Article: The palaeoecology of the goniatite bed at Cowlow Nick, Castleton, Derbyshire

The Cowlow Nick Goniatite Bed is shown to be an accumulation of randomly oriented, hollow, or spar-filled goniatite shells of several species in a matrix of calcilutite. Of very limited dimensions, the bed is surrounded by algal limestones of the fore-reef fades of Upper B2 age (Lower Carboniferous). Suggestions as to the mode of accumulation are discussed and it is concluded that the bed represents a specialized drifted assemblage of floating shells which were washed gently into an inactive surge channel or submarine cave. Some comparable occurrences elsewhere in Derbyshire are noted.