NOTES ON THE FOSSILS FROM THE KANSAS-OKLA- 

 HOMA RED-BEDS 



The age of the series of rocks lying conformably on the Per- 

 mian and unconformably below the Comanche Cretaceous in 

 Kansas and Oklahoma has for a number of years been considered 

 problematic. The earlier Kansas geologists classified these 

 formations anywhere between the Carboniferous and the Middle 

 Cretaceous. Later investigators have agreed that the series is 

 not older than the Permian, nor more recent than the Jurassic. 

 In Texas, rocks which appear to be of the same age are assigned 

 to the Permian on the authority of such paleontologists as Cope 

 and White. 1 



In the absence of certain determination as to age, the general 

 term Red beds has been applied to these formations in Kansas 

 and Oklahoma. The term refers to the lithological appearance 

 of the rocks. Blood red sandstones, clays, and shales make 

 up the greater part of the thickness of the series. The shales 

 are frequently strongly impregnated with mineral salts, of which 

 gypsum and common salt form the larger part, although borax, 

 magnesia, and others are not infrequent. These salts impart to 

 the water of a great part of the area a characteristic taste, often 

 rendering it unfit for use. In the central part of the Red-beds 

 areas several ledges of massive gypsum occur. These ledges out- 

 cropping to the east form the escarpments and caps of the noted 

 Gypsum hills which extend south from southern Kansas to the 

 Wichita Mountains, and thence into central Texas. Ledges of 

 dolomite and highly saliferous shales are found in many horizons 

 of the Red-beds. 



There is not lacking literature on the Red-beds. Some of the 

 most noted geologists and paleontologists of America have writ- 

 ten concerning these rocks. Such men as Cope, Hill, Williston, 

 Haworth, Hay, Vaughan, Ward, Beede, Stevenson, and others 



1 Second Annual Report Geological Survey of Texas, 1890, pp. 415-419. 



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