Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T13:05:42.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deciphering the geology of some Darriwilian–Sandbian (Ordovician) ‘ghost’ formations in the UK and North America using olistoliths in marine debris flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2017

STIG M. BERGSTRÖM  and
ANNALISA FERRETTI
STIG M. BERGSTRÖM*
Affiliation:
Division of Earth History, School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, 125 S. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
ANNALISA FERRETTI
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy
*
†Author for correspondence: Bergstrom.1@osu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Olistostromes with calcareous olistoliths are rare components in the Ordovician successions in NW Europe and North America, having been described from only a small number of localities. One of the best exposed, but least known, is in the Garn Formation in coastal outcrops in Anglesey in northwestern Wales. Here, in the graptolite-bearing shales of the Garn Formation, there are numerous limestone olistoliths that are derived from an otherwise unknown ‘ghost’ formation whose original depositional site remains an enigma. These olistoliths contain a Baltoscandian type of conodont fauna that is otherwise unknown in Wales and England. It represents the Baltoniodus variabilis Subzone of the Amorphognathus tvaerensis Zone. Similar, but slightly older, conodont faunas are recorded from olistoliths in the Tweeddale Member of the Shinnel Formation in southern Scotland and in probable olistoliths of the Cobbs Arm Limestone in northeasternmost Newfoundland. Approximately coeval conodont faunas are present in calcareous olistoliths in the Woods Hollow Shale of West Texas and the Womble Shale in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, USA. Lithological and conodont evidence indicates that the calcareous olistoliths were derived from carbonate sediments deposited in relatively shallow water. It is concluded that the study of ‘ghost’ formation olistoliths may provide otherwise unavailable but important data bearing on the marine depositional history of a particular region.

Keywords

conodont biostratigraphyOrdovicianolistolithspalaeobiogeographyRecurrent Species Associations
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 155 , Issue 7 , October 2018 , pp. 1507 - 1522
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armstrong, H. A. 1997. Conodonts from the Ordovician Shinnel Formation, Southern Uplands, Scotland. Palaeontology 40, 763–97.Google Scholar
Bates, D. E. B. 1968. The Lower Palaeozoic Brachiopod and Trilobite faunas of Anglesey. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 16, 127–99.Google Scholar
Bates, D. E. B. 1972. The stratigraphy of the Ordovician rocks of Anglesey. Geological Journal 8, 29–58.Google Scholar
Bauer, J. A. 1987. Conodonts and conodont biostratigraphy of the McLish and Tulip Creek formations (Middle Ordovician) of south-central Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin 141, 1–58.Google Scholar
Bauer, J. A. 2010. Conodonts and conodont biostratigraphy of the Joins and Oil Creek formations, Arbuckle Mountains, south-central Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin 150, 1–44.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1962. Conodonts from the Ludibundus Limestone (Middle Ordovician) of the Tvären area (S.E. Sweden). Arkiv för Geologi och Mineralogi 3, 1–61.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1964. Remarks on some Ordovician conodont faunas from Wales. Acta Universitatis Lundensis II, 3, 1–66.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1971. Conodont biostratigraphy of the Middle and Upper Ordovician of Europe and eastern North America. In Symposium on Conodont Biostratigraphy (eds Sweet, W. C. & Bergström, S. M.), pp. 83–157. Geological Society of America Memoir 127.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1973. Biostratigraphy and facies relations in the lower Middle Ordovician of easternmost Tennessee. American Journal of Science 273-A, 261–93.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1978. Middle and Upper Ordovician conodont and graptolite biostratigraphy of the Marathon, Texas graptolite zone reference standard. Palaeontology 21, 723–58.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1980. Conodonts as paleotemperature tools in Ordovician rocks of the Caledonides and adjacent areas in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 102, 377–92.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1981. Biostratigraphical and biogeographical significance of conodonts in two British Middle Ordovician olistostromes. Geological Society of America Abstracts and Programs 13 (5), 271.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1986. Biostratigraphic integration of Ordovician graptolite and conodont zones – a regional review. In Palaeontology and Biostratigraphy of Graptolites (eds Hughes, C. P. & Rickards, R. B.), pp. 61–78. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 20.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 1990. Biostratigraphic significance of Middle and Upper Ordovician conodonts in the Girvan succession, south-west Scotland. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 118, 1–43.