Jeffersonville Limestone

The Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone is a mapped bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky. It is highly fossiliferous.

Jeffersonville Limestone
Stratigraphic range: Devonian
Large rugose coral (above hammer) in the Jeffersonville Limestone at the Falls of the Ohio
Typesedimentary
Unit ofMuscatatuck Group
Sub-unitsDutch Creek Sandstone Member, Geneva Dolomite Member, Vernon Fork Member[1]
UnderliesNorth Vernon Formation and Sellersburg Limestone
OverliesClear Creek Chert and Louisville Limestone
Thickness20 ft at Louisville, KY,[2] 0 to 61 m in southwest Indiana[1]
Lithology
Primarylimestone
Location
RegionCincinnati Arch
CountryUnited States
ExtentIndiana, Kentucky
Type section
Named forJeffersonville, Indiana
Named byEdward M. Kindle, 1899[3]

Description

The Jeffersonville is a coarse grained, dark gray, thick bedded, fossiliferous limestone.[2]

R. D. Perkins (1963) divided the Jeffersonville into five zones based on petrology and fossil content,[4] and these are summarized below (in stratigraphic order):

  • Paraspirifer acuminatus zone (top)
  • fenestrate bryozoan-brachiopod zone
  • Brevispirifer gregarius zone
  • Amphipora-zone
  • Coral zone (base, overlies Geneva Dolomite or Louisville Limestone)

Fossils

The Jeffersonville Limestone is well known for its fossils, including the well-exposed corals, many in life positions, at Falls of the Ohio.

Edward Kindle described many species from the Falls of the Ohio in 1899:[3]

  • Brachiopods: Atrypa aspera, A. reticularis, Chonetes mucronatus, C. yandellanus, Cyrtina hamiltonensis, Derbya keokuk, Discina sp., Leiorhynchus quadricostatum, Orthis iowensis (?), O. livia, Pentamarella arata, Pentamerus nueleus, Productella subamleata var. catarafla, Productus burlingtonensis, Spirifer acuminatus, S. arctisegmentus, S. byrnesi, S. euruteines, S. gregarius, S. keokuk, S. oweni, S. segmentus, S. subattenuatus, Stropheodonta (now Strophodonta) arctostriatus, S. demissa, S. hemispherica, S. perplana, S. varicosus, Syringothyris texta, Terebratula lincklaeni
  • Rostroconch: Conocardium trigonale (?), C. cuneus
  • Corals: Blothorphyllum decorticatum, Conularia micronema, Cyathophyllum rugosum, Diphyphyllum sp., Favosites hemisphericus, Michelinia cylindrica, Thecia minor,[5] Zaphrentis giganteus, Z. ungula
  • Gastropods: Callonema bellatulum, C. imitator, Platyceras dumosum, Platvstoma lineatum, Trochonema rectilatera, Holopea sp., Pleurotomaria sp., Turbo shumardi
  • Bivalves: Actinopteria boydi, Aviculopecten sp., Glyptodesma occidentale, Macrodon sp. (?), Modiomorpha affinis, M. mytiloides, Ptychodesma sp.
  • Trilobites: Proetus canaliculatus, P. crassimarginatus, P. microgemma, Dalmanites anchiops var. sorbrinus, D. selenurus

Campbell and Wickwire (1955) listed the following species in the Jeffersonville from outcrops in the vicinity of Hanover, Indiana:[6]

  • Corals: Heliophyllum halli, Hexagonaria prisma, Favosites turoinatus, F. limitaris, Emmonsia emmonsi, E. epidermatus, Synaptophyllum simcoense, Homalophyllum exiguum, Zaphrentis phyrgia, Blothrophyllum promissum, Alveolites sps., Michelinia sps.
  • Bryozoa: Sulcoretepona gilberti, Polypora shumardi
  • Gastropods: Platyceras dumosum, Bellerophon patulus
  • Brachiopods: Paraspirifer acuminatus, Brevispirifer gregarius, Fimbrispirifer divaricatus, Meristina nasuta, Megastrophia hemispherica
  • Bivalves: Turbinopsis shumardi, Glyptodesma occidentali, Conocardium cuneus
  • Crinoid: Nucleocrinus verneuili
  • Trilobites: Phacops rana, Anchiops anchiops
  • Cephalopods: Gyroceras indianense

