The entire formation consists of 19 metres (62 ft) of limestone, all of which contain fossils, but interspersed in which are the lagerstätte layers that contain the highly preserved specimens.

[1] Within these layers, the fish and other specimens are so highly preserved that their organs are often completely intact in fossil form, and even the skin color[2] can sometimes be determined.

[3] The normal rearrangement of the specimens caused by mud-dwelling organisms in the layer before it turned to stone has been avoided—it is assumed that the mud in question was low in oxygen, preventing both decay and the mixing action of scavengers.

[7] Bird feathers and tortoise shell plates have been found, as well as many insects, freshwater and land plants.

[6] The type specimen collected by Italian paleobotanist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo before 1855 is at the Natural History Museum of Verona and was preserved in a lithographic limestone upper and lower slab.