Soft-bodied fossils from the roof shales of the Wigan Four Foot coal seam, Westhoughton, Lancashire, UK

Abstract

Exceptionally preserved fossils are described from the Westhoughton opencast coal pit near Wigan, Lancashire, UK (uppermost Westphalian A, Lower Modiolaris Chronozone, regularis faunal belt). The fossils occur within sideritic concretions in a 1.5-metre zone above the Wigan Four Foot coal seam. Arthropods dominate the fauna and include arachnids, arthropleurids, crustaceans, eurypterids, euthycarcinoids, millipedes and xiphosurans. Vertebrates are represented by a single palaeoniscid fish, numerous disarticulated scales and coprolites. Upright Sigillaria trees, massive bedded units and a general lack of trace fossils in the roof shales of the Wigan Four Foot coal seam suggest that deposition of the beds containing these concretions was relatively rapid. Discovery of similar faunas at the equivalent stratigraphic level some distance away point to regional rather than localized controls on exceptional preservation.

A Carboniferous Synziphosurine (Xiphosura) From the Bear Gulch Limestone, Montana, Usa

“…The Bear Gulch Limestone contains an unusually diverse xiphosuran biota. Comparable xiphosuran diversity occurs in the Mazon Creek biota, deposits of similar age (Westphalian) in England (Anderson 1994; Anderson et al . 1999), and the Middle Triassic Montral‐Alcover biota, Spain (Vía 1987).…”

On the phylogenetic position of the palaeopteran Syntonopteroidea (Insecta: Ephemeroptera), with a new species from the Upper Carboniferous of England

“…This is one of the major currently investigated localities in the UK at which insects in siderite concretions have been preserved. Its fossil fauna, as well as data on geology and stratigraphy, have been treated extensively by Anderson et al (1999).…”

“…The fossil was found in a nodule in the tips at Crock Hey opencast pit (accessible 2001-2005), roof shales of Ru's coal seam 2b, Langsettian (Westphalian A), Late Carboniferous, Lancashire, UK (Anderson et al 1999).…”

Record of glacial–eustatic sea-level fluctuations in complex middle to late Pennsylvanian facies in the Northern Appalachian Basin and relation to similar events in the Midcontinent basin

“…The fossils reported from the Upper Freeport roofshales include the abundant conchostracan Paleolimnadiopsis (Williams, 1960), a rare bivalve Anthraconaia pruvosti (identified by Eagar and Belt, 2003), and an uncommon xiphosauran, Euproöps, which has been reported from fresh-water deposits elsewhere (Zangerl and Richardson, 1963;Fisher, 1979;Anderson et al, 1999). Shales with these fossils from both the Kempton pit, Maryland (Fig.…”