| EURYPTERIDS.NET |
| Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr. Rochester, New York |
| EURYPTERIDS SCORPIONS PHYLLOCARIDS STRATIGRAPHY GEOGRAPHIC OCCURRENCES |
| EURYPTERIDOLOGY |
| The study of every aspect of the nature, occurrence and distribution of mostly aquatic Paleozoic arthropods known as EURYPTERIDS (yoo-rip'-ter-ids) or EURYPTERIDA. A very typical eurypterid, Eurypterus remipes DeKay, was discovered in 1818 in Eastern New York and subequently was described by DeKay in 1825. Eurypterus remipes is the State Fossil of New York (1984). Since this first discovery of eurypterids, thousands of other fossil remains of eurypterids have been reported from almost every continent. European discoveries are most notable and clearly paralleled those of North America in time and space. I began my search in 1962 after finding a specimen of Eurypterus remipes in a glacial erratic along Jaycox Run, a classic Middle Devonian fossil locality. At the time my interest was in fossil plants, including the occurrences and distribution of petrified woods. During a search for the earliest land plant remains in Late Silurian rocks, I wrote a letter to the State Paleontologist of New York, Donald Fisher. As a result of the knowledge he shared with me, I began my persuit at a locality in eastern New York known as Passage Gulf--now a classic locality. At this site, I began to amass a great collection of eurypterid remains, and only rarely encountered interesting plant remains. The following years were spent traversing New York from Albany to Buffalo in search of every outcrop and excavation into the Late Silurian rocks of the region. What follows here, and in the referenced works, is what I've learned throughout this study--a study of thousands of personally collected specimens, thousands of hours in the field hiking up and down ravines, quarries, roadcuts and excavations for highways, buildings and sewage plants. I am indebted to Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering for 10 years of friendship and for sharing his great knowledge of eurypterid faunas and his many papers on the subject. |
| THE BERTIE GROUP |
| The Bertie Group is internationally known for the great variey of fossils of eurypterid remains that have been found over the years since their dis- covery in Eastern New York State. It took many years to build our current understanding of just what con- stitutes the Bertie Group, but in recent years, ever since Donald Fisher (0000) first described the sequence as a group, we have come to appreciate that in New York we have a cyclic sequence of rocks con- taining the remains of countless eurypterids in what have been termed "Eurypterus Beds." |
| DEFINITION OF THE BERTIE GROUP |
| The author is well-known for his field studies of eurypterids and the rocks they are found in. He is a geologist, and graduate of the University of Rochester, having majored in geology and chemistry. He is the author of numerous publications on the subject. He lives in Rochester, New York and is currently revising the stratigraphy of the eurypterid-bearing rocks of New York State and nearby regions. |
| The Bertie Group was first described in Ontario, Canada. In the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, the Bertie Group is exposed in a great variety of quarries, railroad cuts and ledges. While the Bertie Group consists mostly of dolomitic rocks, the overlying rocks are even more resistant (Bois Blanc Limestone and Onondaga Formation), both of Devonian age and often cover the less resistant units like the Bertie waterlimes and included slaly units (eg. Scajaquada Formation). Currently, quarries offer the best exposures of the Bertie Group. Operators blast through the Devonian limestones to reveal the underlying units, including most or all of the units of the Bertie Group. Ciurca has recently redefined the Bertie Group to include the Akron Formation, a mottled dolostone that everywhere overlies the waterlimes of the Bertie Group. See Ciurca, 1990. |
| BERTIE GROUP (Ontario) Akron Formation Williamsville Formation Scajaquada Formation Fiddlers Green Formation Ellicott Creek Brecdia Victor Dolostone Morganville Watelime? underlying units not well known |
| BERTIE GROUP (W. New York) Moran Corners Formation Akron Formation Williamsville Formation Scajaquada Formation Fiddlers Green Formation Ellicott Creek Brecdia Phelps Waterlime Victor Dolostone Morganville Waterlime Oatka Formation Fort Hill Waterlime |
| SALINA GROUP SALINA GROUP Camillus Formation Camillus Formation |
| COPYRIGHT Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr., Rochester, N. Y. 2001 |
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| THIS WEBSITE DEDICATED TO EURYPTERID RESEARCHER ERIK N. KJELLESVIG-WAERING (1912-1979) |
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| Hughmilleria socialis: Digital art by Michael Muto, East Rochester, New York. |
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