Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:37:56.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sphenothallus-like fossils from the Martinsburg Formation (Upper Ordovician), Tennessee, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Maya Li Wei-Haas ,
Bosiljka Glumac  and
H. Allen Curran
Maya Li Wei-Haas
Affiliation:
1Department of Geosciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063, USA, 2School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA (current)
Bosiljka Glumac
Affiliation:
1Department of Geosciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063, USA,
H. Allen Curran
Affiliation:
1Department of Geosciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063, USA,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tubular fossils, up to 2 mm in diameter and 60 mm in length, occur rarely in the upper Martinsburg Formation (Upper Ordovician), northeastern Tennessee Appalachians, U.S.A. The fossils are unbranched, straight or slightly bent, occasionally twisted and wrinkled, and not significantly tapered. Orientation of the fossils within shallow-marine tempestites suggests that they represent remains of organisms that were broken, transported, and deposited by storm waves and currents. The fossils are morphologically similar to many of the previously identified species belonging to the genus Sphenothallus, a relatively rare tube-dwelling Paleozoic marine invertebrate. Owing to the limited evidence for distal widening of the tubes, lack of holdfasts, and carbonaceous rather than phosphatic composition, the affinity of these fossils remains uncertain, and we refer to them as Sphenothallus-like.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , March 2011 , pp. 353 - 359
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

Atkinson, M. J. and Smith, S. V.. 1983. C:N:P ratios of benthic marine plants. Limnology and Oceanography, 28:568–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodenbender, B. E., Wilson, M. A., and Palmer, J. T.. 1989. Paleoecology of Sphenothallus on an Upper Ordovician hardground. Lethaia, 22:217–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, T. 1994. Sphenothallus angustifolius Hall, 1847 from the lower Upper Ordovician of Ontario and Quebec. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin, 479:1–11.Google Scholar
Choi, D. K. 1990. Sphenothallus (“Vermes”) from the Tremadocian Dumugol Formation, Korea. Journal of Paleontology, 64:403–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickens, G. R., O'Neil, J. R., Rea, D. K., and Owen, R. M.. 1995. Dissociation of oceanic methane hydrate as a cause of the carbon isotope excursion at the end of the Paleocene. Paleoceanography, 10:965–971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, W. W. 1982. Depositional environments and paleoecology of the Middle and Upper Ordovician Martinsburg Formation of Grainger County, Tennessee. Unpublished , , Knoxville, 242 p.Google Scholar
Driese, S. G. and Foreman, J. L.. 1991. Traces and related chemical changes in a Late Ordovician paleosol, Glossifungites ichnofacies, southern Appalachians, U.S.A. Ichnos, 1:207–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driese, S. G. and Mora, C. I.. 2001. Diversification of Siluro-Devonian plant traces in paleosols and influence on estimates of paleoatmospheric CO2 levels, p. 237–253. In Gensel, P.G. and Edwards, D. (eds.), Plants Invade the Land: Evolutionary & Environmental Perspectives. Critical Moments and Perspectives in Early History and Paleobiology Series, Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, D. and Wellman, C. H.. 2001. Embryophytes on land: The Ordovician to Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) record, p. 3–28. In Gensel, P. G., and Edwards, D., eds., Plants Invade the Land: Evolutionary & Environmental Perspectives. Critical Moments and Perspectives in Early History and Paleobiology Series, Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauchald, K., Sturmer, W., and Yochelson, E. L.. 1986. Sphenothallus “Vermes” in the Early Devonian Hunsrück Slate, West Germany. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 60:57–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldmann, R. M., Hannibal, J. T., and Babcock, L.. 1986. Fossil worms from the Devonian of North America (Sphenothallus) and Burma (“Vermes”) previously identified as phyllocarid arthropods. Journal of Paleontology, 60:341–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girty, G. H. 1911. The fauna of the Moorefield Shale of Arkansas. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 493, 148 p.Google Scholar
Hall, J. 1847. Paleontology of New York. Vol. 1. Containing descriptions of the organic remains of the lower division of the New York System. C. Van Benthuysen, Albany, 338 p.Google Scholar