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. 2007. The Ordovician conodont biostratigraphy in the Siljan region, south-central Sweden: a brief review of an international reference standard. In WOGOGOB 2007, 9th Meeting of the Working Group on Ordovician Geology in Baltoscandia. Field Guide and Abstracts (eds Ebbestad, J. O. R., Wickström, L. M. & Högström, A. E. S.), pp. 26–41, 63–78. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning (Geological Survey of Sweden) Rapporter och meddelanden no. 128.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. & Carnes, J. B. 1976. Conodont biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the Holston Formation (Middle Ordovician) and associated strata in eastern Tennessee. In Conodont Paleoecology (ed. Barnes, C. R.), pp. 27–57. Geological Association of Canada Special Paper no. 15.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M., Chen, X., Gutiérrez–Marco, J. C. & Dronov, A. 2009. The new chronostratigraphic classification of the Ordovician System and its relations to major regional series and stages and to δ13C chemostratigraphy. Lethaia 42, 97–107.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. & Ferretti, A. 2015. Conodonts in the Upper Ordovician Keisley Limestone of northern England: taxonomy, biostratigraphical significance and biogeographical relationships. Papers in Palaeontology 93, 1–32.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M. & Orchard, M. J. 1985. Conodonts of the Cambrian and Ordovician Systems from the British Isles. In A Stratigraphical Index of Conodonts (eds Higgins, A. C. & Austin, R. L.), pp. 32–67. Chichester: Ellis Horwood Limited.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M., Rhodes, F. H. T. & Lindström, M. L. 1987. Conodont biostratigraphy of the Llanvirn-Llandeilo and Llandeilo-Caradoc Series boundaries in the Ordovician System in Wales and the Welsh Borderland. In Conodonts: Investigative Techniques and Applications (ed. Austin, R. L.), pp. 294–315. Chichester: Ellis Horwood Limited.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M., Riva, J. & Kay, M. 1974. Significance of conodonts, graptolites, and shelly faunas from the Ordovician of western and north-central Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 11, 1625–60.Google Scholar
Berry, W. B. N. 1960. Graptolite Faunas of the Marathon Region, West Texas. Bureau of Economic Geology, the University of Texas, Publication no. 6005, 179 pp.Google Scholar
Branson, E. B. & Mehl, M. G. 1933. Conodonts from the Maquoketa Thebes (Upper Ordovician) of Missouri. University of Missouri Studies 8, 121–32.Google Scholar
Burrett, C., Stait, B. & Laurie, J. 1983. Trilobites and microfossils from the Middle Ordovician of Surprise Bay, southern Tasmania, Australia. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 1, 177– 93.Google Scholar
Chen, X., Bergström, S. M., Zhang, Y., Goldman, D. & Chen, Q. 2011. Upper Ordovician (Sandbian-Katian) graptolite and conodont zonation in the Yangtze region, China. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 101, 111–34.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Fortey, R. A. 1982. Faunal evidence for oceanic separations in the Palaeozoic of Britain. Journal of the Geological Society of London 139, 465–78.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Fortey, R. A. 2009. Avalonia: a long-lived terrane in the Lower Palaeozoic? In Early Palaeozoic Peri-Gondwana Terranes: New Insights from Tectonics and Biogeography (ed. Bassett, M. G.), pp. 141–155. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 325.Google Scholar
Dzik, J. 1976. Remarks on the evolution of Ordovician conodonts. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 21, 395–455.Google Scholar
Dzik, J. 1994. Conodonts of the Mójcza Limestone. In Ordovician Carbonate Platform Ecosystem of the Holy Cross Mountains (Dzik, J., Olempska, E. & Pisera, A.), pp. 43–128. Palaeontologia Polonica 53.Google Scholar
Epstein, A. G., Epstein, J. B. & Harris, L. D. 1977. Conodont color alteration – an index to organic metamorphism. US Geological Survey Professional Paper 995, 1–27.Google Scholar
Fåhraeus, L. E. 1966. Lower Viruan (Middle Ordovician) conodonts from the Gullhögen quarry, Southern Central Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning, Series C 610, 1–40.Google Scholar
Fåhraeus, L. E. & Hunter, D. R. 1981. Paleoecology of selected conodontophorid species from the Cobbs Arm Formation (Middle Ordovician), New World Island, north-central Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 18, 1553–665.Google Scholar
Fåhraeus, L. E. & Hunter, D. R. 1985. The curvature-transition series: integral part of some simple-cone conodont apparatuses (Panderodontacea, Distacodontacea, Conodontata). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 30, 177–89.Google Scholar
Ferretti, A., Bergström, S. M. & Barnes, C. R. 2014. Katian (Upper Ordovician) conodonts from Wales. Palaeontology 57, 801–31.Google Scholar
Ferretti, A., Bergström, S. M. & Sevastopulo, G. D. 2014. Katian conodonts from the Portrane Limestone: the first Ordovician conodont fauna described from Ireland. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 53, 105–19.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Harper, D. A. T., Ingham, J. K., Owen, A. W., Parkes, M. A., Rushton, A. W. A. & Woodcock, N. H. 2000. A Revised Correlation of Ordovician rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London, Special Report no. 24, 84 pp.Google Scholar
