Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T08:40:51.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trilobite faunas from Upper Cambrian microbial reefs in the Central Appalachians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

John F. Taylor ,
James D. Loch  and
Patrick J. Perfetta
John F. Taylor
Affiliation:
1Geoscience Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana 15705
James D. Loch
Affiliation:
2Department of Geology, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg 64093
Patrick J. Perfetta
Affiliation:
1Geoscience Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana 15705
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Trilobites from thrombolitic reefs in the Ore Hill Member of the Upper Cambrian Gatesburg Formation are assigned to (in ascending order) the Pseudosaratogia magna, Cliffia lataegenae, and Irvingella major Subzones of the Elvinia Zone. These reef faunas contrast markedly with those from coeval off-reef grainstones (tempestites), representing separate biofacies rather than biostratinomic variants. Associated lithologies suggest that the fauna of the P. magna Subzone at the base of the member comprises a biofacies associated with shallower microbial reef environments than those occupied by faunas in the overlying C. lataegenae Subzone. Reefs in the C. lataegenae Subzone yield a fauna dominated by Buttsia drabensis, extending the documented range of catillicephalid abundance in microbial reef biofacies downward into the highest strata of the Steptoean Stage. This reef fauna also includes several new taxa, including Cheilocephalus quadratus new species (described herein), an atypical species of Cheilocephalus with catillicephalid-like cranidial features. The fauna in off-reef tempestites low in the C. lataegenae Subzone contains the genera that characterize the Xenocheilus–Kindbladia Biofacies, expanding the known environmental and geographic range of that biofacies. Sulcocephalus, typically a minor component of faunas in the I. major Subzone, dominates the fauna in reefs within this subzone such that a distinct Sulcocephalus Biofacies can be recognized immediately above the extinction horizon that defines the base of the Sunwaptan Stage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 73 , Issue 2: Papers from the Second International Trilobite Conference, August 1997 , March 1999 , pp. 326 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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

Berkey, C. P. 1898. Geology of the St. Croix Dalles. American Geologist, 21:270–294.Google Scholar
Brezinski, D. K. 1990. The trilobite genus Australosutra from the Osagean of Oklahoma. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 59:61–70.Google Scholar
Butts, C. 1918. Geological Section of Blair and Huntingdon Counties, central Pennsylvania. America. Journal of Science, 4th series, 46:523–537.Google Scholar
Butts, C. 1945. Holidaysburg-Huntingdon quadrangles. U.S. Geological Survey Atlas Folio 227, 20 p.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E., and Ludvigsen, R. 1998. Upper Steptoean (Upper Cambrian) trilobites from the McKay Group of southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Paleontological Society Memoir 49:1–43. (Journal of Paleontology, 72[2]: Supplement).Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1975. Early Ordovician trilobite communities. Fossils and Strata 4:339–360.Google Scholar
Grant, R. E. 1965. Faunas and stratigraphy of the Snowy Range Formation (Upper Cambrian) in southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. Geological Society of America Memoir 96:1–171.Google Scholar
Hedberg, H. D. (ed.). 1976. International stratigraphic guide. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 200 p.Google Scholar
Hohensee, S. R., and Stitt, J. H. 1989. Redeposited Elvinia Zone (Upper Cambrian) trilobites from the Collier Shale, Ouachita Mountains, west-central Arkansas. Journal of Paleontology, 63:857–879.Google Scholar
Howell, B. F. 1944. Correlation of the Cambrian formations of North America. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 55:993–1004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, N. P., and Kobluk, D. R. 1978. Lower Cambrian patch reefs and associated sediments. Sedimentology, 25:1–35.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1935. The Cambro-Ordovician formations and faunas of South Chosen. Palaeontology, Pt. III, Cambrian faunas of South Chosen with a special study on the Cambrian trilobite genera and families. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, section II, 4:49–344.Google Scholar
Kurtz, V. E. 1975. Franconian (Upper Cambrian) trilobite fauna from the Elvins Group of southeast Missouri. Journal of Paleontology, 49:1009–1043.Google Scholar
Lane, P. D. 1972. New trilobites from the Silurian of north-east Greenland, with a note on triloibte faunas in pure limestones. Palaeontology, 15:336–364.Google Scholar
Loch, J. D., and Taylor, J. F. 1995. High-resolution biostratigraphy in the Upper Cambrian Ore Hill Member of the Gatesburg Formation, south-central Pennsylvania, p. 131–137. In Mann, K. O. and Lane, H. R. (eds.), Graphic Correlation. Society for Sedimentary Geology Special Publication 53.Google Scholar
Lochman, C., and Hu, C. H. 1962. An Aphelaspis Zone faunule from Logan, Montana. Journal of Paleontology, 36:431–444.Google Scholar
Lochman-Balk, C. 1970. Upper Cambrian faunal patterns on the craton. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 81:3197–3224.Google Scholar
Longacre, S. A. 1970. Trilobites of the Upper Cambrian Ptychaspid Biomere, Wilberns Formation, central Texas. Paleontological Society Memoir 4:1–70. (Journal of Paleontology, 44[1]: Supplement.)Google Scholar
Ludvigsen, R. 1987. Reef trilobites from the Formosa Limestone (Lower Devonian) of southern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 24:676–688.Google Scholar
