A bone bed is any
geologicalstratum or
deposit that contains
bones of whatever kind. Inevitably, such deposits are
sedimentary in nature. Not a formal term, it tends to be used more to describe especially dense collections such as
Lagerstätte. It is also applied to
brecciated and
stalagmitic deposits on the floor of caves, which frequently contain osseous remains.[1]
In a more restricted sense, the term is used to describe certain thin layers of bony fragments, which occur in well-defined geological strata. One of the best-known of these is the
Ludlow Bone Bed, which is found at the base of the
Downton Sandstone in the
Upper Ludlow series. At
Ludlow (
England) itself, two such beds are actually known, separated by about 14 ft (4.3 m). of strata. Although quite thin, the Ludlow Bone Bed can be followed from that town into
Gloucestershire, for a distance of 45 miles (72 km). It is almost completely made up of fragments of
spines,
teeth and
scales of
ganoid fish. Another well-known bed, formerly known as the
Bristol or
Lias Bone Bed, exists in the form of several thin layers of
micaceoussandstone, with the remains of fish and
saurians, which occur in the
Rhaetic Black Paper Shales that lie above the
Keupermarls, in the south-west of England. A similar bone bed has been traced on the same
geological horizon in
Brunswick,
Hanover (
Germany), in
Franconia and in
Tübingen (Germany).[2][3] A bone bed has also been observed at the base of the
Carboniferouslimestone series, in certain parts of the south-west of England.[1]
Fossil bonebeds don't always consist of one single species, but rather many species of organisms. There are several of the bonebeds known throughout North America. Two of the best examples include the Mixson's Bone Bed of Florida, whose geological settings preserved the remains of
Ambelodon, Aepycamelus, and Cormohipparion,[24] and the
Agate Fossil Beds in
Nebraska which has the fossils of abundant creatures such as Menoceras, Stenomylus, and Daphoenodon.[25][26][27][28]
^Brusatte, S. L., Butler R. J., Mateus O., & Steyer S. J. (2015). A new species of Metoposaurus from the Late Triassic of Portugal and comments on the systematics and biogeography of metoposaurid temnospondyls. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, e912988., 2015
^Strganac, C., Jacobs L., Polcyn M., Mateus O., Myers T., Araújo R., Fergunson K. M., Gonçalves A. O., Morais M. L., Schulp A. S., da Tavares T. S., & Salminen J. (2014). Geological Setting and Paleoecology of the Upper Cretaceous Bench 19 Marine Vertebrate Bonebed at Bentiaba, Angola. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 1-16.