Seirocrinus subangularis (Miller, 1821), a Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) crinoid from the Fernie Formation, Alberta, Canada

1991 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell L. Hall

An almost complete specimen of the pentacrinid Seirocrinus subangularis (Miller, 1821) is described from the Red Deer Member of the Fernie Formation in the Rocky Mountains of central-western Alberta. Associated ammonites representing the Stokesi Subzone of the Margaritatus Zone indicate a Late Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) age for the specimen. Taphonomic features suggest preservation in soft muds on a quiet, oxygen-deficient seafloor, so that the lower surface is preserved intact while ossicles on the exposed upper surface became disarticulated and were slightly disturbed. This occurrence in western Canada represents a major extension of the geographic range of the species.

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1688-1704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell L. Hall

New ammonite faunas are described from sections along Bighorn and Scalp creeks in central-western Alberta where Lower Jurassic parts of the Fernie Formation are exposed. The first record of the upper Sinemurian Obtusum Zone from the Fernie is based on the occurrence of Asteroceras cf. stellare and Epophioceras cf. breoni in the basal pebbly coquina on Bighorn Creek. The overlying Red Deer Member has yielded Amaltheus cf. stokesi, representing the upper Pliensbachian Margaritatus Zone; in immediately superjacent strata the first North American examples of ?Amauroceras occur together with Protogrammoceras and ?Aveyroniceras. In the basal parts of the overlying Poker Chip Shale a fauna including Harpoceras cf. falciferum, Harpoceratoides, Polyplectus cf. subplanatus, Hildaites cf. serpentiniformis, and Dactylioceras cf. athleticum is correlated with the lower Toarcian Falciferum Zone.The upper parts of the Poker Chip Shale on Fording River in southeastern British Columbia contain a fauna representing some part of the upper Toarcian, but owing to poor preservation, generic identifications are only tentatively made.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan T Petersen ◽  
Paul L Smith ◽  
James K Mortensen ◽  
Robert A Creaser ◽  
Howard W Tipper

Jurassic sedimentary rocks of southern to central Quesnellia record the history of the Quesnellian magmatic arc and reflect increasing continental influence throughout the Jurassic history of the terrane. Standard petrographic point counts, geochemistry, Sm–Nd isotopes and detrital zircon geochronology, were employed to study provenance of rocks obtained from three areas of the terrane. Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks, classified by inferred proximity to their source areas as proximal or proximal basin are derived from an arc source area. Sandstones of this age are immature. The rocks are geochemically and isotopically primitive. Detrital zircon populations, based on a limited number of analyses, have homogeneous Late Triassic or Early Jurassic ages, reflecting local derivation from Quesnellian arc sources. Middle Jurassic proximal and proximal basin sedimentary rocks show a trend toward more evolved mature sediments and evolved geochemical characteristics. The sandstones show a change to more mature grain components when compared with Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks. There is a decrease in εNdT values of the sedimentary rocks and Proterozoic detrital zircon grains are present. This change is probably due to a combination of two factors: (1) pre-Middle Jurassic erosion of the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic arc of Quesnellia, making it a less dominant source, and (2) the increase in importance of the eastern parts of Quesnellia and the pericratonic terranes, such as Kootenay Terrane, both with characteristically more evolved isotopic values. Basin shale environments throughout the Jurassic show continental influence that is reflected in the evolved geochemistry and Sm–Nd isotopes of the sedimentary rocks. The data suggest southern Quesnellia received material from the North American continent throughout the Jurassic but that this continental influence was diluted by proximal arc sources in the rocks of proximal derivation. The presence of continent-derived material in the distal sedimentary rocks of this study suggests that southern Quesnellia is comparable to known pericratonic terranes.


Author(s):  
Tao Qian ◽  
Zongxiu Wang ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Shaofeng Liu ◽  
Wanli Gao ◽  
...  