Gröcke, D. R. 1998. Carbon-isotope analyses of fossil plants as a chemostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental tool. Lethaia, 31:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, C. C. 1993. Conodont age determination of the uppermost Martinsburg (Ordovician), Valley and Ridge Province, Tennessee to Pennsylvania. Unpublished , , Wilmington, 169 p.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1934. The Cambro-Ordovician formations and faunas of South Chosen. Palaeontology. Part II, Lower Ordovician faunas. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, Section II, 3:521–585.Google Scholar
Li, G. X., Zhu, M. Y., Van Iten, H., and Li, C. W.. 2004. Occurrence of the earliest known Sphenothallus Hall in the Lower Cambrian of Southern Shaanxi Province, China. Geobios, 37:229–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, C. and Yochelson, E.. 1985. Some tubular fossils (Sphenothallus: “Vermes”) from the Middle and Late Paleozoic of the United States. Journal of Paleontology, 59:85–95.Google Scholar
McKinstry, L. H., Marchefka, A. M., Glumac, B., and Green, M. D.. 2001. Enigmatic fossils from the Martinsburg Formation (Upper Ordovician), northeastern Tennessee. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 33:73.Google Scholar
M'Coy, F. 1844. A synopsis of the characters of the Carboniferous limestone fossils of Ireland. Williams and Norgate, London, 274 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakagaki, M and Xiao, S.. 2008. Morphological and chemical analyses of Sphenothallus from the Early Cambrian Shuijingtuo Formation, China. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 40:477.Google Scholar
Neal, M. and Hannibal, J.. 2000. Paleoecologic and taxonomic implications of Sphenothallus and Sphenothallus-like specimens from Ohio and areas adjacent to Ohio. Journal of Paleontology, 74:369–380.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, J., Babcock, L. E., Zhao, Y., Wang, P., and Yang, R.. 2005. Cambrian Sphenothallus from Guizhou Province, China: early sessile predators. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 220:119–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruedemann, R. H. 1896. The discovery of a sessile Conularia. New York State Geological Survey Annual Report, 15:699–728.Google Scholar
Schopf, J. M., Mencher, E., Boucot, A. J., and Andrews, H. N.. 1966. Erect plants in the Early Silurian of Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 550-D:D69–D75.Google Scholar
Strother, P. K. and Lenk, C.. 1983. Eohostimella is not a plant: Program with Abstracts, Joint Meeting of the Botanical Society of America and Canadian Botanical Association. American Journal of Botany, 70:80.Google Scholar
Tomescu, A. M. F., Pratt, L. M., Rothwell, G. W., Strother, P. K., and Nadon, G. C.. 2009. Carbon isotopes support the presence of extensive land floras pre-dating the origin of vascular plants. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 283:46–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Iten, H., Cox, R. S., and Mapes, R. H.. 1992. New data on the morphology of Sphenothallus Hall: implications for its affinities. Lethaia, 25:135–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Iten, H., Fitzke, J. A., and Cox, R. S.. 1996. Problematical fossil cnidarians from the Upper Ordovician of the north-central USA. Palaeontology, 39:1037–1064.Google Scholar
Van Iten, H., Zhu, M., and Collins, D.. 2002. First report of Sphenothallus Hall, 1847 in the Middle Cambrian. Journal of Paleontology, 76:902–905.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yi, W., Shou-Gang, H., Xu, C., Jia-Yu, R., Guo-Xiang, L., Jianbo, L., and Honghe, X.. 2003. Sphenothallus from the Lower Silurian of China. Journal of Paleontology, 77:583–588.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, K. R. and Byerly, D. W.. 1985. Introduction to the Thorn Hill (U.S. Highway 25E) Stratigraphic Section, p. 1–5. In Walker, K. R. (ed.), The Geologic History of the Thorn Hill Paleozoic Section (Cambrian-Mississippian), Eastern Tennessee. University of Tennessee, Studies in Geology, 10.Google Scholar
Walker, K. R. and Diehl, W. W.. 1985. Upper Ordovician “Martinsburg” Formation: A deep-water to shallow-water sequence, p. 86–92. In Walker, K. R. (ed.), The Geologic History of the Thorn Hill Paleozoic Section (Cambrian-Mississippian), Eastern Tennessee. University of Tennessee, Studies in Geology, 10.Google Scholar
Zhu, M. Y., Van Iten, H., Cox, R. S., Zhao, Y. L., and Erdtmann, B.-D.. 2000. Occurrence of Byronia Matthew and Sphenothallus Hall in the Lower Cambrian of China. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 74:227–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar