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| Eurypterus pittsfordensis BARGE CANAL MEMBER, VERNON FORMATION, SALINA GROUP PITTSFORD, NEW YORK |
| AT LEFT: The specimen shown here was excavated from a very temporary exposure of the Barge Canal Member of the Vernon Fm. (Late Silurian Salina Group) near the village of Pittsford, New York. The very fragmentary nature of the rock, usually underwater in the canal, meant that a photo had to be taken as there was no way that the specimen could be retrieved intact. Note the very fractured nature of the black shale in which the specimen is preserved. Within the Salina and overlying Bertie Groups, it is the lowest Vernon Formation that provides our first examples of Eurypterus-like eurypterids. I believe that this eurypterid also occurs in the uppermost beds of the underlying Lockport Group. |
| EURYPTERIDS.NET |
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| From the BuffaloGeological Society Geoletter Volume 43, Number 5, January1993 |
| DISCOVERY OF AN EURYPTERID AT NIAGARA STONE QUARRY Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr., Rochester, New York The BGS field trip to the Niagara Stone Quarry in October was an extremely enjoyable and rewarding experience for me. This was only my second visit to the quarry, but I was rewarded with the discovery of the first eurypterid remains from the Lockport Dolostone of this area. A portion of a swimming leg was found in rocks representing the Algal Phase of the Lockport Group. Preliminary study indicates that the eurypterid is Eurypterus pittsfordensis (see figure at left) well known from the lower Salina Group near Rochester (see Ciurca in NYSGA Field Guidebook, Fredonia, 1990). The search for eurypterid remains in the Lockport Group of the Niagara Region is important to our understanding of paleo- environments of both the Niagaran rocks and the eurypterid faunas of the Bertie Group. In addition, facies patterns can only be analyzed when all Lockport faunas are known and studied. Thanks for inviting me to speak before your group in October, and for inviting Linda Heffron and me to your exciting field trip to the Niagara Stone Quarry. |
| AT LEFT: Reconstruction of Eurypterus pittsfordensis based upon a drawing of Erik N. Kwellesvig-Waering. This eurypterid has an extremely long telson (compare to the modern horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus of our Atlantic East Coast). |
| DISTRIBUTION OF EURYPTERUS PITTSFORDENSIS |
| Eurypterus pittsfordensis occurs primarily in the Pittsford Member of the lower Vernon Formation (Salina Group) just to the southeast of Rochester, New York. |