scholarly journals First discovery of Small Shelly Fossils and new occurrences of brachiopods and trilobites from the early Cambrian (Stage 4) of the Swedish Caledonides, Lapland

GFF ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Christian B. Skovsted ◽  
Timothy P. Topper ◽  
Stephen McLoughlin ◽  
Ove Johansson ◽  
Fan Liu ◽  
...  
2016 ◽  
Vol 154 (5) ◽  
pp. 1061-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. DEVAERE ◽  
C. B. SKOVSTED

AbstractThe Cambrian Stage 4 upper Bastion Formation of Albert Heim Bjerge and CH Ostenfeld Nunatak, NE Greenland, yielded 34 excellently preserved sclerites ofLapworthella schodackensisamong other small shelly fossils. Lapworthellids have been interpreted as members of the camenellans, a basal tommotiid group. Little is known about this group although the morphological and ultrastructural features of their sclerites allow a potential reconstruction of a lophophorate body plan. The exquisite material from Greenland provides significant new data for the revision of the species taxonomy, but also for the comprehension of the scleritome structure of lapworthellids and the mode of formation of their sclerites. Two morphotypes ofL. schodackensissclerites are identified: one with a simple apex, occurring in sinistral and dextral forms; and one bilaterally symmetrical sclerite with two apices. All bear a similar ornamentation constructed of repeated growth sets consisting of a reticulate inter-rib groove with tubercles, a densely denticulate rib and a striated sub-rib area. The new data on the ornamentation and observations of the laminar shell microstructure ofL. schodackensisenable us to improve the reconstruction of growth in lapworthellids. Finally, the morphological features of the two types of sclerites provide new information for the reconstruction of the bilaterally symmetrical multi-component lapworthellid scleritome with evidence of the fusion of adjacent sclerites during early ontogeny.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian B. Skovsted ◽  
John S. Peel

An assemblage of seventeen species of Small Shelly Fossils, dominated by the brachiopod Eothele tubulus and species of the mollusk Yochelcionella, is described from the basal Kinzers Formation of Thomasville, Pennsylvania. The occurrence extends southwards the distribution of an Early Cambrian fauna (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) that is otherwise characteristic of the eastern shelf of Laurentia from New York to Greenland. The poorly known acrothelid brachiopod Eothele tubulus is redescribed based on large collections of ventral valves. The shell structure of E. tubulus is characterized by orthogonal baculae, and represents the oldest known example of a baculate shell structure, indicating that this type of shell structure evolved already in the Early Cambrian.


2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (S83) ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
John S. Peel

AbstractAn assemblage of 50 species of small shelly fossils is described from Cambrian Series 2 (Stage 4) strata in North Greenland, the present day northernmost part of the paleocontinent of Laurentia. The fossils are derived from the basal member of the Aftenstjernesø Formation at Navarana Fjord, northern Lauge Koch Land, a condensed unit that accumulated in a sediment-starved outer ramp setting in the transarctic Franklinian Basin, on the Innuitian margin of Laurentia. Most other small shelly fossil assemblages of similar age and composition from North America are described from the Iapetan margin of Laurentia, from North-East Greenland south to Pennsylvania. Trilobites are uncommon, but include Serrodiscus. The Australian bradoriid Spinospitella is represented by a complete shield. Obolella crassa is the only common brachiopod. Hyoliths, including Cassitella, Conotheca, Neogloborilus, and Triplicatella, are abundant and diverse, but most are represented just by opercula. Sclerites interpreted as stem-group aculiferans (sachitids) are conspicuous, including Qaleruaqia, the oldest described paleoloricate, Ocruranus?, Inughuitoconus n. gen., and Hippopharangites. Helcionelloid mollusks are diverse, but not common; they are associated with numerous specimens of the bivalve Pojetaia runnegari. The fauna compares best with that of the upper Bastion Formation of North-East Greenland, the Forteau Formation of western Newfoundland, and the Browns Pond Formation of New York, but several taxa have a world-wide distribution. Many specimens are encrusted with crystals of authigenic albite. New species: Anabarella? navaranae, Stenotheca? higginsi, Figurina? polaris, Hippopharangites groenlandicus, Inughuitoconus borealis, and Ocruranus? kangerluk.UUID: http://zoobank.org/160a17b1-3166-4fcf-9849-a3cabd1e04a3


2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-125
Author(s):  
John S. Peel

AbstractPhosphatic sclerites of the problematicTarimspiraYue and Gao, 1992 (Cambrian Series 2) recovered by weak acid maceration of limestones display a unique range of mainly strongly coiled morphologies. They were likely organized into multielement scleritomes, but the nature of these is poorly known; some sclerites may have had a grasping function.Tarimspirasclerites grew by basal accretion in an analogous fashion to younger paraconodonts (Cambrian Series 3–4) but lack a basal cavity. Based on proposed homologies,Tarimspiramay provide an extension of the early vertebrate paraconodont–euconodont clade back into the early Cambrian.Tarimspirais described for the first time from Laurentia (North Greenland), extending its known range from China and Siberia in Cambrian Series 2. In addition to the type species,Tarimspira planaYue and Gao, 1992, the Greenland record ofTarimspiraincludes two morphotypes of a new species,Tarimspira artemi.UUID:http://zoobank.org/c7c536c8-cdaf-49a9-ae1d-77c392f553fc.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Landing ◽  
Gerd Geyer ◽  
Kenneth E. Bartowski

