Exceptionally preserved fossils from Bickershaw, Lancashire UK (Upper Carboniferous, Westphalian A (Langsettian))

Abstract

Fossils from a new Upper Carboniferous Lagerstätte of Late Westphalian A (Langsettian) age at Bickershaw, Lancashire, UK, are reported and an account of the locality is presented. In common with many Upper Carboniferous Lagerstätten, the fossils are preserved within siderite nodules hosted by coal seam roof shales. The fossils include a diverse assemblage of plants, nonmarine bivalves, crustaceans, insects, arthropleurid fragments, a euthycarcinoid, xiphosurans, a whip scorpion, scorpion cuticle fragments, fish scales and coprolites. The arthropods, with a greater diversity and abundance of aquatic taxa, and the non-marine bivalves suggest a brackish, fluvio-deltaic setting probably above the Haigh Yard Coal. However, tabulation of the relative abundances of fossils is of limited palaeoecological value, since the data represent a combination of the original community structure, each groups' preservation potential and mixing of material from different stratigraphic horizons on the tip. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.