Also known as Aletta 4350 Mine, Dundee

Where: Germany (49.0° N, 9.0° E: paleocoordinates 38.6° N, 18.3° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Jurassic (201.4 - 145.0 Ma)

• The matrix contains the distinctive pollen Classopollis which is not known from elsewhere in the world in deposits older than Late Triassic. Comparative tests of the degree of thermal diagenesis of the contained organic material suggests that the ammonite specimens have not been subjected to the same degree of alteration as the sediments at the Alleta mine. Results of other tests have not been definitive but do not contradict the suggestion that the ammonites were mistakenly accredited to the Alleta mine. It is concluded that the ammonites derived originally from sediments of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic age at an unknown locality outside of South Africa.

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•Teichert & Rilett observed that the compressed style of preservation of the ammonites is not unique but is in fact the rule in deposits such as the Lower Jurassic Holzmadener Schiefer, the Middle Jurassic Opalinus-Ton of southern Germany, and the Middle to Upper Jurassic Oxford clay of England. The presence of aragonite in the ammonite is not typical for Karoo fossils, but would be more consistent with a Jurassic age from Europe.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified mudstone

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by M. Rilett

• Repository: Natal Museum

Primary reference: M.H. Rilett. 1963. A fossil cephalopod from the Middle Ecca beds in the Klip River coalfield near Dundee, Natal. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 37(1):73-74 [P. Scofield/P. Scofield]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 81402: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 21.06.2008

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)