FIRST FISHES FROM THE SILURIAN (PRIDOLIAN) BERTIE LAGERSTATTE OF NEW YORK STATE

Intensive collecting shows the Bertie Group to be a low frequency lagerstatte deposit. Known for its spectacular eurypterid fossils, the Bertie occasionally yields other much rarer taxa including two kinds of scorpions, algae, fungus, land plants, trace fossils, coiled and straight cephalopods, gastropods, worms, phyllocarids, nektaspidids, barnacles, horseshoe crabs, condrophore hydrozoans and brachiopods. Most of the fossils are from lightly sclerotized or soft body taxa and many are undescribed.

The fish are a Birkeniad, a probable thelodont and acanthodians. These represent three different major groups of Silurian fish and can establish links to other faunas casting light on the depositional environment which has eluded understanding. The fish were all recovered from Lang’s Quarry in Herkimer County, New York.