Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Waaipoort Formation
Geologic formation in South Africa From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
The Waaipoort Formation is a geologic formation in South Africa. It preserves fossils dating back to the Visean, in the Carboniferous period.[1]
Geology
The Waaipoort formation consists of mudstones, siltstones, and fine sandstones and is around 35 meters thick. Fish-bearing localities are common and in most of these, the fish are present in calcitic or phosphatic nodules. At the Schiethoogte locality in the Eastern Cape, a 15 cm thick black layer made up of siltstone and fine sandstone contains two horizons where actinopterygian fossils are closely packed. These are thought to represent mass mortality events.[1]
Remove ads
Paleoenvironment
The Waaipoort formation has most commonly been interpreted as a marginal marine environment, possibly a lagoon or a delta. The fauna, composed mostly of paleoniscoids, is a large divergence from the predominantly placoderm- and sarcopterygian- dominated faunas of previous Witteberg Group formations like the Witpoort Formation.[1]
Fossil content
Color key
|
Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Acanthodians
Chondrichthyes
Palaeonisciformes
Eurypterids
Bivalves
Flora
See also
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads