Korbach Fissure (Permian of Germany)

Also known as Fisseler quarry, Korbacher Spalte, Steinbruch Fisseler

Where: Hesse, Germany (51.3° N, 8.9° E: paleocoordinates 15.4° N, 21.8° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Werra Formation (Zechstein Group), Wuchiapingian (259.9 - 254.2 Ma)

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fissure fill; fine-grained, dolomitic, red mudstone and medium-grained, dolomitic, yellow mudstone

• "After the deposition of the Randkalk limestones the Zechstein sea temporarily retreated from the Korbach region along the eastern margin of the Rhenish Massif. [...] During the regression of the Zechstein sea, a tectonic event [...] led to the opening of the fissure. The infilling of the fissure by bone-bearing sediments apparently occured fairly rapidly. The relatively fine-grained sedimentary material was probably introduced into the fissure as an aqueous, highly concentrated suspension, possibly as the result of flash floods produced by (perhaps seasonal) rainstorms."

•Plant remains coming from "roughly coeval strata [...] belong to the Callipterys-conifer asociation (sensu Schweitzer 1986), and their anatomical features indicate a dry semi-arid climate."

• The fissure fill [...] opened in a tectonic lineament formed in oncoidal limestones of the Randkalk (A1Ca) of the lower Zechstein (Z1) [...] The fissure has been filled with dolomitic mudstone, which is reddish-purple in some areas but pale yellow in other places. The reddish deposits are fairly fine-grained whereas the yellowish deposits tend to be somewhat more coarse-grained and diagenetically indurated. [...] The yellowish mustone deposits are pockmarked by numerous solutional cavities, which are lined with calcite crystals. The mudstone fissure filling shows no obvious stratification. At a depth of about 5 m below the present-day top, we uncovered a layer of numerous angular blocks of limestone, which reach a diameter of up to 60 cm. These blocks, many of which are encrusted by iron an manganese oxides and are deeply reddened by subaerial weathering, represent the overlying Rosetten-Kalk. The Rosetten-Kalk was eroded away in the immediate vicinity of the quarry during the subsequent geological history of that area."

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: permineralized

Collection methods: chemical, mechanical,

• "Individual specimens were prepared using needles ground from rods of tungsten carbide and dental drills after application of commercially available cyanoacrylate glues to consolidate the fossils. Attempts to dissolve small samples of the fossiliferous matrix in diluted (5%) acetic acid yielded only small pieces of indeterminate bone. The fragmentary state of preservation of many bones prevents their identification."

Primary reference: H. D. Sues and W. Munk. 1996. A remarkable assemblage of terrestrial tetrapods from the Zechstein (Upper Permian: Tatarian) near Korbach (northwestern Hesse). Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 70(1/2):213-223 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 84836: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 14.11.2008, edited by Bryan Gee

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Osteichthyes
 Dicynodontia -
Dicynodontia indet. Owen 1859 dicynodont
 Therapsida - Procynosuchidae
Procynosuchus cf. delaharpeae Broom 1937 cynodont
PIM-N1225 (left dentary)
Reptilia
 Eureptilia - Captorhinidae
Captorhinidae indet. Case 1911 eureptile
 Diapsida -
cf. Protorosaurus sp. Meyer 1830 archosauromorph
 Procolophonomorpha -
cf. Parasaurus geinitzi von Meyer 1857 parareptile
Osteichthyes
 Tetrapoda - Bystrowianidae
Hassiacoscutum munki n. gen. n. sp.
Hassiacoscutum munki n. gen. n. sp. Witzmann et al. 2019 tetrapod
SMNK-PAL 9104 (holotype): osteoderm