Hunsrück Slate

The Emsian stratigraphy of the southern Rhenish Massif can be divided into two lithological units: the older slates of the Hunsrück-Schiefer and the younger sandstones of the Singhofener Schichten. Stratigraphically below the Hunsrück Slates is the (older) Taunus quartzite.^[1] All these metasedimentary rocks were originally deposited in the marine Rhenohercynian Basin, a back-arc basin south of the paleocontinent of Laurussia.

The Hunsrück Slate roughly comprises the Sauerthal-Schichten, Bornich-Schichten and Kaub-Schichten. These are 408–400 Mya old, making them part of the Latest Pragian to Early Emsian stages of the Devonian.

 

Pyritized Furcaster paleozoicus Stürtz, 1886 (8.5 centimeters long), a fossil brittle star (ophiuroid) from the Hunsrück Lagerstätte. All five arms are bent in the same direction, indicating current direction before final burial

 

Pyritized Euzonosoma tischbeiniana Bundenbach, an extinct seastar, with soft-tissue webbing well-preserved between the arms. An exceptional Hunsrück fossil

The Hunsrück slate was a source for Rhenish slate over several centuries. Archaeological finds in West Germany show that the slate was used in Roman times. The first documented case of mining in this area dates from the 14th century.^[2] The production continued with the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 1700s, but in 1846–49, the industry fell into crisis, resulting in poverty and misery in the mining areas.^[3]

The economic upturn after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 resulted in a renewed increase in slate production, where companies used more extensive pits. Production continued until the 1960s, when the competition from cheaper synthetic or imported slate resulted in production decline. Only a single pit in the Bundenbach region was worked in the 1990s. Since 1999, slate imports from Spain, Portugal, Argentina and China caused the abandonment of local mining.

Mining of Hunsrück slate was important for the discovery of fossils. Although not rare, fossils can only be found through extensive mining of slate. Many of the fine fossils exhibited in museums today were originally found by the slate miners. The first scientific publication on these fossils comes from Ferdinand von Roemer (1862),^[4] who described starfish and crinoid fossils from Bundenbach. German paleontologists such as R. Opitz, F. Broili, R. Judge, and W. M. Lehmann studied many fossils between 1920 and 1959. Lehmann's death in 1959 and the decline of the slate industry caused a decline in fossil research.

In 1970, Wilhelm Stürmer, a chemical physicist and radiologist at Siemens, developed a new method to examine the Hunsrück slate fossils using medium energy X-rays of 25-40 keV. He created high-resolution movies and stereoscopic images of unopened slates, which showed complex details of soft tissues that cannot be made visible with conventional methods. In the 1990s, Christoph Bartels and Günther Brassel have continued this work.^[2]

The various fossil localities are quarries located mostly south of the River Mosel and west of the Rhine in western Germany. The biota of the Hunsrück Slate are commonly called "Bundenbach fossils" after the nearby German community of Bundenbach. More formally, the Hunsruck Slate is properly designated as a Konservat Lagerstätte due to the many fossils that exhibit preservation of soft tissues.^[5]

Hunsrück is one of the few marine Devonian Lagerstätte having soft tissue preservation, and in many cases fossils are coated by a pyritic surface layer. Preservation of soft tissues as fossils normally requires rapid burial in an anoxic (i.e., with little or no oxygen) sedimentary layer where the decomposition of the organic matter is significantly slowed. The pyritization found in Bundenbach fossils facilitated preservation and enhanced the inherent beauty of the fossils.^[6]

Pyritization is rare in the fossil record, and is believed to require not only rapid burial, but both burial in sediments low in organic matter, and high in concentrations of sulfur and iron. Such pyritization is also prevalent in the lower Cambrian fossils from the Maotianshan shales of Chengjiang, China, the oldest Konservat Lagerstätte of Cambrian time.^[7]

The best localities for exceptionally preserved fossils are in the communities of Bundenbach and Gemünden. The slates were widely quarried in the past, mainly for roofing tiles from small pits, of which over 600 are known. Today, only a single quarry remains open in the main fossiliferous region of Bundenbach. There are also areas of the Hunsrück Slates where fossils are neither well preserved, nor pyritized, indicating that there also existed environments with shallow and fully oxygenated water.

More than 260 animal species have been described from the Hunsrück Slate. The deposits occur in a strip some 15 km wide and 150 km long running from northwest to southeast. In the main depositional basins of Kaub, Bundenbach, and Gemünden, echinoderms are concentrated in the southwestern area around Bundenbach, with brachiopods predominating in the northeast. The presence of corals and trilobites with well-developed eyes and the rarity of plant fossils from the central basin areas suggest a shallow-water environment. Other animal fossils include sponges, corals, brachiopods, cephalopods, ctenophores,^[2] cnidarians, gastropods, and worm trace fossils.^[8] Trilobites and echinoderms are relatively abundant in some horizons. Crinoids and starfish are the predominant representatives of the echinoderms, although holothurians (sea cucumbers) are also represented. More than 60 species of crinoids are described from the Hunsrück Slate.

