Manitou Limestone
{{Short description|Old fossil site in Colorado}}
{{Infobox rockunit
| name = Manitou Limestone Formation
| type = Geological formation
| age = Lower-Middle Ordovician
~{{fossilrange|earliest=470|470|468|latest=468}}
| period = Dapingian
| prilithology = Limestone, dolomite
| otherlithology = sandstone
| namedfor = Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado
| namedby =
| region = southern Colorado
| country = United States
| subunits = Manitou Dolomite, Manitou Limestone
| underlies = Harding Sandstone
| overlies = Sawatch Formation
| extent =
| area =
| map =
| map_caption =
}}
The Manitou Limestone is a geologic formation in Colorado. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.
Depositional Environment
Because the rocks of the Manitou Dolomites are mostly indeterminate carbonates, the exact depositional environment is unknown. However it was likely shallow water, either lagoon or near-shore, and the many jumbled fossils of trilobite spines and brachiopods suggest that the paleoenvironment may have been prone to storms.
Paleontology
The limestones and dolomites of the Manitou Formation, contain cast/mold-preserved Ordovician-aged marine fossils, including cystoid stems, brachiopods, and trilobites such as Manitouella (Leiostegium?) and Kainella.
See also
{{Portal|Earth sciences|Colorado|Paleontology}}
References
- {{cite web|title= Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database|author= ((Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database))|url= https://www.fossilworks.org|access-date= 17 December 2021}}
Category:Ordovician southern paleotropical deposits
Category:Limestone formations of the United States
Category:Dolomite formations of the United States
Category:Sandstone formations of the United States
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