The occurrence of the brachiopods Nanukidium and Atrypoidea in the Late Silurian of southeastern Alaska, Alexander terrane

1989 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman M. Savage

Previously described faunas of Early Silurian through Late Pennsylvanian age from the Alexander terrane have been endemic, or have variously suggested North American or Asiatic affinities, leaving the paleogeographic history of the terrane uncertain although indicating a location closer to North America than to Asia (Armstrong, 1970; Douglass, 1971; Savage, 1981, 1985, 1989; Savage et al., 1978; Savage and Barkeley, 1985; Soja, 1988; Vaskey, 1982). The occurrence reported here of the Canadian Arctic brachiopods Nanukidium cf. N. cunninghamensis and Atrypoidea scheii in the Alexander terrane during the Late Silurian could be additional evidence supporting the view that the Alexander terrane was not far removed from the North American craton during middle Paleozoic time.

1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (S36) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D. Stanley ◽  
Carlos González-León ◽  
Michael R. Sandy ◽  
Baba Senowbari-Daryan ◽  
Peter Doyle ◽  
...  

A diverse Upper Triassic tropical marine fauna from northwestern Sonora, Mexico, includes 31 taxa of tropical invertebrates including scleractinian corals, spongiomorphs, disjectoporoids, “hydrozoans,” thalamid and nonthalamid sponges, spiriferid and terebratulid brachiopods, gastropods, bivalves, coleoids, and anomuran microcoprolites. They occur within the late Karnian to Norian part of the Antimonio Formation (Antimonio terrane), which is juxtaposed against a fragmented portion of the North American craton. Most of the fauna is also known from the Tethys region. Sixteen Sonoran taxa co-occur in the western Tethys and five have never been known outside this region. Four additional taxa (one identified only at genus level) are geographically widespread. Some taxa occur in displaced terranes of North America, especially in west-central Nevada (Luning Formation). A weak link exists with the California Eastern Klamath terrane but stronger ties exist with Peru. Among Sonoran sponges,Nevadathalamia polystomawas previously recognized only from the Luning Formation, western Nevada. SpongesCinnabaria expansa, Nevadathalamia cylindrica, and a coral,Astraeomorpha sonorensisn. sp., are also known from Nevada. The coralsDistichomeandra austriaca, Chondrocoenia waltheri, Pamiroseris rectilamellosa, andAlpinophyllia flexuosaco-occur in central Europe. Two new taxa, a spongiomorph hydrozoan,Stromatoporidium lamellatumn. sp., and a disjectoporoid,Pamiropora sonorensisn. sp., have distinct affinities with the Tethys. The geographically widespread North American brachiopod,Spondylospira lewesensis, andPseudorhaetina antimoniensisn. gen. and sp. are among the Sonoran fauna. The Sonoran coleoid (aulacocerid)Dictyoconites(Dictyoconites) cf.D. reticulatumoccurs in the Tethys realm andCalliconitescf.C. drakeiis comparable with a species from the Eastern Klamath terrane.Calliconites millerin. sp. is the first occurrence of the genus outside Sicily. The bivalvesMyophorigonia jaworskii, M. salasi, andPalaeocardita peruvianaare known from Sonora and Peru. Eight gastropod taxa includeGuidoniacf.G. intermediaandG.cf.G. parvula, both previously known from Peru, andEucycloscala subbisertusfrom the western Tethys. The gastropods are unlike those already known from other North American terranes.


