The Kinney Brick Quarry Lagerstätte, Late Pennsylvanian of New Mexico, USA: Introduction and Overview

Abstract

The Kinney Brick Quarry, located in the Manzanita Mountains of central New Mexico, is a world-famous fossil locality in deposits of a marine embayment of Late Pennsylvanian age. The quantity and quality of fossil preservation identify Kinney as a Konservat Lagerstätte. This volume presents the results of recent research on the Kinney rocks and fossils, as well as new research based on older collections. Here, we provide a review of previous work and of the context within which to understand the Kinney Quarry Lagerstätte and the articles in this volume. A new look at Kinney, the environment, the animals, plants, and ichnofauna preserved there, was initiated by a controlled excavation carried out in 2014. This excavation revealed additional, more refined information about the sedimentology of the Kinney deposits, and additional information about the distribution of organisms during the period of accumulation.