The Cincinnati Group is a geologic group in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. It is Upper Ordovician in age. This geologic group is made up of member formations: Drakes Formation, Whitewater Formation, Liberty Formation, Arnheim Formation, Grant Lake Limestone, Miamitown Shale, Fairview Formation, and Kope Formation. There are also several members of the respective formations. Most of these formations are highly fossiliferous.
Stratigraphy
Drakes Formation
The Drakes Formation is a geologic formation in Kentucky. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.
The Drakes Formation was named by Weir for outcrops near the East Fork of Drakes Creek in the Paint Lick quadrangle, southwestern east-central Kentucky. This formation ranges from 20 ft to 150 ft thick, thinning northward. It includes four members, Saluda Dolomite Member, Preachersville Member, Rowland Member and Bardstown Member. These formations are made up of interbedded limestone and shale with units of dolomite ranging from a few inches to a few feet think.
Whitewater Formation The Whitewater Formation is a geologic formation in Ohio and Indiana. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician Period.
The Whitewater was first named by J. M. Nickles in 1903.Nickles, J. M., 1903, The Richmond Group in Ohio and Indiana and its subdivisions, with a note on the genus Strophomena and its type: American Geologist, v. 32, p. 202–218. He described exposures of limestone and interbedded calcareous shale along the Whitewater River at Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana.
An excellent exposure of the Whitewater Formation is a roadcut located on Route 27 south of Richmond, Indiana, at 39.7877 N, -84.9014 W. It is typically called "Richmond South" in field guides and other publications.
Liberty Formation
The Liberty Formation is a geologic formation in Ohio and Indiana. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician Period.
Waynesville Formation
The Waynesville Formation is a geologic formation in Ohio and Indiana. It preserves fossils from the Late Ordovician Period.
Paleofauna The Cincinnati Group Has produced many fossil animals. The stratigraphy of the Cincinnati Group is complex and the different constituents unit(Elkhorn,Liberty,Saluda,and Whitewater Formations) Are interpreted as being a complex and coeval system of laterally equivalent environments.
Cephalopoda +Cephalopods of the Cincinnati GroupGenusSpeciesMaterialNotesNarthecocerasN.dunniShells A large 3 m Orthoconic nautiloid.EndocerasE.proteiformeShellsA gigantic orthoconic nautiloid,at least 4.6 m.LambeocerasL.richmondeseShellsA moderately large nautiloid 1 m shell length.TreptocerasT.sp. ShellsA small 20 cm nautiloid.Nautiloid indet.IndetShellsNumerous indeterminate nautiloids.
Arthropoda +Arthropods of the Cincinnati GroupGenusSpeciesMaterialNotesIsotelusI.maximusNumerous specimensGiant 50 cm trilobite.MegalograptusM.ohioensisHolotype specimenLarge 80 cm eurypterid.
See also
List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Kentucky List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Ohio List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Indiana
References