NEW VERTEBRATE SITE (LATE MISSISSIPPIAN) IN KENTUCKY
CHESNUT, Donald R, Jr., and GREB, Stephen F., Kentucky Geological Survey, 228 MMRB,
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0107, chesnut@kgs,mm,uky,edu; STORRS,
Glenn W., Cincinnati Museum Center, 1720 Gilbert Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45202; PHELPS,
Daniel J., Kentucky Paleontological Society, 365 Cromwell Way, Lexington, KY 40503;
HENDRICKS, R. Todd, PO. Box 191, Bardstown, KY 40004.

A late Chesterian paleochannel in the Buffalo Wallow Formation in western Kentucky has
yielded vertebrate fossils. The site was discovered by geologists of the Tradwater Working
Group comprised of the state geological surveys of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. A partially articulated tetrapod skeleton (specimen A) about 1.5 meters in length, a large rhizodontiform(?) skull fragment, and numerous small fish-bone fragments were found just above lag layers in the channel. The anterior third of the tetrapod is missing. Tetrapod vertebrae, skull, jaw, and limb fragments, and a chondrichthyan coprolite were found on a paleosol in the upper part of the channel. The tetrapods are embolomeres (Anthracosauria) in two size ciasses. The 4- to 7-meter-thick paleochannel consists of laterally accreting sandstone and shale with numerous slump features. Lycopod roots (Stigmaria) and mud cracks, found almost to the base, suggest wet-dry seasonalIty, intermittent fresh water, and major stage fluctuations in the channel. Pervasive clay drapes, crossbed orientation, and rare marine traces (Arenicolites) suggest tidal influences and intermittent salt-water incursions. Specimen A may have been washed into the site and covered by a laterally accreting point bar, or slumped bars may have buried the live embolomere in the deeper part of the channel during low water levels. The specimens associated with a paleosol may represent an attritional assemblage.