Many types of fishes have been described from the Hunsruck slate. Several genera of placoderm armoured fish have been recorded, including some preserved in three dimensions.^[9] Agnathan jawless fishes are the most commonly preserved vertebrates, particularly the flattened Drepanaspis, notable for its upwards-facing mouth, and the streamlined Pteraspis. Spines from acanthodii^[10] spiny sharks and a single sarcopterygian lobe-fin specimen are also known.^[11][8]

Chelicerates of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Weinbergina		A chelicerate

Cheloniellids of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Cheloniellon		A cheloniellid

Crustaceans of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Nahecaris		A phyllocarid crustacean
Oryctocaris		A phyllocarid crustacean
Ceratiocaris[12]		A phyllocarid crustacean
Heroldina		A phyllocarid crustacean
Hohensteiniella[13]		Early crustacean

Eurypterids of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Jaekelopterus		A giant eurypterid, probably allochthonous[14]
Rhenopterus		Probably misidentified remains of trilobites[14]

Marrellomorphs of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Mimetaster	123 specimens	A marrellomorph, most common non-trilobite arthropod
Vachonisia		A marrellomorph

Radiodonts of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Schinderhannes	1 Specimen	A radiodont

Sea spiders of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Flagellopantopus		A sea spider
Palaeopantopus
Palaeoisopus
Palaeothea
Pentapantopus

Trilobitess of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Chotecops		A trilobite, most common trilobite and arthropod
Odontochile		A trilobite
Cornuproetus		A trilobite
Parahomalonotus		A trilobite
Wenndorfia		A trilobite
Rhenops		A trilobite
"Asteropyge"		A trilobite

Other arthropods of the Hunsrück Slate.
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Bundenbachiellus		An arthropod of uncertain affinities
Captopodus		Possible early mandibulate related to Acheronauta[15]
Cambronatus		An arthropod of uncertain affinities
Magnoculocaris		An arthropod of uncertain affinities, originally named as Magnoculus[16]
Palaeoscorpius		A primitive scorpion
Wingertshellicus		An arthropod of uncertain affinities

Echinoderms
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Cheiropteraster		A brittle star
Furcaster
Loriolaster
Taeniaster
Bundenbachia
Encrinaster
Euzonosoma
Lapworthura
Mastigophiura
Palaeophiomyxa
Ophiurina
Eospondylus
Kentrospondylus
Regulaecystis		A rhombiferan
Echinasterella		A stenuroid
Hystrigaster
Palasteriscus
Sturtzaster
Medusaster
Erinaceaster
Archasterina		A sea star
Palaeosolaster
Palasterina
Helianthaster
Leioactis
Compsaster
Schlueteraster
Protasteracanthion
Kyraster
Baliactis
Urasterella
Hunsrueckaster
Palaeostella
Acanthocrinus		A crinoid
Bactrocrinites
Ctenocrinus
Culicocrinus
Diamenocrinus
Orthocrinus
Lasiocrinus
Follicrinus
Gissocrinus
Propoteriocrinus
Senariocrinus
Iteacrinus
Macarocrinus
Pterinocrinus
Hapalocrinus
Thallocrinus
Antihomocrinus
Calycanthocrinus
Codiacrinus
Dicirrocrinus
Dictenocrinus
Gastrocrinus
Imitatocrinus
Parisangulocrinus
Rhadinocrinus
Rhenocrinus
Triacrinus
Eutaxocrinus
Taxocrinus
Rhenechinus		A echinoid
Pentremitidea		A blastoid
Schizotremites
Mitrocystites (Dalejocystis)		A mitrate
Rhenocystis
Dehmicystis		A solute
Pyrgocystis		A edrioasteroid
Palaeocucumaria		A sea cucumber

Annelids
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Anetoceras		An ammonoid cephalopod
Ivoites[17]		An ammonoid cephalopod
Mimagoniatites		An ammonoid cephalopod
Mimosphinctes		An ammonoid cephalopod
Chebbites		An ammonoid cephalopod
Praecardium		A bivalve
Panenka		A bivalve
Ctenodonta		A bivalve
Cypricardella		A bivalve
Ctenodonta		A bivalve
?Puella		A bivalve
Palaeozygopleura		A gastropod
Bembexia		A gastropod
Loxonema		A gastropod
Platyceras		A gastropod

Vertebrates
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Stuertzaspis		A placoderm
Tityosteus		A placoderm
Stensioella		A placoderm
Lunaspis		A placoderm
Nessariostoma		A placoderm
Drepanaspis		A pteraspidomorph jawless fish
Rhinopteraspis		A pteraspidomorph jawless fish
Paraplesiobatis		A placoderm
Pseudopetalichthys		A placoderm
Gemuendina		A placoderm
Westollrhynchus		A lungfish
Machaeracanthus		Acanthodian

Other animals
Genus	Abundance	Notes	Images
Archaeocydippida		A Ctenophore
Paleoctenophora		A ctenophore
Volgerophyllum[18]		A rugose coral
"Zaphrentis"		A rugose coral
Favosites		A tabulate coral
Pleurodictyum		A tabulate coral
Palaeonectris		A hydrozoan
Plectodiscus		A hydrozoan
Hederella		A hederellid
Conularia		A conulariid
Sphenothallus
Viriatellina		A tentaculitoid
Nowakia
Styliolina
Tentaculites
"Protospongia" rhenana		A sponge
Retifungus
Olkenbachia
Clionolithes

• List of fossil sites (with link directory)

  Media related to Hunsrück Lagerstätte at Wikimedia Commons