The formation and evolution of an intracontinental basin triggered via the subduction or collision of plates at continental margins can record intracontinental tectonic processes. As a typical intracontinental basin during the Jurassic, the Qaidam Basin in western China records how this extensional basin formed and evolved in response to distant subduction or collisional processes and tectonism caused by stresses transmitted from distant convergent plate margins. The Jurassic evolution of the Qaidam Basin, in terms of basin-filling architecture, sediment dispersal pattern and basin properties, remains speculative; hence, these uncertainties need to be revisited. An integrated study of the stratigraphic succession, conglomerates, U-Pb geochronology, and Hf isotopes of detrital zircons was adopted to elucidate the Jurassic evolutionary process of the Qaidam Basin. The results show that a discrete Jurassic terrestrial succession characterized by alluvial fan, braided stream, braided river delta, and lacustrine deposits developed on the western and northern margins of the Qaidam Basin. The stratigraphic succession, U-Pb age dating, and Hf isotope analysis, along with the reconstructed provenance results, suggest small-scale distribution of Lower Jurassic sediments deposited via autochthonous sedimentation on the western margin of the basin, with material mainly originating from the Altyn Tagh Range. Lower Jurassic sediments in the western segment of the northern basin were shed from the Qilian Range (especially the South Qilian) and Eastern Kunlun Range. And coeval sediments in the eastern segment of the northern basin were originated from the Quanji massif. During the Middle-Late Jurassic, the primary source areas were the Qilian Range and Eastern Kunlun Range, which fed material to the whole basin. The Jurassic sedimentary environment in the Qaidam Basin evolved from a series of small-scale, scattered, and rift-related depressions distributed on the western and northern margins during the Early Jurassic to a larger, extensive, and unified depression occupying the whole basin in the Middle Jurassic. The Altyn Tagh Range rose to a certain extent during the Early Jurassic but lacked large-scale strike-slip tectonism throughout the Jurassic. At that time, the North Qaidam tectonic belt had not yet been uplifted and did not shed material into the basin during the Jurassic. The Qaidam Basin experienced intracontinental extensional tectonism with a northeast-southwest trend throughout the Jurassic in response to far-field effects driven by the sequential northward or northeastward amalgamation of blocks to the southern margin of the Qaidam Block and successive accretion of the Qiangtang Block and Lhasa Block onto the southern Eurasian margin during the Late Triassic−Early Jurassic and Late Jurassic−Early Cretaceous, respectively.


1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Henderson ◽  
D. G. Perry

Late Early Jurassic heteroporid bryozoa occur in arenaceous carbonates near Turnagain Lake, north-central British Columbia. The occurrence of Heteropora tipperi n. sp. marks the first documentation of Early Jurassic cyclostome bryozoa in North America. The associated fauna, comprising the ammonite Harpoceras, the foraminifer Reinholdella, and the pelecypod Weyla, establish the age as Early Toarcian. Other associated biota include an endolithic green alga(e), which is demonstrated to have a commensal relationship with H. tipperi n. sp. Sedimentologic and biotic data from the host strata point to a shallow, temperate, high-energy, normal marine environment.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberley E.J. Chapelle ◽  
Paul M. Barrett ◽  
Jennifer Botha ◽  
Jonah N. Choiniere

Our knowledge of Early Jurassic palaeobiodiversity in the upper Elliot Formation of South Africa has increased markedly in recent years with the discovery of new fossils, re-assessments of previously collected material and a better understanding of Stormberg Group stratigraphy. Here, Ngwevu intloko, a new genus of upper Elliot basal sauropodomorph is named on the basis of a complete skull and partial skeleton (BP/1/4779) previously assigned to Massospondylus carinatus. It can be distinguished from all other basal sauropodomorphs by a combination of 16 cranial and six postcranial characters. The new species is compared to a small ontogenetic series of M. carinatus as well as to a range of closely related taxa. Taphonomic deformation, sexual dimorphism and ontogeny are rejected as possible explanations for the morphological differences present between BP/1/4779 and other taxa. Osteohistological examination reveals that BP/1/4779 had nearly reached adult size at the time of its death at a minimum age of 10 years.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M Barrett ◽  
Tim Broderick ◽  
Kimberley Chapelle ◽  
Jonah Choiniere ◽  
Steve Edwards ◽  
...  

