A depositional model for the Linton tetrapod assemblage (Westphalian D, Upper Carboniferous) and its palaeoenvironmental significance

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Abstract
A palaeoenvironmental study indicates that fossils from the famous Upper Carboniferous vertebrate deposit of Linton, Ohio, are preserved in an allochthonous organic filling of an abandoned river channel. A depositional model developed from this analysis is corroborated by other Coal Measure vertebrate localities in Europe that also appear to represent abandoned channels. Additional vertebrate occurrences were discovered in the Ohio Valley by prospecting coal-bearing intervals for similar channel deposits. These results suggest that environmental models based on study of geological controls influencing fossil concentrations, combined with information on collecting histories of classic sites, offer an improved understanding of seemingly extraordinary assemblages and a means by which further fossiliferous deposits may be located.