Mazon Creek - Fossil Ecosystems of North America: A Guide to the Sites and their Extraordinary Biotas - page 125

Braidwood biota, and his myalinid
association, consisting principally of
Edmondia and myalinid bivalves,
corresponds to the Essex biota. It appears
that the Mazon Creek biotas are common
in Pennsylvanian deltaic settings, but that
Mazon Creek exceptionally preserves
the soft-bodied biota which is normally
lost by taphonomic processes at other
localities.
Mazon Creek-type biotas have been
found in ironstone concretions in other
parts of the world, but nowhere have they
been as well studied. For example, a
number of localities in the British Coal
Measures have yielded good nodule biotas,
e.g. in the UK, Sparth Bottoms (Rochdale),
Coseley (West Midlands), and Bickershaw,
Lancashire (Anderson et al . 1998). A

similar biota occurs at Montceau-les-Mines
in France (Poplin and Heyler 1994). Other
Pennsylvanian localities contribute
additional information to knowledge of late
Paleozoic nonmarine life. For example, the
non-nodule locality of Nyrany (Czech
Republic) is renowned for its exceptional
tetrapod fossils. Schram (1979), in a
systematic study of mainly crustaceans in
Carboniferous nonmarine biotas, argued
that stable, predictable associations
persisted throughout the period in a
continuum. The Grès à Voltzia biota
(Selden and Nudds, 2004, Chapter 7) is an
extension of Schram's continuum into the
Triassic (Briggs and Gall, 1990). Thus, the
marginal marine ecosystem seems to have
been little affected by the great Permo-
Triassic extinction event.

F URTHER R EADING
Anderson, L. I., Dunlop, J. A.,
Horrocks, C. A., Winkelmann, H. M.
and Eagar R. M. C. 1997.
Exceptionally preserved fossils from
Bickershaw, Lancashire, UK (Upper
Carboniferous, Westphalian A
(Langsettian)). Geological Journal 32 ,
197-210.
Baird, G. C., Sroka, S. D., Shabica, C. W.
and Kuecher, G. J. 1986. Taphonomy
of Middle Pennsylvanian Mazon
Creek area fossil localities, northeast
Illinois: significance of exceptional
fossil preservation in syngenetic
concretions. Palaios 1 ,
271-285.
Bartels, C., Briggs, D. E. G. and Brassel,
G. 1998. Fossils of the Hunsrück Slate
- marine life in the Devonian .
Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Grimaldi, D. and Engel, M. S. 2005.
Evolution of the Insects . Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge and
New York.

Johnson, G. A. L. and Nudds, J. R. 1975.
Carboniferous coral geochronometers.
27-42. In: Growth Rhythms and the
History of the Earth's Rotation . G. D.
Rosenberg, and S. K. Runcorn (eds.).
John Wiley, London.
Kuecher, G. J., Woodland, B. G. and
Broadhurst, F. M. 1990. Evidence of
deposition from individual tides and
of tidal cycles from the Francis
Creek Shale (host rock to the
Mazon Creek Biota), Westphalian D
(Pennsylvanian), northeastern Illinois.
Sedimentary Geology 68 , 211-221.
Nitecki, M. H. (ed.) 1979. Mazon Creek
Fossils . New York, Academic Press.
Poplin, C. and Heyler, D. (eds.) 1994.
Quand le Massif Central était sous
l'Équateur. Un Écosystème
Carbonifère à Montceau-les-Mines .
Comité des Travaux Historiques et
Scientifiques, Paris.
Richardson, E. S. and Johnson, R. G.
1971. The Mazon Creek faunas.
Proceedings of the North American
Paleontological Convention, 5-7
September 1969, Field Museum of
Natural History 1 , 1222-1235.