earth science

Nusplingen Limestone

Nusplingen Limestone is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nusplingen Limestone rather than just read about it. In short: The Nusplingen Limestone (German: Nusplingen Plattenkalk) is a geological formation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It preserves fossils dating to the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic.

Key takeaways

Nusplingen Limestone belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nusplingen Limestone to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nusplingen Limestone from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Nusplingen Limestone (German: Nusplingen Plattenkalk) is a geological formation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It preserves fossils dating to the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic. It mainly consists of lithographic limestones deposited in a marine basin, similar to the Solnhofen Limestone. Fossils of pterosaurs, thalattosuchians, and the oldest geophilomorph centipede Eogeophilus were found in the Nusplingen Limestone.

History

The Nusplingen Limestone was first discovered in the first half of the 19th century. In 1839, Friedrich Kinzelbach, a doctor working in Nusplingen, led Friedrich August von Quenstedt to a quarry a farmer used to retrieve floor tiles. Friedrich Kinzelbach presumably led Quenstedt to the locality after hearing his talks about the Solnhofen Limestone. Quenstedt recognized the Importance of the locality, commenting on how fossil-rich the locality is, mentioning numerous fossils of Lumbricaria and numerous fish scales. In 1839, Quenstedt introduced the term "Nusplinger Plattenkalk" (Nusplingen Limestone) for the quarry's limestone. Quenstedt's writing about the locality resulted in the collection of fossil material by the bishop Oskar Fraas. In 1849, he held an essay on the Nusplingen Limestone at the meeting of German naturalists and doctors in Regensburg. Later, in 1850, Count Wilhelm von Württemberg gave a lecture on the concept of sourcing lithography stones from Nusplingen. Oskar Fraas motivated the businessman Christian Fuchs from Stuttgart to start sourcing rock from Nusplingen in 1853, and the first big quarry was created after that. The limestone from Nusplingen was not usable for lithography, but the fossil collection of Oskar Fraas had grown immensely, and Quenstedt also began collecting fossils from the site. Friedrich Eser, who also collected fossils from Nusplingen, called the site a "paternal Solnhofen". In the year 1855, the first pterosaur remains were found, specimens of Rhamphorhynchus and Cycnorhamphus. In 1896, fossil and mineral dealer Bernhard Stürtz began quarry work in the Nusplingen Limestone once again. This time fossils were the only focus of the quarry workers. The found fossils were offered for sale to the University of Tübingen and the Royal Natural Cabinet in Stuttgart. Among the fossils found in this campaign were a 2 metres (6.6 ft) long Cricosaurus, a specimen of Rhamphorhynchus, and the angelshark Pseudorhina. Only 30 years after the dig by Stürtz did an excavation with a scientific focus begin, when in 1929 the University of Tübingen began quarry work from a purely scientific view. This short campaign was very successful, bringing forth a fossil of the large chimaera Ischyodus, and the first research on how the deposit was formed. However, the campaign quickly ran out of funding and came to an end. Work began again in 1935 under Alfred Mayer-Gürr, who was then subsequently replaced by Bruno Fuchs after Alfred left to work in Iraq. Due to World War 2, a detailed overview of this campaign never came to be. The original owner of the quarry died, and multiple companies tried to buy it for building material. It was then sold to the Verein für vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg in an effort to protect the locality, which was subsequently put under conservation. In 1946 the University of Paris led a campaign, though what happened to the fossils found in this campaign is unknown. It took 14 years for the next campaign to start in 1962, undertaken by the University of Tübingen; this campaign was treated as unsuccessful and was stopped after a few months. In the year 1980, new information came to light on the extent of the Nusplingen Limestone. In Egesheim, a new quarry exposing rocks of the Nusplingen Limestone was established only 250 meters away from the previous site. Afraid the fossils would get destroyed by the quarry work, the Natural History Museum of Stuttgart requested the whole extent of the Nusplingen Limestone to be put under protection, which was then accepted on 25 November 1983. Afraid of fossil thieves, sample digs were started by the SMNH to determine how threatened the fossil richness of the fossil site was. With the subsequent find of a complete shark skeleton of the genus Sphenodus, the museum invested in a research campaign which started in 1994 in the old Nusplingen quarry, and in 1993 in the Egesheimer quarry. The campaign has yet to stop.

Dating Lithographic limestones are a common occurrence throughout the Late Jurassic, which is why many geologists used to believe that they were deposited at the same time. Friedrich August von Quenstedt defined these together with deposits in the Swabian Alps as "Weißjura zeta". Nowadays Ammonite-Zones are used to date these deposits more clearly. Analysis of the ammonite fauna has now shown that the Nusplingen Limestone is around 0.5 million years older than the Solnhofen Limestone, which makes it late Kimmeridgian in age.

Paleobiota The Nusplingen Limestone has yielded a rich variety of fossil material, including plants, decapod crustaceans, Insects, fish, cephalopods and pterosaurs, as well as an isolated feather of a dinosaur. Source is unless mentioned otherwise.

Porifera

Anthozoa

Mollusca

Lamellibranchiata

Gastropoda

Ammonoidea

Nautiloidea

Belemnoidea

Other Cephalopods

Polychaetes

Insecta Multiple unnamed beetles and a crane fly are known from the Locality

Chilopoda

Limulidae

Crustaceans

Natantia

Reptantia

Mysidacea

Other Crustaceans

Tylacocephala

Brachiopoda

Echinodermata

Echinoidea

Asteroidea

Ophiuroidea

Crinoidea

Vertebrates

Elasmobranchii

Holocephali

Crossopterygii

Actinopterygii

Testudinata

Pseudosuchia

Pterosauria

See also List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Germany

References

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nusplingen Limestone

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nusplingen Limestone claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nusplingen Limestone before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nusplingen Limestone ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nusplingen Limestone

In research: Nusplingen Limestone appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nusplingen Limestone in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nusplingen Limestone is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Baden-Württemberg, Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of Europe, Geologic formations of Germany, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nusplingen Limestone outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nusplingen Limestone in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nusplingen Limestone means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nusplingen Limestone out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nusplingen Limestone in simple terms?

The Nusplingen Limestone (German: Nusplingen Plattenkalk) is a geological formation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It preserves fossils dating to the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic.

Why does Nusplingen Limestone matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nusplingen Limestone?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nusplingen Limestone.