[F] Solnhofen Formation - Germany
Germany
From the Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones of Solnhofen, only nine specimens of only two kinds of dinosaurs have been described: Archaepteryx and Compsognathus. The exceptional preservtion in the lithographic limestones led to recovery of the first known Mesozoic bird feather. Stratigraphically, the Solnhofen Formation has been assigned to the lower part of the lower Tithonian.
\\\"In the Tithonian Solnhofen Plattenkalk (Malm [symbol for lower case Greek \\\'zeta\\\' -- JAH] 2) of southern Germany, layers of purely micritic limestone are rhythmically interbedded with ones of marly micritic limestone. It appears that this alternation was formed under control of the Tithonian orbital variations. The Fourier spectral analysis shows that, on a decimetric to metric scale, the long-term cyclicities in the number of laminae per centimetre are in agreement with those found in the bed-thickness series, varying from 0.7 to 1.3 m cycles.
The number of laminae of the Solnhofen Formation ranges from about 5,800 to about 12,800 laminae per main cycle. This indicates that, under an assumption that the main cycle of the Solnhofen Formation corresponds to the Tithonian precessional one, a single lamina represents a multi-year time interval. Particularly, in the short-term cyclic domain, the laminated sequence contains clearly millimetric cycles consisting of about two to three cyclic components.
It implies that laminae formation may result from the composite effect of two or three distinct climatic processes.\\\" Abstract of: Park, M.-H. & Fürsich, F.T. 2001. Cyclic nature of lamination in the Tithonian Solnhofen Plattenkalk of southern Germany and its palaeoclimatic implications. International Journal of Earth Sciences 135: 191 (Springer, VERLAG)
Archaeopteryx bavarica ~/~ - Avialae Archaeopterygidae - Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian
Archaeopteryx lithographica ~/~ - Avialae Archaeopterygidae - Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian Tithonian
Compsognathus longipes - Coelurosauria Compsognathidae - Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian Tithonian
Wellnhoferia grandis ~/~ - Avialae Archaeopterygidae - Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian Tithonian