page_title: Ciechocinek Formation
section_title: Paleofauna
hierarchical_section_title: Ciechocinek Formation / Paleofauna
caption_attribution_description: Planolites sp. fossil at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen
context_page_description: The Ciechocinek Formation is a Jurassic geologic formation that extends from Grimmen, Germany, to Poland. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, including the Thyreoporan Emausaurus and others which have not yet been allocated to a specific genus. The layers assigned to the formation are a group of sediments that differ from the those of the Posidonia Shale and other Toarcian formations of Europe. Most of the sediments of the Polish realm come from deltaic, fluvial and marine deposits. In the Polish realm there is also an abundance of siderite, attributed to mixed saline and marine action, with the rounding off of some due to transport by freshwater or sea currents. Fossil-rich upper Liassic carbonate concretions are occasionally found as glacial erratic boulders. Erratic boulders of so-called Grätensandstein can be dated by their ammonite content as lower Toarcian sandstones with concentrations of fish remains and missing ammonites known from gravel pits south of the Grimmen Anticline in Western Pomerania. Those strata are the most important level of the Green Series Formation.
context_section_description: Insects are abundant on the German realm, including collections of up to 3000 specimens. In contrast to the famous Posidonia Shale, considerably fewer vertebrates are known from coeval sediments and most in northeastern Germany. Recent works on the pits have reveal several vertebrate fauna, including fishes, crocodrylomorphs, gravisaurians and others. Of the invertebrate fauna insects, bivalves, sea snails and ammonites (Genus Tiltoniceras, Eleganticeras and Lobolytoceras) have been found. The vertebrate fauna is also varied, with fossils of the fish genus Saurorhynchus, and the new genus Grimmenichthys and Grimmenodon. Reptile fossils include Ichthyosauria indet., indeterminate Plesiosauria, rhomaleosaurid plesiosaurs, indeterminate Mesoeucrocodylia (probably Goniopholididae), indeterminate Thalattosuchia at least two gravisaurian sauropods, probably an Averostran theropod, and the thyreorphoran Emausaurus. On the Polish realm the fauna is represented by Conchostracans, rare Foraminifera and scarce Ostracoda as the main components, with occasional undetermined Bivalves, Gastropods and Fish teeth & scales (Synechodontiformes, Hemiscylliidae?, Leptolepidae, Tetragonolepis and Lepisosteiformes) and various ichnospecies of vertebrate and invertebrate fauna. Invertebrates include mostly marine organisms, such as Planolites (Worm-like animals), Palaeophycus (Polychaeta), Protovirgularia (Nuculoidea) and Spongeliomorpha (Decapoda).
caption: Worm-like burrows Planolites come specially from the Polish realm.
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