Highland Mills - Central Valley SSt (Devonian of the United States)

Where: Orange County, New York (41.3° N, 74.1° W: paleocoordinates 41.2° S, 26.8° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Central Valley Sandstone Formation, Early/Lower Devonian (419.2 - 393.3 Ma)

• The Central Valley sandstone is of Becraft to Oriskany age, with a suggestion that it may prove to be closer to the Oriskany than to the Becraft.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marginal marine; lithified, white, cherty/siliceous sandstone

• The weathered outcrop on the south end of the west side of the Thruway at Highland Mills consists of white-weathering, mottled violet sandstone with a one-foot bed of white-weathering chert at the top of the unit. The sandstone contains poorly sorted detrital grains of quartz, feldspar, white micaceous minerals, and zircon. The detrital material is of medium-grained sand

•size and is angular. In addition to the detrital minerals there is a large percentage of white chert. The chert is possibly of secondary

•origin because the fossils scattered throughout the sandstone and the chert are

•silicified. The chert bed at the top of the unit may represent a bed that was replaced during weathering rather than primary chert. No information is available as to the time of silicification.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: permineralized, replaced with silica

Primary reference: A. J. Boucot. 1959. Brachiopods of the Lower Devonian Rocks at Highland Mills, New York. Journal of Paleontology 33(5):727-769 [L. Ivany/P. Wall]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 75466: authorized by Linda Ivany, entered by Patrick Wall on 10.10.2007

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Pterineidea indet.
Anthozoa
 Rugosa -
Rugosa indet.
Rugosa indet. horn coral
Trilobita
 Proetida -
Proetida indet.
Proetida indet. Fortey and Owens 1975 trilobite
 Phacopida - Dalmanitidae
Odontochile sp.
Odontochile sp. Hawle and Corda 1847 trilobite
 Phacopida - Homalonotidae
cf. Dipleura sp.
cf. Dipleura sp. Green 1832 trilobite
Rhynchonellata
 Athyridida - Meristellidae
? Meristella sp.
 Spiriferinida - Cyrtinidae
Cyrtina rostrata
 Rhynchonellida - Camarotoechiidae
? Camarotoechia sp.
? Camarotoechia sp. Hall and Clarke 1893
 Terebratulida - Centronellidae
Nanothyris cf. subglobosa
 Orthida - Platyorthidae
Platyorthis planoconvexa
 Spiriferida - Hysterolitidae
Hysterolites sp.
Hysterolites sp. von Schlotheim 1820
Strophomenata
 Strophomenida - Chonetidae
Chonetes sp.
Chonetes sp. Fischer de Waldheim 1830
 Strophomenida - Leptostrophiidae
Leptostrophia sp.
Leptostrophia sp. Hall and Clarke 1892
 Strophomenida - Rafinesquinidae
Leptaena ? rhomboidalis
Leptaena ? rhomboidalis Wahlenberg 1818