Ludvigsen, R., and Westrop, S. R. 1983a. Trilobite biofacies of the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary interval in northern North America. Alcheringa, 7:301–319.Google Scholar
Ludvigsen, R., and Westrop, S. R. 1983b. Franconian trilobites of New York State. New York State Museum Memoir 23:1–83.Google Scholar
Mikulic, D. G. 1981. Trilobites in Paleozoic carbonate build-ups. Lethaia, 14:45–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature. 1983. North American stratigraphic code. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 67:841–875.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1954. The faunas of the Riley Formation in central Texas. Journal of Paleontology, 28:709–786.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1965. Trilobites of the Late Cambrian Pterocephaliid Biomere in the Great Basin, United States. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 493, 105 p.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1968. Cambrian trilobites of east-central Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 559-B, 115 p.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R. 1989. Early Ordovician thrombolite reefs, St. George Group, Western Newfoundland, p. 231–240. In Geldsetzer, H. H. J., James, N. P., and Tebbutt, G. E. (eds.), Reefs, Canada and Adjacent Areas. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 13.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R. 1992. Trilobites of the Marjuman and Steptoean Stages (Upper Cambrian), Rabbitkettle Formation, southern Mackenzie Mountains, northwest Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana 9:1–179.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R. 1995. The origin, biota, and evolution of deep-water mudmounds, p. 49–123. In Monty, C. L. V., Bosence, D. W. J., Bridges, P. H., and Pratt, B. R. (eds.), Carbonate Mud-mounds; Their Origin and Evolution. International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication 23.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R., and James, N. P. 1982. Cryptalgal-metazoan bioherms of early Ordovician age in the St. George Group, western Newfoundland. Sedimentology, 29:543–569.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R., and James, N. P. 1989. Early Ordovician thrombolite reefs, St. George Group, western Newfoundland, p. 231–240. In Geldsetzer, H. H. J., James, N. P., and Tebbutt, G. E. (eds.), Reefs, Canada and Adjacent Areas. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 13.Google Scholar
Rasetti, F. 1965. Upper Cambrian trilobite faunas of northeastern Tennessee. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 148(3):1–127.Google Scholar
Repina, L. N. 1968. Biogeography of early Cambrian of Siberia according to trilobites, p. 289–300. In Gekker, R. F. (ed.), Problemy Paleontologii. International Geological Congress 23, Doklady. (In Russian)Google Scholar
Resser, C. E. 1942. New Upper Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 103(5):1–136.Google Scholar
Rudkin, D. M., and Westrop, S. R. 1997. Trilobite taphonomy of a Silurian reef: Attawapiskat Formation, northern Ontario. Abstracts Second International Trilobite Conference, St. Catharines, Ontario, 1:44.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1956. A Cambrian Aphelaspis fauna from Steele Butte, near Boulder, Wyoming. Journal of Paleontology, 30:48–52.Google Scholar
Stitt, J. H. 1971. Late Cambrian and earliest Ordovician trilobites. Timbered Hills and lower Arbuckle Groups, western Arbuckle Mountains, Murray County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin 110:1–83.Google Scholar
Stitt, J. H. 1975. Functional morphology and life habits of the late Cambrian trilobite Stenopilus pronus. Journal of Paleontology, 50:561–577.Google Scholar
Stitt, J. H. 1977. Late Cambrian and earliest Ordovician trilobites, Wichita Mountains area, Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin 124:1–79.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. E. 1977. Late Cambrian of western North America: trilobite biofacies, environmental significance and biostratigraphic implications, p. 397–425. In Kaufmann, E. G. and Hazel, J. R. (eds.), Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy. Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R. 1984. Late Cambrian and earliest Ordovician trilobites, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 990 p.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R. 1986a. Taphonomic versus ecologic controls on taxonomic relative abundance patterns in tempestites. Lethaia, 19:123–132.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R. 1986b. Trilobites of the Upper Cambrian Sunwaptan Stage, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. Palaeontographica Canadiana 3, 179 p.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R. 1995. Sunwaptan (Upper Cambrian) trilobites of the Rabbitkettle Formation, Mountain River region, northern Mackenzie Mountains, northwest Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana, 12:1–75.Google Scholar
Westrop, S. R. 1996. Temporal persistence and stability of Cambrian biofacies: Sunwaptan (Upper Cambrian) trilobite faunas of North America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 127:33–46.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1997. Morphology of the exoskeleton, p. 1–85. In Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. O, Trilobita, Revised. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. L. 1951. Franconian trilobites of the central Appalachians. Journal of Paleontology, 25:617–654.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. L. 1952. Upper Cambrian stratigraphy in the central Appalachians. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 63:275–322.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. L., and Frederickson, E. A. 1950. The Irvingella major (“Ptychopleurites“) faunizone of the Upper Cambrian. American Journal of Science, 28:891–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar