The Winneshiek biota: exceptionally well-preserved fossils in a Middle Ordovician impact crater

The Winneshiek Shale (Middle Ordovician, Darriwilian) was deposited in a meteorite crater, the Decorah impact structure, in NE Iowa. This crater is 5.6 km in diameter and penetrates Cambrian and Ordovician cratonic strata. It was probably situated close to land in an embayment connected to the epicontinental sea; typical shelly marine taxa are absent. The Konservat-Lagerstatte within the Winneshiek Shale is important because it represents an interval when exceptional preservation is rare. The biota includes the earliest eurypterid, a giant form, as well as a new basal chelicerate and the earliest ceratiocarid phyllocarid. Conodonts, some of giant size, occur as bedding plane assemblages. Bromalites and rarer elements, including a linguloid brachiopod and a probable jawless fish, are also present. Similar fossils occur in the coeval Ames impact structure in Oklahoma, demonstrating that meteorite craters represent a novel and under-recognized setting for Konservat-Lagerstatten.