Lower Cambrian (Series 2) small shelly fossils from along Nares Strait (Nunavut and Greenland; Laurentia)

2021 ◽  
pp. 495-504
Author(s):  
John S. Peel ◽  
Christian B. Skovsted
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Channel Formation ◽  
Inner Shelf ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
Small Shelly Fossils ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
Shelf Sediments ◽  
Basin Formation ◽  
North Greenland

Three small assemblages of lower Cambrian (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) small shelly fossils are described from Laurentian strata astride Nares Strait. The fauna from the Humboldt Formation of Daugaard-Jensen Land, North Greenland, is derived from inner shelf sediments deposited on the stable craton of the Inglefield Land High. Fossils from Judge Daly Promontory, eastern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, occur in strata of the Cambrian Ellesmere Group (Kane Basin Formation) that have been structurally juxtaposed against older strata; they were originally assigned to the Kennedy Channel Formation, which is now considered to be of Neoproterozoic age. A similar fauna from offshore environments of the Aftenstjernesø Formation in northern Nyeboe Land, North Greenland, reflects the regional structural and sedimentological continuity with the Canadian Cambrian succession. Pojetaia robsonae sp. nov. is described from Judge Daly Promontory.

A probable late Neoproterozoic age for the Kennedy Channel and Ella Bay formations, northeastern Ellesmere Island and its implications for passive margin history of the Canadian Arctic

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 1013-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dewing ◽  
J C Harrison ◽  
Brian R Pratt ◽  
Ulrich Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Passive Margin ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Channel Formation ◽  
Type Section ◽  
Small Shelly Fossils ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basin Formation ◽  
Late Neoproterozoic

The Kennedy Channel and Ella Bay formations are the two oldest stratigraphic units exposed in the Franklinian margin sedimentary sequence in the Canadian Arctic Islands. An Early Cambrian age had previously been accepted by the occurrence of trilobites and small shelly fossils in the type section of the Kennedy Channel Formation. Reinvestigation of the area around the type section shows that several large strike-slip faults cut the succession and that the olenelloid trilobites are from an infaulted slice of a younger unit, the Lower Cambrian Kane Basin Formation. Thus, there is no unambiguous paleontological evidence for the age of either the Kennedy Channel or Ella Bay formations. However, the abundance of stromatolites, absence of trace fossils, and separation from overlying Lower Cambrian clastics by a regional angular unconformity indicate a probable late Neoproterozoic age for these two formations. The Ella Bay Formation likely correlates with the Portfjeld Formation in North Greenland, the Spiral Creek Formation in East Greenland, and the Risky Formation of the Mackenzie Mountains in northwestern Canada. The passive margin that existed in northern Laurentia during the early Paleozoic was, therefore, established in the late Neoproterozoic, and the onset of rifting must have preceded this, rather than occurring in the Early Cambrian as some authors have suggested.

An outer shelf shelly fauna from Cambrian Series 2 (Stage 4) of North Greenland (Laurentia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (S83) ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
John S. Peel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New Species ◽  
North America ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
East Greenland ◽  
North East ◽  
Small Shelly Fossils ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
North Greenland

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

scholarly journals Slope apron and deep shelf sediments of the Brønlund Fjord and Tavsens Iskappe Groups (Lower Cambrian – Lower Ordovician), North Greenland: stratigraphy, facies and depositional setting

1994 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
J.R Ineson ◽  
F Surlyk ◽  
A.K Higgins ◽  
J.S Peel
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Lower Ordovician ◽  
Shelf Sediments ◽  
Depositional Setting ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Formation ◽  
North Greenland

The aim of this paper is to present a review of the stratigraphy and regional depositional setting of the Brønlund Fjord and Tavsens Iskappe Groups in their northern outcrop. In addition, the Kap Stanton Formation, a new formation of the Tavsens Iskappe Group, is formally defined. In particular, the aim is to clarify the relationship between these northern sections and the better known, more proximal shelf sediments of the southern outcrop belt.