Southern Africa provides critical information on Late Triassic–Early Jurassic terrestrial tetrapod faunas. Most of the localities in this region are in South Africa and Lesotho, but preliminary work in Zimbabwe has revealed significant potential. Early Jurassic Zimbabwean localities have yielded the basal sauropodomorph Massospondylus, the early sauropod Vulcanodon and theropod material. Late Triassic localities are also known, but have yielded only fragmentary specimens thus far. In early 2017, a joint South African-Zimbabwean-UK team conducted fieldwork in the upper Karoo-aged deposits along the shores of Lake Kariba, northern Zimbabwe (Mid-Zambesi Basin). We relocated the Vulcanodon type locality on Island 126/127 and found that, contrary to previous reports suggesting a Toarcian age, the quarry was in a horizon pre-dating the onset of Drakensburg volcanism (= Batoka Basalts). It is situated instead within the earlier Lower Jurassic Forest Sandstone. This indicates that Vulcanodon is 10–15 million years older than thought previously, recalibrating several nodes within Sauropoda and indicating extensive overlap between true sauropods and 'prosauropods'. Other new vertebrate localities show that sauropodomorphs are present in the Forest Sandstone and upper Tashinga (Late Triassic) formations, but a grey mudstone facies within the Pebbly Arkose Member of the latter unit yields a more aquatic fauna, including lungfish and phytosaurs, but lacking sauropodomorphs. The phytosaur occurrence is the first in Africa south of the Sahara. Faunal and sedimentological evidence indicates that the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic sites in this region were deposited under more mesic environments than their lateral equivalents in South Africa.


mSphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald A. Shikiya ◽  
Anthony E. Kincaid ◽  
Jason C. Bartz ◽  
Travis J. Bourret

ABSTRACT Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging and fatal contagious prion disease that affects cervids, including mule deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, red deer reindeer, elk, and moose. CWD prions are widely distributed throughout the bodies of CWD-infected animals and are found in the nervous system, lymphoid tissues, muscle, blood, urine, feces, and antler velvet. The mechanism of CWD transmission in natural settings is unknown. Potential mechanisms of transmission include horizontal, maternal, or environmental routes. Due to the presence of prions in the blood of CWD-infected animals, the potential exists for invertebrates that feed on mammalian blood to contribute to the transmission of CWD. The geographic range of the Rocky Mountain Wood tick, Dermancentor andersoni, overlaps with CWD throughout the northwest United States and southwest Canada, raising the possibility that D. andersoni parasitization of cervids may be involved in CWD transmission. We investigated this possibility by examining the blood meal of D. andersoni that fed upon prion-infected hamsters for the presence of prion infectivity by animal bioassay. None of the hamsters inoculated with a D. andersoni blood meal that had been ingested from prion-infected hamsters developed clinical signs of prion disease or had evidence for a subclinical prion infection. Overall, the data do not demonstrate a role for D. andersoni in the transmission of prion disease. IMPORTANCE Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging prion disease that affects cervids, including mule deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, red deer reindeer, elk, and moose. The mechanism of CWD transmission in unknown. Due to the presence of prions in the blood of CWD-infected animals, it is possible for invertebrates that feed on cervid blood to contribute to the transmission of CWD. We examined the blood meal of D. andersoni, a tick with a similar geographic range as cervids, that fed upon prion-infected hamsters for the presence of prion infectivity by animal bioassay. None of the D. andersoni blood meals that had been ingested from prion-infected hamsters yielded evidence of prion infection. Overall, the data do not support a role of D. andersoni in the transmission of prion disease.


Author(s):  
Wiesław Krzemiński ◽  
Agnieszka Soszyńska-Maj ◽  
Katarzyna Kopeć ◽  
Irena D. Sukatsheva

ABSTRACTThe family Austropanorpidae (Mecoptera) was described by Willmann in 1977 from the Eocene of Australia, based on one genus and species, Austropanorpa australis Riek, 1952. During a restudy of the collection of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a second and much older representative of this family was found. This specimen, described as Orthophlebia martynovae Sukatsheva, 1985 from Siberia (Russia), was considered until now to be a member of family Orthophlebiidae. We transfer this species to the Austropanorpidae, extending the age of this family back to the Early Jurassic. An updated diagnoses of the family Austropanorpidae and genus Austropanorpa are presented here.


Geophysics ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. Richards ◽  
D. J. Walker

Following seismic observations in the Albertan Plains from the Ripple Rock explosion, a refraction line some 81 miles long and parallel to the frontal thrust of the Rocky Mountains and about 60 miles to the east thereof was observed by two‐way shooting. Fifteen seismic parties, spaced at roughly uniform intervals along the line and using the method of close geophone correlation, were employed, the object being to map as many refractors or reflectors as possible as far as the Mohorovicic discontinuity. The results indicate that this discontinuity occurs at a minimum depth of 43 km where the velocity is about 8.2 km/sec, while an intermediate layer with a minimum depth of 29 km and velocity 7.2 km/sec has been registered. Other intermediate refractors were observed. These results are compared with those obtaining in other parts of the American continent and elsewhere. The operational, instrumental, and theoretical aspects of the work are discussed.


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