Eller, Eugene Rudy. (1940). New Silurian Scolecodonts from the Albion beds of the Niagara Gorge, New York. Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 28: 9-46, plates I-VII.
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Eller, Eugene Rudy
1940
New Silurian Scolecodonts from the Albion beds of the Niagara Gorge, New York
[From introduction:]
Of the five thousand Scolecodonts, fossil polychaete annelid jaws, examined in this study, more than ninety per cent were found to be broken or badly crushed out of shape. Preliminary sketches were made of about five hundred good or usable forms. All specimens which were broken or which might leave a slight doubt as to their true shape were rejected.
The specimens were collected along the tracks of the Lewiston
Branch of the New York Central Railroad, just north of the tunnel near the mouth of the Niagara Gorge, about one-half mile south of Lewiston, New York. They came from the thin-bedded, calcareous sandstone layers of the Manitoulin Beds, Albion formation, Medina Group, of Silurian age. The Manitoulin beds are about thirty feet thick and consist of dark greenish shale, thin-bedded argillaceous magnesian limestone, and thin, calcareous sandstone layers. Fossils are scarce in these beds. The Scolecodont horizon is from about twenty to twenty-five feet above the Whirlpool sandstone.
The layer containing the jaws was discovered by Mr. Raymond B. Hibbard, of Buffalo, New York, while searching for Bryozoa. When the Scolecodont layer is exposed, it becomes covered with a soft crust of calcareous mud which conceals the specimens from view in ordinary prospecting. To find the fossil jaws it is necessary to wash the mud from the rocks. This, of course, destroys many of the specimens. Scolecodonts were known to occur in the Niagara Gorge and the writer had spent a great deal of time searching for them and is therefore indebted to Mr. Hibbard for disclosing their exact locality. Thanks are also due to Mr. Max Kopf of Lancaster, New York, and to Mr. Hibbard for their assistance in collecting the specimens.