Articulated halkieriids from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland and their role in early protostome evolution

1995 ◽  
Vol 347 (1321) ◽  
pp. 305-358 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Internal Anatomy ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Functional Consequence ◽  
Primitive State ◽  
North Greenland

Articulated halkieriids of Halkieria evangelista sp. nov. are described from the Sirius Passet fauna in the Lower Cambrian Buen Formation of Peary Land, North Greenland. Three zones of sclerites are recognizable: obliquely inclined rows of dorsal palmates, quincuncially inserted lateral cultrates and imbricated bundles of ventro-lateral siculates. In addition there is a prominent shell at both ends, each with radial ornamentation. Both sclerites and shells were probably calcareous, but increase in body size led to insertion of additional sclerites but marginal accretion of the shells. The ventral sole was soft and, in life, presumably muscular. Recognizable features of internal anatomy include a gut trace and possible musculature, inferred from imprints on the interior of the anterior shell. Halkieriids are closely related to the Middle Cambrian Wixaxia , best known from the Burgess Shale: this clade appears to have played an important role in early protostome evolution. From an animal fairly closely related to Wixaxia arose the polychaete annelids; the bundles of siculate sclerites prefigure the neurochaetae whereas the dorsal notochaetae derive from the palmates. Wixaxia appears to have a relic shell and a similar structure in the sternaspid polychaetes may be an evolutionary remnant. The primitive state in extant polychaetes is best expressed in groups such as chrysopetalids, aphroditaceans and amphinomids. The homology between polychaete chaetae and the mantle setae of brachiopods is one line of evidence to suggest that the latter phylum arose from a juvenile halkieriid in which the posterior shell was first in juxtaposition to the anterior and rotated beneath it to provide the bivalved condition of an ancestral brachiopod. H. evangelista sp. nov. has shells which resemble those of a brachiopod; in particular the posterior one. From predecessors of the halkieriids known as siphogonuchitids it is possible that both chitons (polyplacophorans) and conchiferan molluscs arose. The hypothesis of halkieriids and their relatives having a key role in annelid—brachiopod—mollusc evolution is in accord with some earlier proposals and recent evidence from molecular biology. It casts doubt, however, on a number of favoured concepts including the primitive annelid being oligochaetoid and a burrower, the brachiopods being deuterostomes and the coelom being an archaic feature of metazoans. Rather, the annelid coelom arose as a functional consequence of the transition from a creeping halkieriid to a polychaete with stepping parapodial locomotion.

scholarly journals A problematic cnidarian (Cambroctoconus; Octocorallia?) from the Cambrian (Series 2–3) of Laurentia

2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 871-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Peel
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
First Record ◽  
Soft Corals ◽  
Pore System ◽  
General Development ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
Basal Clade ◽  
The Individual ◽  
North Greenland

AbstractThe problematic calcified cnidarian Cambroctoconus is described from the Henson Gletscher Formation (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4–Series 3, Stage 5) of North Greenland, representing the first record from Laurentia of a genus otherwise recently described from China, Kyrgyzstan, and Korea. Internal molds produced by penetrative phosphatization mirror the pervasive pore system of the calice walls and septa. The pore system is compared to the network of gastrodermal solenia that distributes nutrients between polyps and surrounding stolon tissues in present day octocorals. In conjunction with the octagonal form of the individual coralla and eight-fold symmetry of septa, the pore system promotes assignment of Cambroctoconus to the Octocorallia, a basal clade in cnidarian phylogeny. Octocorals (‘soft corals’) are diverse in present day seas, but have a poor fossil record despite the general development of distinctive calcareous spicules. New taxa: Order Cambroctoconida new; Cambroctoconus koori new species.

scholarly journals Tarimspirafrom the Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) of Laurentia (Greenland): extending the skeletal record of paraconodontid vertebrates

2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-125
Author(s):  
John S. Peel
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Type Species ◽  
Weak Acid ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Basal Cavity ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
First Time ◽  
A New Species ◽  
North Greenland

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.

scholarly journals Lower Cambrian trace fossils from northern Greenland

1988 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
J Bergström ◽  
J.S Peel
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
East Greenland ◽  
North West ◽  
North Greenland

Rusophyciform and cruzianaeform trace fossils are described from Lower Cambrian siliciciastic shelf deposits in North-West and North Greenland. Cruziana cf. C. dispar Linnarsson, 1869 is reported from the Dallas Bugt Formation of Inglefield Land while a new ichnospecies, Rusophycus marginatus, occurs in the Buen Formation of Peary Land and in the equivalent Humboldt Formation of Daugaard-Jensen Land. These species show no similarity to the Cruziana sp. previously described from East Greenland. The occurrence of C. cf. C. dispar could indicate some similarity in Cambrian trace fossil 'ichnofaunas' between Greenland and Europe but available material is insufficient to ciarify this relationship.

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