Latest Early Cambrian continental slope deposition of the early Hatch Hill dysaerobic interval (new name, latest Early Cambrian—earliest Ordovician) is recorded by dark grey shales and turbidite limestones in the Bacchus slice at Ville Guay, Québec. Platform-derived microfaunas of the Bicella bicensis trilobite assemblage were transported into a dysoxic environment of the upper “Anse Maranda Formation,” and many organisms were buried alive. Phosphatization preserved a diverse skeletal fossil assemblage that includes four agnostid trilobites, echinoderm debris, and twenty small shelly fossil taxa. The latter include five helcionellids; Pelagiella Matthew, 1895b, classified herein as a gastropod; a bivalve (Fordilla Barrande, 1881); the brachiopod Linnarssonia taconica Walcott, 1887; two conodontomorphs; four hyoliths; and such phosphatic and calcareous problematica as Coleoloides Walcott, 1889, emend. Most small shelly fossil taxa, including Discinella micans Billings, 1872, range through much of the Olenellus Zone and Elliptocephala asaphoides assemblage interval. Trilobites allow a more resolved correlation into the uppermost Olenellus Zone. A comparable stratigraphy occurs in Cambrian—Ordovician slope facies of the Bacchus slice and the Giddings Brook slice in eastern New York. The “Anse Maranda Formation” correlates with the West Granville—Browns Pond—lower Hatch Hill formations in eastern New York and brackets two dysaerobic intervals (Browns Pond and early Hatch Hill). Sea-level change associated with the Hawke Bay regression between the Browns Pond and Hatch Hill onlap/dysaerobic intervals led to the longest period of oxygenated green shale and sandstone deposition on the east Laurentian slope in the late Early Cambrian-earliest Ordovician.


2018 ◽  
Vol 156 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIEN KIMMIG ◽  
RONALD C. MEYER ◽  
BRUCE S. LIEBERMAN

AbstractThe Pioche Formation of SE Nevada preserves a diverse soft-bodied fauna from the early and middle Cambrian (Series 2–3: Stage 4–5). While the fauna is dominated by arthropods, animals belonging to other taxa can be found. Here we document the first occurrence of Herpetogaster collinsi outside the Burgess Shale. Further, the specimens are from the Nephrolenellus multinodus biozone and thus represent the oldest occurrence of the species, as well as possibly the earliest soft-bodied deuterostomes in Laurentia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1894) ◽  
pp. 20182505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giannis Kesidis ◽  
Ben J. Slater ◽  
Sören Jensen ◽  
Graham E. Budd

The fossilized traces of burrowing worms have taken on a considerable importance in studies of the Cambrian explosion, partly because of their use in defining the base of the Cambrian. Foremost among these are the treptichnids, a group of relatively large open probing burrows that have sometimes been assigned to the activities of priapulid scalidophoran worms. Nevertheless, most Cambrian burrows have an uncertain progenitor. Here we report a suite of exceptionally preserved trace and body fossils from sandstones of the lower Cambrian (Stage 4) File Haidar Formation of southern Sweden that can unequivocally be assigned to a scalidophoran producer. We further present the first burrow casts produced via actualistic experiments on living priapulids, and demonstrate the remarkable morphological parallels between these modern and Cambrian fossil equivalents. In addition, co-occurrence of scalidophoran-derived cuticular remains permits a unique synthesis of evidence from trace fossil, body and organic remains. Comparative analysis of these exceptionally preserved fossils supports a scalidophoran producer for treptichnids and by extension suggests a latest Ediacaran origin of the ecdysozoan clade.


1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 767-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Hofmann ◽  
M. P. Cecile ◽  
L. S. Lane

Trace fossil assemblages from green and maroon argillites at 34 localities in the British Mountains and Barn Mountains of northernmost Yukon, and 3 localities in the Grant Land Formation of northern Ellesmere Island contain abundant Planolites spp., Oldhamia curvata, Oldhamia flabellata, and Oldhamia radiata, and rare Oldhamia antiqua, Oldhamia? wattsi (n.comb.), Bergaueria hemispherica, Cochlichnus sp., Didymaulichnus? sp., Helminthoidichnites sp., Monomorphichnus sp., Protopaleodictyon sp., and Tuberculichnus? sp. Additionally, 11 new sites in the Selwyn Mountains of north-central Yukon have yielded an ichnofauna including Helminthorhaphe sp., O. curvata, O. flabellata, O. radiata, Plagiogmus? sp., Planolites spp., and unidentified small hemispherical traces. All these assemblages are interpreted as Early Cambrian to early Middle Cambrian, based on comparison with Oldhamia-bearing ichnofaunas of similar age in North America, Argentina, and western Europe, and on archaeocyathids and olenellids in overlying units.


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