page_title: Posidonia Shale
section_title: 1800s
hierarchical_section_title: Posidonia Shale / History / 1800s
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Prof. Dr. Friedrich August Quenstedt im Ornat als Rektor der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Gemälde aus dem Jahre 1868).
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 first related studies with the Posidonia Shale Strata where done on the Early 1800. At the first the Formation was not identified as a separated unit. The first fossils where recovered on several Collections, some since the Modern Age, present on localities like the pits near the Banz Abbey. Among the oldest examples of fossils found on the formation is included the crocodrylomorph Steneosaurus on 1824, but being identified as a Gharial. Was on the 1820s when major studies of the fossil finds where done. Boué did in 1829 a study of the general geology of the Jurassic along Germany, recovering Limestone and Shale Facies, with a superficial assignation of what he considered most of the main Jurassic Strata, without classify the layers on a concrete subperiod. And in 1830 the pterosaur Dorygnathus was described, being the first one from the Formation. On the 1830-40s more works where done, becoming more concrete a recovering different data, setting the firsy assignations for the Lias & Dogger strata along Germany. Buch did a large study about the evolution of the jurassic on the German realm, identified that most of the layers where associated to marine facies & sedimentation, interpretating a change of the emerged lands, with epicontinental deposits on the Southern German Realm. The found facies where compared with ones from the Baltic Sea deposits. The Posidonienschiefer and the Black Jurassic facies where recovered on a 1837 work that studied the deposition on the Rhenish Transitional Mountains, altrougth it was left as a group os strata related to Lias-Dogger transition. A second edition recovered that the facies where similar of those deposited on tropical settings, like Tanzania & other similar settings, specially on near fluvial deposits. Quenstedt do a major recopilation of the Jurassic on 1843 focused on Würtemberg, covering the Black Shales and the Black Jura as only Liassic in age. The first insight on the Flora was done in 1845, with partial leaf fragments. After that, several works where done searching on the Posidonienschiefer, such as Roemer in 1844, returning to the Rhenish Transitional mountains, with the previous works revisited, with a mineral research study for the Posidonia Layers. That was complemented with paleotological studies along other parts, such as Thuringia. The fish genus Lepidotes was recovered on various layers assigned to the Black Jura, being the first main fish Genus identified related to the strata. After 1850, the amount of studies grown, from general studies recovering the petrology, comparing it to other deposits found several parts of Germany petrified small animals, composition in terms of minerals present, chemistry of the procecess recovered on the strata, applications for the mineralogical industry, the Foraminiferans present on marine rocks with its affinities and ecological implications, the Crinoids associated to rafting woods, resemblances with the other liassic strata know on central Europe amd implications for the general lias sedimentology or for the geology and sedimentology respect to other units along Germany. with research on North Germany, where new deposits where found. And finally, recopilations of the previous discoveries along the last decades, compared to the finds on new pits and its layers.
caption: Friedrich August von Quenstedt a German Mineralogist that studied the jurassic strata along Germany, including the Black Shales of the Posidonia Shale.
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