1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin de Keijzer ◽  
Paul F Williams ◽  
Richard L Brown

The Teslin zone in south-central Yukon has previously been described as a discrete zone with a steep foliation unique to the zone. It includes the Anvil assemblage and the narrowest portion of the Yukon-Tanana terrane (the Nisutlin assemblage), and is defined by post-accretionary faults: the Big Salmon fault to the west and the d'Abbadie fault system to the east. The zone was interpreted as a lithospheric suture or a crustal-scale transpression zone, and as the root zone of klippen lying on the North American craton to the east. We demonstrate that deformation and metamorphism are the same inside and outside the zone. The steep transposition foliation in the zone, in contrast to adjacent rocks to the east, coincides with the steep limb of a regional F3 structure. This fold has a shallow limb in the easternmost part of the zone and immediately east of the zone. Thus we reject earlier interpretations. If a suture exists between the obducted Anvil and Yukon-Tanana Nisutlin assemblages and North America, it is a shear zone that occurs at the base of the obducted rocks, which has been folded by the F3 fold. However, evidence that this thrust boundary is a lithospheric suture is lacking. A consequence of our interpretation is that North American rocks pass under the eastern Teslin zone and outcrop to the west of the Nisutlin and Anvil assemblages. This geometry precludes the possibility of the Teslin zone being the root zone of the klippen.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 97-97
Author(s):  
Stanley C. Finney ◽  
Raymond L. Ethington

Two very different plate-tectonic models have been proposed to explain the development and emplacement of the Robert Mountains allochthon (RMA) onto the North America craton during the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Antler Orogeny. In one model, the RMA represents a far-traveled accretionary prism that migrated eastwards over a west-dipping subduction zone. In the other, the eugeoclinal strata of the RMA were deposited on the continental rise of western North America within a closed back-arc basin. Siliciclastic sediments, especially quartz sandstones, compose much of the RMA, yet knowledge of their provenance is poor even though such knowledge is essential for evaluating the two plate-tectonic models.We have recently obtained large collections of graptolites and conodonts from turbiditic quartz sandstones in the Lower Member of the Vinini Formation in the Roberts Mountains. These sandstones of lower Whiterockian age are correlative with the lower Antelope Valley Limestone that deposited on the western shelf of North America. The diverse graptolite fauna represents the oceanic isograptid fauna. However, it also includes pendent didymograptids and rooted dendroids that were restricted to shallow shelf seas. The dendroids (Cactograptus, Dendrograptus, Desmograptus, and Dictyonema) were benthic organisms, could not have lived in a deep marine setting, and are also common in shallow-water carbonate strata of western Utah. All specimens within the turbiditic quartz sandstones of the Vinini were broken before final deposition and burial, but specimens from Utah are generally complete. The diverse conodont fauna is virtually identical to that found in the lower Antelope Valley Limestone, as well as in coeval strata in western Utah. Although it includes a few deep (cold) water, cosmopolitan species, it is dominated by species that are otherwise known only from shallow water strata deposited on the North American craton.We conclude that turbidity currents transported these exotic graptolites and conodonts down from the shelf and onto the rise along with the quartz sands in which they occur. Thus, the Whiterockian quartz sandstones in the Vinini Formation must have a North American provenance just as the fossils do. This is strong evidence that 1) the RMA is not exotic to North America, 2) the eugeoclinal strata of the RMA were deposited on the western continental rise of North America and on the eastern side of a back-arc basin, and 3) the RMA was thrust onto the western shelf of North America by closure of this back-arc basin.


1961 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 663-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Grainger

The literature on Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus) in arctic-subarctic Canada is reviewed, and the history of the 2-size-group phenomenon in the North Atlantic subarctic region is discussed. Calanus glacialis Jaschnov is briefly described, and compared with material from North America, the characters emphasized being size and the structure of the fifth legs. It is concluded that specimens from arctic and subarctic North America agree essentially with C. glacialis, those from the subarctic and north boreal regions with C. finmarchicus. Occurrence of the 2 species in northern North America is given, that of the large glacialis alone being shown to coincide closely with the known extent of unmixed polar water, of the 2 together to occupy the region of mixed polar and Atlantic water, and of the small finmarchicus alone to inhabit Atlantic water.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Wilson ◽  
James P. Pitts

