The Kope Formation is one of the three component bedrock formations of the Maquoketa Group that primarily consists of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

(75%) with some

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

(25%) interbedded. In general, it has a bluish-gray color that weathers light gray to yellowish-gray and it occurs in northern Kentucky, southwest Ohio, and southeast Indiana, United States.

Description

Depositional environment

The

depositional environment In geology, depositional environment or sedimentary environment describes the combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes associated with the deposition of a particular type of sediment and, therefore, the rock types that will b ...

of the Kope was shallow marine. The central North American continent was a tropical epeiric sea at the time. Jennette and Pryor (1993) interpret the Kope, along with the Bellevue and Fairview Formations, as a progradational succession on a carbonate ramp. The Kope is the most distal facies of the ramp complex.

Notable outcrops

The type section of the Grand Avenue Member is a cliff to the west of Grand Avenue in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Hamilton County, Ohio Hamilton County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 830,639, making it the List of counties in Ohio, third-most populous county in Ohio. The coun ...

.Ford, J.P., 1967, Cincinnatian geology in southwest Hamilton County, Ohio:

American Association of Petroleum Geologists The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is one of the world's largest professional geological societies with about 17,000 members across 129 countries. The AAPG works to "advance the science of geology, especially as it relates to ...

Bulletin, v. 51, no. 6, p. 918-936. The type section of the Wesselman Tongue of the Kope Formation is an east-facing embankment on an unnamed creek that is followed by Wesselman Road in Miami Township, Hamilton County, Ohio. The embankment is south of Zion Hill bridge.

Fossil content

Brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary Colony (biology), colonies. Typically about long, they have a spe ...

ns, rugose corals, and

echinoderms An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as larv ...

(including

crinoid Crinoids are marine invertebrates that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that remain attached to the sea floor by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or comatulids, are ...

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

, and edrioasteroids) are all present in the Kope. Due to their mid-continent depositional environment, the fossils are almost free of deformation caused by tectonic activity common in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

. The brachiopods '' Dalmanella'' sp., '' Hebertella'' sp., '' Leptaena'' sp., '' Petrocrania'' sp., '' Philhedra'' sp., '' Platystrophia'' sp., '' Pseudolingula'' sp., '' Rafinesquina'' sp., '' Sowerbyella'' sp., '' Strophomena'' sp., '' Trematis'' sp., and '' Zygospira'' sp. have been recorded from the Cincinnatian Series, which includes the Kope Formation. The trilobites such as '' Triarthrus eatoni'', '' Cryptolithus tessellatus'', and '' Proetidella parviusculus'' have been identified in the Kope, and the Ohio State Fossil, '' Isotelus maximus'', can most likely be found in it. The bryozoans '' Ceramophylla'' sp., '' Eridotrypa mutabilis'', '' Peronopera vera'', '' Batostoma jamesi'', '' Dekayia aspera'', '' Heterotrypa ulrichi'', '' Parvohallopora'' sp., and '' Amplexopora septosa'' have been found in the Kope. Among echinoderms, the crinoids '' Cincinnaticrinus varibrachialis'', '' Ectenocrinus'' sp., and '' Iocrinus'' sp. are present in the Kope. Edrioasteroids and asteroids (starfish), generally rare, are common in overlying formations, and may be present in the Kope.''Fossils of Ohio'', p. 245-246 A very large and unusual fossil, informally named "Godzillus", was discovered in the Kope Formation in 2011 by amateur paleontologist Ron Fine, of the Cincinnati Dry Dredgers. The reassembled fossil had a roughly elliptical shape with multiple lobes totaling almost in length and is believed by Fine to have been nine feet-tall () when upright. David L. Meyer, of the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

geology department, believed it to be a fossilized mat of algae. In 2016, Ron Fine, David L. Meyer, and two other scientists published a study implicating that the fossil might not be a new taxon and could instead have been a complex preservation of

trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, ...

Age

Relative age dating of the Kope places it in the Late

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

period.

References

Bibliography

''Fossils of Ohio''
Bulletin 70,

Ohio Department of Natural Resources The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is the Ohio government agency charged with ensuring "a balance between wise use and protection of our natural resources for the benefit of all." Functions ODNR regulates Ohio's oil and gas indus ...

, Division of Geological Survey, Edited by Rodney M. Feldmann and Merrianne Hackathorn, 577 p., 232 plates (some in color), drawings, maps, and tables, 1996. {{Chronostratigraphy of Ohio Geologic formations of Indiana Geologic formations of Kentucky Geologic formations of Ohio Upper Ordovician Series Ordovician System of North America Ordovician Ohio Ordovician Kentucky Ordovician Indiana Ordovician south paleopolar deposits Ordovician southern paleotemperate deposits Limestone formations of the United States Shallow marine deposits Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of North America Paleontology in Indiana Paleontology in Kentucky Paleontology in Ohio Katian Shale formations of the United States