Biostratigraphic significance of lower Paleozoic microfaunas from eastern Canada

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 489-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Asselin ◽  
Aïcha Achab ◽  
Azzedine Soufiane

Chitinozoan studies recently carried out in the “Appalachian Forelands and St. Lawrence Platform” National Geoscience Mapping Program (NATMAP) project have confirmed the regional biostratigraphic value of a number of chitinozoan species and led to a better documentation of their stratigraphic and geographic distribution in eastern Canada. The typical Darriwilian microfaunas first described from the Table Head Group of western Newfoundland and containing Conochitina chydaea are now recognised in the Rivière Ouelle Formation at Les Méchins, Gaspé Peninsula. In the Upper Ordovician successions of the St. Lawrence Platform at Neuville and in the Charlevoix area, Quebec, Conochitina primitiva is indicative of the multidens–pre-americanus graptolite zonal range, Hercochitina duplicitas of the americanus Zone, and Hercochitina spinetum and Acanthochitina cancellata characterize the ruedemanni – lower spiniferus zonal interval. The occurrence of Cyathochitina vaurealensis and Hercochitina crickmayi in turbidite deposits of the Grog Brook Group of northwestern New Brunswick confirms the minimal facies dependence of these two Richmondian index species. Eisenackitina dolioliformis, characteristic of the late Aeronian and Telychian successions of Arctic Canada, Gaspé Peninsula, and Anticosti Island, is now recognised in samples from the Upsalquitch Formation of northwestern New Brunswick and the Cabano Formation of the Rimouski area in Quebec. The palynological data from Devonian successions of the Matapedia Valley, the Rimouski area, and the Beauce – Eastern Townships region show that the succession of Lower Devonian chitinozoan assemblages of the Forillon Peninsula based on short-ranging species can be used in establishing regional correlations in the Gaspé Belt.

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (12) ◽  
pp. 1248-1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole J. Burrow ◽  
Susan Turner ◽  
John G. Maisey ◽  
Sylvain Desbiens ◽  
Randall F. Miller

The higher taxonomic affinities of fin spines from the Lower Devonian (Emsian) Atholville beds, Campbellton Formation, near Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada, originally identified as Ctenacanthus latispinosus, have been uncertain since they were first described by Whiteaves in the late 19th century. Woodward subsequently referred the species to Climatius, because the isolated Canadian fin spines were similar to those preserved in articulated specimens of Climatius reticulatus from the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Lochkovian) of Scotland. Spines of the same form as the Atholville beds specimens are also found in Emsian mudstones on the Gaspé Peninsula, Québec. One of the fin spine forms appears identical to the pectoral fin spines on an articulated specimen from the Campbellton Formation that has been assigned to the stem chondrichthyan Doliodus problematicus, a taxon erected for isolated diplodont teeth. By comparison with median and paired fin spine morphology on the climatiiform Climatius reticulatus from the Scottish Lower Old Red Sandstone and the spines preserved on the articulated Doliodus, isolated fin spines from Campbellton and several localities on the Gaspé Peninsula are now identified as belonging to Doliodus latispinosus comb. nov. The variety of spine morphotypes recognized—pectoral, prepelvic, prepectoral, and median—support a phylogenetic position within the “acanthodians” rather than “conventionally defined chondrichthyans”.


1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. A. Dixon

Acidolites Lang, Smith and Thomas occurs in upper Middle and Upper Ordovician, Lower and lower Middle Silurian rocks of Ontario and Quebec. On Anticosti Island, Quebec, the genus is represented by A. tenuis (Billings) in the Upper Ordovician (Gamachian) Ellis Bay Formation; the new species A. arctatus, A. compactus and A. helianthus in the Ordovician–Silurian boundary beds at the top of the Ellis Bay Formation; the new species A. arctatus, A. compactus and A. lindströmi in the lower Llandoverian Becscie Formation; A. arctatus in the mid-Llandoverian Gun River Formation; and an unnamed species in the upper Llandoverian Jupiter Formation. The lower Llandoverian Clemville Formation of the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec, contains Protaraea clemvillensis Parks, now considered to be Acidolites. The upper Middle to lower Upper Ordovician Cobourg Formation near Ottawa, Ontario, contains A. cf. arctatus, formerly included in Protaraea vetusta (Hall). The lower Wenlockian Amabel Formation in southern Ontario contains a species of Acidolites as yet unnamed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 507-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Lavoie ◽  
Esther Asselin

The post-Taconian units in the Quebec and northern New Brunswick Appalachians constitute the Gaspé Belt and geological studies have mostly focussed on its eastern Quebec segment. Biostratigraphic data indicate that the succession in southern Quebec is no older than Late Silurian and extends into the Early Devonian. Two distinct stratigraphic assemblages are present. The first assemblage (Saint-Luc, Cranbourne, and Lac Aylmer formations, and Glenbrooke Group) unconformably overlies the Humber and Dunnage zones. The units show a basal alluvial conglomerate that passes progressively to deeper marine facies upsection, which have recorded a post-Late Silurian transgressive event. The second assemblage (Saint-Francis Group and Frontenac Formation) is faulted against either Dunnage units or autochthonous post-Taconian units. It locally unconformably overlies units of the Dunnage Zone; the succession shows progressively deeper marine conditions upsection and also has recorded a post-Late Silurian transgressive event. The biostratigraphic framework suggests that some of the units that were assumed to be vertically stacked are rather laterally equivalent. Independant evidence supports the hypothesis that the Gaspé Belt in southern Quebec formed after the collapse of the Taconian orogen in Late Silurian time. This event is ascribed to the Salinian Orogeny. The framework from southern Quebec is incorporated in a regional scenario. The Gaspé Belt experienced a Pridolian–Lochkovian sea-level rise. In Pragian time, shallower marine conditions were established in southern Quebec, whereas in the Gaspé Peninsula, the shallower conditions only occurred in early Emsian time.


