- Source: Jeffersonville Limestone
The Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone is a mapped bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky. It is highly fossiliferous. The Vernon Fork Member contains Volcanic ash associated with the Tioga Bentonites.
Description
The Jeffersonville is a coarse grained, dark gray, thick bedded, fossiliferous limestone.
R. D. Perkins (1963) divided the Jeffersonville into five zones based on petrology and fossil content, and these are summarized below (in stratigraphic order):
Paraspirifer acuminatus zone (top)
fenestrate bryozoan-brachiopod zone
Brevispirifer gregarius zone
Amphipora-zone
Coral zone (base, overlies Geneva Dolomite or Louisville Limestone)
= Fossils
=The Jeffersonville Limestone is well known for its fossils, including the well-exposed corals, many in life positions, at Falls of the Ohio.
Edward Kindle described many species from the Falls of the Ohio in 1899:
Brachiopods: Atrypa aspera, A. reticularis, Chonetes mucronatus, C. yandellanus, Cyrtina hamiltonensis, Derbya keokuk, Discina sp., Leiorhynchus quadricostatum, Orthis iowensis (?), O. livia, Pentamarella arata, Pentamerus nueleus, Productella subamleata var. catarafla, Productus burlingtonensis, Spirifer acuminatus, S. arctisegmentus, S. byrnesi, S. euruteines, S. gregarius, S. keokuk, S. oweni, S. segmentus, S. subattenuatus, Stropheodonta (now Strophodonta) arctostriatus, S. demissa, S. hemispherica, S. perplana, S. varicosus, Syringothyris texta, Terebratula lincklaeni
Rostroconch: Conocardium trigonale (?), C. cuneus
Corals: Blothorphyllum decorticatum, Conularia micronema, Cyathophyllum rugosum, Diphyphyllum sp., Favosites hemisphericus, Michelinia cylindrica, Thecia minor, Zaphrentis giganteus, Z. ungula
Gastropods: Callonema bellatulum, C. imitator, Platyceras dumosum, Platvstoma lineatum, Trochonema rectilatera, Holopea sp., Pleurotomaria sp., Turbo shumardi
Bivalves: Actinopteria boydi, Aviculopecten sp., Glyptodesma occidentale, Macrodon sp. (?), Modiomorpha affinis, M. mytiloides, Ptychodesma sp.
Trilobites: Proetus canaliculatus, P. crassimarginatus, P. microgemma, Dalmanites anchiops var. sorbrinus, D. selenurus
Campbell and Wickwire (1955) listed the following species in the Jeffersonville from outcrops in the vicinity of Hanover, Indiana:
Corals: Heliophyllum halli, Hexagonaria prisma, Favosites turoinatus, F. limitaris, Emmonsia emmonsi, E. epidermatus, Synaptophyllum simcoense, Homalophyllum exiguum, Zaphrentis phyrgia, Blothrophyllum promissum, Alveolites sps., Michelinia sps.
Bryozoa: Sulcoretepona gilberti, Polypora shumardi
Gastropods: Platyceras dumosum, Bellerophon patulus
Brachiopods: Paraspirifer acuminatus, Brevispirifer gregarius, Fimbrispirifer divaricatus, Meristina nasuta, Megastrophia hemispherica
Bivalves: Turbinopsis shumardi, Glyptodesma occidentali, Conocardium cuneus
Crinoid: Nucleocrinus verneuili
Trilobites: Phacops rana, Anchiops anchiops
Cephalopods: Gyroceras indianense
Other trilobites include the following: Arctinurus sp., Anchiopsis anchiops, Anchiopsis tuberculatus, "Calymene" platys, Coronura aspectans, C. myrmecophorus, C. helena, Crassiproteus clareus, C. crassimarginatus, C. macrocephalus, Greenops kindlei, Odontocephalus bifidus, O. magnus, Odontochile pleuroptyx, Phacops nasutus, Phacops pipa, Trypaulites calypso
Ostracods were documented by Kesling and Peterson in 1958. Genera identified include: Abditoloculina, Adelphobolbina, Ctenoloculina, Flaccivelum, Hollina, Hollinella, and Subligaculum.
The Blastoids Codaster alternatus and Codaster pyramidatus, among others, were identified by Cline and Heuer in 1950 at Falls of the Ohio.
= Notable exposures
=Type locality is at Falls of the Ohio State Park near Louisville, Kentucky.
Age
Relative age dating places the Jeffersonville in the lower to middle Devonian. Devera and Fraunfelter identified it as Emsian-Eifelian based on coral and foraminifera.
See also
List of types of limestone
References
External links
Indiana Geological Survey page on Jeffersonville Limestone
KYANA Geological Society Devonian page, showing photographs of fossils collected from the Jeffersonville and other formations
guidebook Silurian and Devonian Geology and Paleontology at the Falls of the Ohio, Kentucky/Indiana, 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, fieldtrip guidebook, 2005