Two formations within the Bertie Group, the Fiddler's Green and Williamsville, are considered Konservat-Lagerstätten; geologic units that contain a unique and typically soft-bodied fauna.

The excellent preservation of the many eurypterids and other taxa was the possibly result of periodic hypersaline and anoxic conditions owing to the group's position within a shallow inland sea (the Appalachian basin).

[5][6] The Bertie Group forms the bedrock in a narrow band extending from Fort Erie, west of Buffalo, New York, through Hagersville, New Hamburg, Harriston, and Walkerton to Southampton on Lake Huron.

Bertie Group dolomite is quarried for crushed stone at Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Dunnville, Cayuga, and Hagersville.

[13] The Bertie Group Fiddler's Green and Williamsville formations are considered Konservat-Lagerstätten;[14] units characterized by rare and typically soft-bodied fauna.

[37] The late Silurian climate was arid and warm; this, and the restricted and shallow nature of the inland basin, resulted in the deposition of evaporites in the Salina Group, ranging in thickness from 120 to 800 metres (390 to 2,620 ft).

[38] Zones of stromatolites and thrombolites (non-laminated algal mounds) occur in several formations in the Bertie Group,[39] along with numerous desiccation cracks.

[40] The sediments of the Bertie Group were deposited on the paleosouthern side of the subsiding Algonquin Arch, flanking the northern rim of the Appalachian foreland basin of Laurentia.