page_title: Posidonia Shale
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Posidonia Shale / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ehemalige Tongrube bei Marloffstein
context_page_description: The Posidonia Shale is an Early Jurassic geological formation of southwestern Germany, northern Switzerland, western Czech Republic, northwestern Austria, southeast Luxembourg and the Netherlands, including exceptionally well-preserved complete skeletons of fossil marine fish and reptiles. The Posidonienschiefer, as German paleontologists call it, takes its name from the ubiquitous fossils of the oyster-related bivalve Posidonia bronni that characterize the mollusk faunal component of the formation.
  The formation comprises finely laminated layers of oil shales formed of fine-grained sediments intercalated with bituminous limestones and crops out in a number of locations in southwestern Germany, although most remains are from near the village of Holzmaden. The European oil shales deposited on a sea floor during the Early Toarcian in the ancient Tethys Ocean are described as being deposited in an anoxic, or oxygen-depleted, deep water environment, although the details of the depositional environment are the subject of debate by researchers of the formation.
context_section_description: The Lower Toarcian is characterized by the widespread occurrence of organic-rich mudstones, termed black shales, in western Europe and other parts of the world. It is considered to represent mostly marine units, including Pelagic, epicontinental and on a more less presence, deltaic and seashore environments. Near Shore sections are filled with algal fragments and pollen, that suggest interceded dunar environments with proximal water and Halophile flora, and probably water flooded forests. Most of the fossilized environments are open sea and marine settings, with abundance of shells and coral fragments. The relation between the sea environments and the less present terrestrial match with the paleogeography of the Lower Toarcian of Europe, where a main sea covered most part of the modern countries, with emerged lands such as the Amoricanian Massif or the Bohemian Massif.
caption: Former clay pit in Marloffstein
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.8", "Image DateTime": "2011:10:09 17:14:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "584", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2374", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6452", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "67/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:10:09 15:03:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:10:09 15:03:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "0", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3081", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1987", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2250", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}