2016 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen K. Donovan ◽  
David G. Keighley

Silurian strata of Atlantic Canada and southern Québec locally preserve common fossil crinoids, albeit mostly as disarticulated remains. New crinoids from the Chaleurs Group, West Point Formation (Ludlow to Pridoli?; Upper Silurian) of the Gaspé Peninsula include Iocrinus? maennili (Yeltysheva) (otherwise known from the Katian of Estonia), Bystrowicrinus (col.) depressus sp. nov. and Cyclocyclicus (col.) sp. aἀ. C. (col.) echinus Donovan. On the basis of both its gross morphology and stratigraphic position, Iocrinus? maennili is unlikely to be an iocrinid disparid, a family that became extinct at the end of the Ordovician. The trivial name has hitherto been erroneously spelled as männili, mannili and mjannili. Most specimens of the common Bystrowicrinus (col.) depressus appear cyclocyclic because the pentastellate lumen occurs in a deeply sunken claustrum that is commonly occluded by sediment; clean specimens are highly distinctive. Cyclocyclicus (col.) sp. aἀ. C. (col.) echinus is similar to a species known from the Katian of North Wales. Taken together, this assemblage is more reminiscent of Katian strata (Upper Ordovician). Ḁis is problematic given the current mapping of the outcrop as West Point Formation (Upper Silurian), suggesting further stratigraphic studies in the area are required.


2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D’hulst ◽  
Georges Beaudoin ◽  
Michel Malo ◽  
Marc Constantin ◽  
Pierre Pilote

The Lower Devonian Sainte-Marguerite volcanic rocks are part of a Silurian–Devonian volcanic sequence deposited between the Taconian and Acadian orogenies in the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec, Canada. The Sainte-Marguerite unit includes basaltic and dacitic lava flows with calc-alkaline and volcanic-arc affinities. Such affinities are also recorded by the trace-element signature in Lower Silurian and most Lower Devonian volcanic units of the Gaspé Peninsula. However, most of the other Silurian–Devonian volcanic rocks occurring in the Gaspé Peninsula have been previously interpreted to have erupted in an intracontinental setting. A back-arc setting for the Gaspé Peninsula between the Taconian and Acadian orogenies could account for these subduction volcanic-arc signatures, though a metasomatized lithospheric mantle magma source, unrelated to subduction, cannot be excluded. Lower Silurian and Lower Devonian volcanic rocks in the central part of the Gaspé Peninsula show an arc affinity, whereas Upper Silurian and Lower to Middle Devonian volcanic rocks, located in the south and north of the Gaspé Peninsula, respectively, show a within-plate affinity. The Lower Devonian Archibald Settlement and Boutet volcanic rocks of the southern and northern Gaspé Peninsula, respectively, show a trend toward a within-plate affinity. This suggests that within-plate volcanism migrated from south to north through time in an evolving back-arc environment and that the subduction signature of Lower Silurian and Lower Devonian rocks results from a source that melted only under the central part of the Gaspé Peninsula.


1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. Young ◽  
James P. A. Noble

Six species belonging to the families Proporidae and Plasmoporidae occur in the Lower and Upper Silurian rocks of the Limestone Point and La Vieille Formations of northern New Brunswick and of the Anse à Pierre-Loiselle, La Vieille, and Gascons Formations of the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec. The three species ofProporaare widely distributed but show varying faunal affinities, while both species ofPlasmopora, Plasmopora loganiandPlasmopora corrugata, are new and are almost endemic. Revised concepts ofProporaandPlasmoporaare proposed. The holotype specimen for the type species ofCamptolithuswas examined and confirms the genus as distinct fromPropora, rather than a synonym as has been previously suggested.The facies distribution of these corals is variable. In general, the proporids, which mostly occur in facies indicating shallow carbonate banks and patch reefs, are more restricted in distribution than the plasmoporids, which occur in these facies and also in others representing a variety of open-shelf environments.


1957 ◽  
Vol 89 (8) ◽  
pp. 371-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. T. Bird ◽  
D. E. Elgee

An outbreak of the European spruce sawfly, Diprion hercyniae (Htg.), was discovered in the Gaspé Peninsula in 1930. By 1938, heavy infestations had developed west of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, throughout New Brunswick and northern Maine, and in parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Moderate to light infestations occurred through all other parts of the spruce forests of this region and extended from Nova Scotia, to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and west to Ontario.


1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 680-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Robin South

A revised checklist of 354 species, subspecies, and varieties of benthic marine algae from eastern Canada is given, consisting of 128 Rhodophyceae, 128 Phaeophyceae, 90 Chlorophyceae, 7 species of Vaucheria (Xanthophyceae), and 1 of Phaeosaccion (Chrysophyceae). Records for the entire coastline from Cape Chidley, Labrador, in the north to the New Brunswick – Maine border in the south are included, as well as from Anticosti Island, Magdalen Island, Sable Island, and St. Pierre and Miquelon. Additions include Waerniella lucifuga (Kuck.) Kylin; Phloeospora curta (Fosl.) Jaasund; Striaria attenuata (Grev.) Grev.; Fucus distichus L. subsp. anceps (Harv. et Ward ex Carm.) Powell (Phaeophyta); Pilinia ? rimosa Kütz.; and Tellamia contorta Batt. (Chlorophyta).


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