A paleoenvironmental study of the vertebrate-bearing sapropelic coal that underlies the Upper Freeport coal (Westphalian D, Upper Carboniferous) at Linton, Ohio, identifies a hierarchy of physical and chemical controls that influenced the formation of this deposit. Surface and subsurface data from previous work and field study of extensive exposures show that the fossiliferous cannel occurs at the bottom of an approximately 15 m deep abandoned river meander within a sandstone-dominated multistorey sediment body. Storeys of this sediment body fine upward and consist of varying proportions of sandstones and siltstones within lateral accretion beds that are interpreted as point-bar deposits. Associated channel fills are generally organic rich and composed of coals, such as the Linton cannel, or carbonaceous mudstones. Maximum observed channel depth is approximately 18 m, and the maximum thickness of the multistorey sediment body reaches nearly 40 m. The sandstone-dominated sediment body that contains the Linton cannel trends northwestwardly and contrasts with mudstone-dominated, coarsening-upward sequences that were deposited contemporaneously in adjoining areas. This lithic pattern suggests that fluvial activity was restricted to a persistent topographic low that may have resulted from movement along the Transylvania Fault Zone a previously documented basement-controlled feature. Rapid subsidence on the southern side of this structure confined the fluvial system and favored the preservation of deposits within the meander belt, including the fossil-bearing sapropelic channel fill at Linton. The low inorganic content and oxbow-like outline of the Linton fossil deposit and its lateral relationship to other storeys in the multistorey channel sequence indicate that the abandoned meander was closed rapidly by neck cutoff and, in the absence of clastic influx, filled by sapropelic peat. Remains of aquatic to terrestrial animals that lived in or near the oxbow lake slowly rotted in this scavenger-free anaerobic setting. Because of the substantial depth of the original meander and a lack of coarse-grained fill materials, a prolonged period of sapropelic filling insured the preservation of an abundant and diverse autochthonous vertebrate assemblage. Most Westphalian tetrapod deposits represent sapropelic peats and muds and share some of the taphonomic attributes of the Linton deposit. The high degree of autochthony evidenced by Westphalian vertebrate accumulations indicates that taphonomic controls of low-lying peat-forming alluvial and delta plain systems differ significantly from those of well-drained alluvial valley settings.