Greenly, E. 1919. The Geology of Anglesey (2 vols). Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London: HMSO, 980 pp.Google Scholar
Hadding, A. R. 1913. Undre dicellograptusskiffern i Skåne jämte några därmed ekvivalenta bildningar. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift 9 (15), 1–90.Google Scholar
Harper, D. A. T., Rasmussen, C. M. Ø., Liljeroth, M., Blodgett, R. B., Candela, Y., Jin, J., Percival, I. G., Rong, J. Y., Villas, E. & Zhan, R. B. 2013. Biodiversity, biogeography and phylogeography of Ordovician rhynchodelliform brachiopods. In Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography (eds Harper, D. A. T. & Servais, T.), pp. 127–44. Geological Society of London, Memoir 38.Google Scholar
King, P. B. 1937. Geology of the Marathon Region, Texas. US Geological Survey Professional Paper 187, 148 pp.Google Scholar
Lindström, M. 1964. Conodonts. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 196 pp.Google Scholar
Männik, P. & Viira, V. 2012. Ordovician conodont diversity in the northern Baltic. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 61, 1–14.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W. S. & Cocks, L. R. M. 1981. Stratigraphy of eastern Bay of Exploits, Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 18, 751–64.Google Scholar
Neuman, R. B. 1984. Geology and paleobiology of islands in the Ordovician Iapetus Ocean: review and implications. Geological Society of America Bulletin 95, 1188–201.Google Scholar
Owen, A. W., Harper, D. A. T. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 1996. The trilobites and brachiopods of the Wrae Limestone, an Ordovician limestone conglomerate in the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 32, 133–49.Google Scholar
Peach, R. N. & Horne, J. 1899. The Silurian Rocks of Britain. Vol. 1. Scotland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, 749 pp.Google Scholar
Pohler, S. L., Barnes, C. R. & James, N. P. 1987. Reconstructing a lost faunal realm: conodonts from the mega-conglomerates of the Ordovician Cow Head Group, Western Newfoundland. In Conodonts: Investigative Techniques and Applications (ed. Austin, R. L.), pp. 341–62. Chichester: Ellis Horwood Limited.Google Scholar
Pollock, J. C., Hibbard, H. P. & Van Staal, C. S. 2012. A paleogeographic review of the peri-Gondwanan realm of the Appalachian orogen. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 259–88.Google Scholar
Repetski, J. E. & Ethington, R. L. 1977. Conodonts from graptolite facies in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas and Oklahoma. In Symposium on the Geology of the Ouachita Mountains, vol. 1 (ed. Stone, C. G.), pp. 92–108. Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Geological Commission.Google Scholar
Rhodes, F. H. T. 1953. Some British Lower Palaeozoic conodont faunas. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 237, 261–334.Google Scholar
Rhodes, F. H. T. 1955. The conodont fauna of the Keisley Limestone. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 111, 117–42.Google Scholar
Savage, N. M. & Bassett, M. G. 1985. Caradoc-Ashgill conodont faunas from Wales and the Welsh Borderland. Palaeontology 28, 679–713.Google Scholar
Stauffer, C. R. 1935. Conodonts of the Glenwood beds. Geological Society of America Bulletin 46, 125–68.Google Scholar
Stouge, S., Harper, D. A. T., Sevastopulo, G. D., O'Mahony, D. & Murray, J. 2016. Lower and Middle Ordovician conodonts of Laurentian affinity from blocks of limestone in the Rosroe Formation, South Mayo Trough, western Ireland and their palaeogeographic implication. Geological Journal 51, 584–99.Google Scholar
Sutton, M. D., Bassett, M. G. & Cherns, L. 1999. Lingulate Brachiopods from the Lower Ordovician of the Anglo-Welsh Basin. Part 1. Monograph of the Palaentographical Society, London, 610, 60 pp.Google Scholar
Sweet, W. C. & Bergström, S. M. 1962. Conodonts from the Pratt Ferry Formation (Middle Ordovician) of Alabama. Journal of Paleontology 36, 1214–52.Google Scholar
Wang, Z., Bergström, S. M., Zhen, Y. Y., Chen, X. & Zhang, Y. 2013. On the integration of Ordovician conodont and graptolite biostratigraphy: new examples from Gansu and Inner Mongolia in China. Alcheringa 37, 510–28.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. & Williams, A. 1953. The fauna of the Derfel Limestone of the Arenig district, North Wales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 238, 397–427.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1969. Ordovician faunal provinces with reference to brachiopod distribution. In The Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales (ed. Wood, A.), pp. 117–34. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A., Strachan, I., Bassett, D. A., Dean, W. T., Ingham, J. K., Wright, A. D. & Whittington, H. B. 1972. A Correlation of Ordovician Rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London, Special Report no. 3, 74 pp.Google Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J. A. 1992. Graptolites dating the Ordovician volcanicity in the Arenig area, North Wales. Geological Journal 27, 379–89.Google Scholar