Other trilobites include the following: Arctinurus sp., Anchiopsis anchiops, Anchiopsis tuberculatus, "Calymene" platys, Coronura aspectans, C. myrmecophorus, C. helena, Crassiproteus clareus, C. crassimarginatus, C. macrocephalus, Greenops kindlei, Odontocephalus bifidus, O. magnus, Odontochile pleuroptyx, Phacops nasutus, Phacops pipa, Trypaulites calypso[7][8][9]

Ostracods were documented by Kesling and Peterson in 1958.[10] Genera identified include: Abditoloculina, Adelphobolbina, Ctenoloculina, Flaccivelum, Hollina, Hollinella, and Subligaculum.

The Blastoids Codaster alternatus and Codaster pyramidatus, among others, were identified by Cline and Heuer in 1950 at Falls of the Ohio.[11]

Notable exposures

Type locality is at Falls of the Ohio State Park near Louisville, Kentucky.

Age

Relative age dating places the Jeffersonville in the lower to middle Devonian. Devera and Fraunfelter identified it as Emsian-Eifelian based on coral and foraminifera.[1]

See also

References
  1. Devera, J.A., and Fraunfelter, G.H., 1988, Middle Devonian paleogeography and tectonic relationships east of the Ozark dome, southeastern Missouri, southwestern Illinois and parts of southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky, IN McMillan, N.J., Embry, A.F., and Glass, D.J., eds., Devonian of the World; proceedings of the 2nd international symposium on the Devonian System; Volume II, Sedimentation: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 14, p. 179-196.
  2. Butts, Charles, 1915, Geology and mineral resources of Jefferson County, Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey [Report], 4th series, v. 3, pt. 2, 270 p.
  3. Kindle, E.M., 1899, The Devonian and lower Carboniferous faunas of southern Indiana and central Kentucky: Bulletins of American Paleontology, no. 12, 112 p.
  4. Ronald D. Perkins, 1963, Petrology of the Jeffersonville Limestone (Middle Devonian) of Southeastern Indiana: Geological Society of America Bulletin (1963), 74(11):1335-1354 abstract
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2011-06-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. Formations of Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian Rocks in the vicinity of Hanover, Indiana. Compiled by Guy Campbell and Grant T. Wickwire, 1955 full text
  7. Trilobites at the Falls of the Ohio, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, Interpretive Services (brochure)
  8. Delo, David M., 1940. Phacopid Trilobites of North America. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 29.
  9. Stumm, E. C., 1954. Lower Middle Devonian Phacopid Trilobites from Michigan, Southwestern Ontario, and the Ohio Valley. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, MI. Vol. XI, pp. 201-221.
  10. Robert V. Kesling and Rex M. Peterson, 1958, Middle Devonian Hollinid Ostracods from the Falls of the Ohio: Micropaleontology. Vol. 4, No. 2 (April 1958), pp. 129-148
  11. L. M. Cline and Edward Heuer, 1950, The Codaster alternatus-Codaster pyramidatus Group of Blastoids from the Mid-Devonian of North America: Journal of Paleontology Vol. 24, No. 2 (March 1950), pp. 154-173
  • Indiana Geological Survey page on Jeffersonville Limestone
  • KYANA Geological Society Devonian page, showing photographs of fossils collected from the Jeffersonville and other formations
  • guidebook Silurian and Devonian Geology and Paleontology at the Falls of the Ohio, Kentucky/Indiana, 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, fieldtrip guidebook, 2005
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