The Glenshaw Formation is where I find most fossils featured on this website. It is a type section named by N. K. Flint in 1965. The Glenshaw and the younger Casselman Formation together comprise the Conemaugh Group. The Conemaugh Group is part of an entire third-order T-R unit.
The top part of the formation locally is located at hilltops. This boundary is found by locating an extensive marine stratum known as the Ames Limestone. If I look at lower elevations towards the Kiskiminetas River, the Glenshaw and the Allegheny Formation meet, at the Upper Freeport Coal/Lower Mahoning Sandstone boundary.
The Glenshaw Formation contains both marine and plant fossils in Western Pennsylvania. There are a number of marine zones that may contain limestone deposits. These represent times when ancient seas covered the land and deposited rocks. Limestone forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters. The resulting layers read like a story.
The Ames Limestone caps the top of the formation. In-between you will find Woods Run Cambridge, Pine Creek, and Brush Creek Limestone. The bottom of the formation is the Upper Freeport Coal layer. Unfortunately, a number of older research papers have the Pine Creek Limestone referenced as the Upper Brush Creek. This designation is also popular in Ohio. It can be confusing to correlate limestone layers between Pennsylvania and our neighbors.
Fossils in the Glenshaw Formation
The Glenshaw in Pennsylvania represents a very dynamic period of sediment deposits. This has generated a very wide range of fossils. The rarest among these are tetrapods. Recovered examples are few. These vertebrates are largely found in thin, nonmarine limestones, or paleosols. The carniverious tetrapod Fedexia striegeli was found in the younger the Casselman Formation. The paper describing this rare find also contains vertebrate finds within the Conemaugh Group in more detail.
With this wide range of available fossils, there are many types to find. Land vertebrates (extremely rare), fish, plants, and a wide gamut of marine creatures are available to find.
Plant Fossils Available
Thus far, I have found a great number of plant fossils between the Woods Run and Brush Creek Limestone. Within, there are various shale and sandstone layers. Examples of plants found locally in the Glenshaw Formation are Calamites, Lepidodendron, Macroneuropteris, and the seed fern Pecopteris.
Marine Fossils Available
Along with plant fossils, marine fossils have been plentiful in my part of the Glenshaw. These fossils can be found in both limestone and shale, and possibly sandstone. Although, so far I have only found plant fossils in sandstone. Examples include Gastropods, Cephalopods, Brachiopods, Crinoids, Clams, Sea Pens, and even a Fish/Shark Tooth.
Particular layers of the Brush and Pine Creek limestones appear to preserve shell material with original aragonite material remaining.
Geologic Time
This formation represents 5 million years of time, according to a Ph.D. dissertation by Shulik 1979. According to Perera and Stigall in 2018, figure 2 of their research shows the Glenshaw deposits starting at 307 million years ago and ending at 303.7 million years ago. These newer estimates are placing this closer to 3.3 million years of time.
Larger Picture of the Glenshaw
All of the rocks within the Glenshaw Formation are sedimentary rocks. There may be an ash fall layer below the Pine Creek limestone, however, this is still considered sediment that was laid down and later lithified. In literature about the formation, there exist several charts that correlate the various layers with geologic time. This illustration below is a compromise between charts by J.A. Harper and S. N. Perera.
Gallery of Rock Photos in the Glenshaw Formation
Split Shale
Showing Coloration in Shale
Shale
Sandstone with Underlying Shale
References and Further Reading
- Article – Wikipedia
- Formation Page – USGS
- Flint, N.K., 1965, Geology and mineral resources of southern Somerset County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Geological Survey County Report, 4th series, no. 56A, 267 p.
- Heckel, P.H., Barrick, J.E., and Rosscoe, S.J., 2011, Conodont-based correlation of marine units in lower Conemaugh Group (Late Pennsylvanian) in Northern Appalachian Basin, Stratigraphy, v. 8, p. 253-269.
- Lebold, J.G., 2005, Gradient and recurrence analyses of four marine zones in the Glenshaw Formation (Upper Pennsylvanian, Appalachian Basin), West Virginia University Dissertation
- Shulik, S.J., 1979, The Paleomagnetism of the Carboniferous Strata in the Northern Appalachian Basin with applications toward magnetostratigraphy
- S.N. Perera, A.L. Stigall, Identifying hierarchical spatial patterns within paleocommunities: An example from the Upper Pennsylvanian Ames Limestone of the Appalachian Basin – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology V. 506, Pages 1-11
- D.S. Berman, A.C. Henrici, D.K. Brezinski, A.D. Kollar, 2010, A New Trematopid Amphibian (Temnospondyli: Dissorophoidea) from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Western Pennsylvania: Earliest Record of Terrestrial Vertebrates Responding to a Warmer, Drier Climate – Annals of Carnegie Museum Vol 78, No 4.