338 Nezv York State Museum 



eurypterids. With the eurypterids is associated a sparse 

 fauna of brachiopods, pelecypods, cephalopods and crus- 

 taceans. Among the eurypterids Eurypterus pittsforden- 

 sis and Hughmilleria socialis are the common forms. Of 

 the other species, the brachiopod Lingula semina, the 

 pelecypod Pterinea poststriata and the ostracod Leper- 

 ditia scalaris are very common. 



The Vernon shale (Clark '03) was named from the 

 type locality in the town of Vernon, Oneida county. It 

 is locally the heaviest member of the Salina series, and 

 is practically all shale from bottom to top, with a thick- 

 ness of about 500 feet in the middle of the belt near 

 Syracuse and Auburn. East and west of this area it 

 thins out, more rapidly to the east in which direction it 

 dies out in Herkimer county where it is overlapped by 

 the Camillus. The shales are mainly red and green, but 

 there are gray, gypsiferous shales and thin, flaggy dolo- 

 mites. The deep red color (due to ferric oxide) of the 

 Vernon shales is characteristic, particularly in the eastern 

 section; west of the Genesee river the shale becomes 

 greenish (ferrous iron) with red layers. Thin layers of 

 dolomite and scattered gypsum or anhydrite occurring 

 near the top of the Vernon shales indicate drying up and 

 concentration of the Salina sea sufficiently to cause pre- 

 cipitation of salts. Until about ten years ago the Vernon 

 shales, as the Camillus, were believed practically barren 

 of fossils. They were then found (1919) in the dump- 

 ings from the barge canal at Pittsford, N. Y. The Ver- 

 non fauna, as described (Ruedemann '21; Eaton '24), 

 consists largely of pelecypods. It includes, besides, 

 bryozoans, brachiopods, gastropods, cephalopods, crus- 

 taceans, eurypterids and worm borings. At best fossils 

 are sparingly distributed in the rock, in fact are in gen- 



