Facies, origin, and palaeontological inventory of an Early Carboniferous neptunian dyke in the Devonian reef limestone near Rösenbeck (Brilon Anticline, Rhenish Mountains)

Abstract

The Devonian reef limestone complex of Rösenbeck near Brilon (Rhenish Mountains) shows numerous neptunian dykes and other hollows which have been filled with Carboniferous siliciclastic as well as fossil-rich carbonate sediments with ammonoids, conodonts, and chondrichthyan fish. While the shales of the infill can be interpreted as autochthonous sediments, the carbonates represent erratic blocks of sediments which were deposited in elevated areas but subsequently eroded and transported as erratic blocks into the karstic cavities. The biota of the carbonates demonstrates that two stratigraphic intervals are represented: (1) the Tournaisian–Viséan boundary interval, which can be identified by the presence of trilobites, and (2) the late Viséan (Asbian–Brigantian), proven by the presence of ammonoids and conodonts embedded in shales that probably have an early Serpukhovian age. Two carbonate facies can be distinguished in the Late Viséan blocks: (1) low-energy micritic sediments with Goniatites crenistria, which are probably equivalent to the crenistria Limestone and (2) high-energy (tempestite) sediments with numerous ammonoid specimens and in a more subordinate role other to fossil groups.