptionally preserved fossils over the past several years. The high number of fossils and the fact that every bedding plane, along which the laminated rocks split, has been equally thoroughly searched for fossils, allow for qualitative as well as quantitative taphonomic investigations. For a quantitative analysis of the Wattendorf lagerstätte, four different taphofacies (A–D) were established by means of euclidean cluster analysis. For this, biostratinomic features of neopterygian fishes, primarily of the genus Tharsis, were recorded. Percentages of the occurrence of these features per layer were determined and clustered into groups of similar patterns. The taphonomic features utilised were bending of the spinal column, completeness, and skeletal articulation. Taphofacies A through D mark a change from a palaeoenvironment with only small extrinsic disturbing factors to a palaeoenvironment characterised by greater disturbance (e.g. bottom currents, fluctuating salinity). At the beginning of plattenkalk deposition, cyclic changes of the palaeoenvironment prevailed with periodic high disturbance, probably caused by storm-induced flows. These events initiated mixing of the supposedly chemically stratified water body. In the upper part of the plattenkalk unit, taphofacies indicative of higher disturbance dominate, suggesting a change from stable to less stable environmental conditions in the plattenkalk basin resulting in disruption of the typical plattenkalk sedimentation. Sporadic oxygenation of bottom waters is also indicated by the style of soft-tissue preservation. Besides typical phosphatisation, a specimen of Palaeohirudo? sp. shows soft-tissue preservation through iron-oxide permineralisation.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank T. Bechmann, preparator of the Natural History Museum Bamberg, for sharing his insights into the Wattendorf quarry, the regional geology of northern Bavaria and for his outstanding work on the preparation of the Wattendorf fossils. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the voluntary helpers, who extracted the fossils from the quarry during the excavations. We also want to thank T. Bechmann and A. Weller for their logistic help at the collections of the Natural History Museum, Bamberg. C. Schulbert, FG PaläoUmwelt, GeoZentrum Nordbayern, is thanked for the preparation of the SEM samples and support in the usage of the SEM and EDX device. H. Schorr, owner of the Wattendorf quarry, kindly gave permission for, and logistically supported, the excavations. For fruitful discussions we thank M. Heinze, L. Scharfenberg, and B. Seuß. M. Hethke gave insights into cluster analysis. Last but not least, we acknowledge the constructive reviews of A. Reisdorf, M. Wilson and M. Wuttke.
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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Taphonomic processes in terrestrial and marine environments”
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Chellouche, P., Fürsich, F.T. & Mäuser, M. Taphonomy of neopterygian fishes from the Upper Kimmeridgian Wattendorf Plattenkalk of Southern Germany. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 92, 99–117 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-012-0069-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-012-0069-5