Understanding the timing of mountain building and desert formation events in western North America is crucial to understanding the evolutionary history of the diverse arid-adapted biota that is found there. While many different, often conflicting descriptions exist regarding geobiotic change in western North America, little work has been done to synthesize these various viewpoints. In this paper we present several case studies that illustrate the differences in the various explanations, based on geological and paleobiological data, detailing mountain uplift and desertification in western North America. The majority of the descriptions detailing mountain building in this area fall into two major periods of uplift, the Laramide uplift (∼70—50 Ma) and the Neogene uplift (∼15—2 Ma), yet it remains unclear which of these events was responsible for the formation of the modern mountains. Like the descriptions of mountain building, various accounts exist detailing the timing of desert formation. Some authors suggest that the deserts existed as far back as 15 Ma while others propose that desert formation occurred as recently as 10,000 years ago. Based on this review of the literature, we suggest that the data on Cenozoic geomorphological evolution of the North American desert landscape is still too coarse and filled with gaps to allow for the development of a robust model of landscape evolution. Instead, this work demonstrates the need for biologists studying the North American biota to realize just how problematic some of the earth history data and models are so that they can build this uncertainty into biogeographic reconstructions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-31
Author(s):  
George D. Stanley ◽  
John-Paul Zonneveld

Cassianastraea is an enigmatic colonial Triassic cnidarian first described as a coral but subsequently referred to the Hydrozoa. We report here the first occurrence in Canada of fossils we designate as Cassianastraea sp. from the Williston Lake region of British Columbia. The specimens come from older collections of the Geological Survey of Canada, collected in Upper Triassic (Carnian) strata assigned to either the Ludington or Baldonnel Formations. While well known in reef associations of the former Tethys region, Cassianiastraea is relatively rare in North America. The Carnian Baldonnel Formation contains the earliest coral reefs from the North American craton and we suspect that Cassianastraea sp. also came from this reef association.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Nation-Knapper

This article illuminates the existence and utility of fur trade ledgers and account books held in repositories beyond those held in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. While the vast holdings of the HBCA are a phenomenal resource for researchers of the North American fur trade, many smaller repositories across the continent hold fur trade sources that can complement research conducted in other institutions. Such sources can, when examined with an eye to the cultural information they contain, reveal far more about the cultural history of North America than simply the economic data for which they were created.


1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 2028-2036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry A. Hedderson ◽  
Guy R. Brassard

One hundred and thirty-four species of mosses and 18 species of liverworts are reported from Nachvak Fiord and 22 mosses are reported from Saglek Fiord. Nineteen of the mosses had not previously been reported from Labrador and 49 are new to northern Labrador. Seven of the liverworts are new to Labrador. Brophyte species new to eastern North America are Anastrophyllum assimile, Hygrophypnum cochlearifolium (possibly) and Lophozia cavifolia. The record of Lophozia cavifolia represents an addition to the hepatic flora of North America (excluding Greenland). The North American distributions of Hydrogrimmia mollis, Marsupella revoluta and Trichostomum arcticum are mapped. The high incidence of disjunct species in the bryoflora of the Torngat Mountains is discussed in relation to the proposed glacial history of the area.


1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 1048-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Crins ◽  
Peter W. Ball

The taxonomy of the Carex flava complex (section Ceratocystis) in North America and northern Eurasia is revised. Three species are recognized in this complex (C. flava L., C. cryptolepis Mack., and C. viridula Michx.). Carex viridula contains six infraspecific taxa, which are differentiated on the basis of differences in inflorescence structure, degree of perigynium curvature, leaf and bract morphology, chromosome number, and ecological preference. Three nomenclatural changes are required: C. viridula ssp. brachyrrhyncha (Čelak.) B. Schmid var. elatior (Schlecht.) Crins, comb.nov.; C. viridula ssp. brachyrrhyncha var. nevadensis (Boiss. & Reuter) Crins, comb.nov.; C. viridula ssp. brachyrrhyncha var. saxilittoralis (Robertson) Crins, comb, et stat.nov. This classification reflects the results of morphological, ecological, and cytological studies, and is also consistent with the hypothesized phylogenetic history of the section as a whole. A key is provided for all of the North American and northern Eurasian members of section Ceratocystis. Descriptions and distribution maps for members of the C. flava complex are also provided.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document