Storm-deposited sandstones (tempestites) and related ichnofossils of the Late Ordovician Georgian Bay Formation, southern Ontario, Canada: Discussion

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1687-1688 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Pickerill ◽  
D. C. A. Stanley



1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 827-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M Rudkin

A new genus and species of articulated scleritomous metazoan, Curviconophorus andersoni, is described on the basis of a unique specimen from the Late Ordovician Georgian Bay Formation of southern Ontario. The affinities of the organism remain obscure, although the overall morphology of component sclerites suggests a possible relationship with the Agmata, an extinct phylum-level group so far known with certainty only from the Cambrian. Curved, conical elements of the scleritome are preserved as internal moulds and yield no details of ultrastructure or primary composition, precluding detailed comparisons with the aggultinated, internally laminated sclerites of agmatans. Curviconophorus gen.nov. has a scleritome architecture similar to that of the Early Ordovician putative agmatan Dimorphoconus granulatus, though it has fewer elements that are strictly monomorphic.



1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kerr ◽  
Nicholas Eyles

The Late Ordovician Geogian Bay Formation of southern Ontario, Canada, comprises up to 250 m of grey to blue–grey shales interbedded with highly fossiliferous calcareous sandstones. These strata were deposited in equatorial paleolatitudes after 448 Ma in a shallow foreland basin created by overthrusting along the eastern margin of North America (the Taconic orogeny). The Georgian Bay Formation comprises the middle part of an upward-shallowing progradational sequence from deep-water transgressive shales of the underlying Whitby Formation to muddy tidal-flat sequences of the overlying Queenston Formation. Exposures in brickyard and river cuts near Toronto, and northwards along a narrow outcrop belt along the foot of the Niagara Escarpment, show laterally extensive (100 m+), sharp-based sheets of sandstone up to 1 m thick, with gutter casts and washed-out (hypichnial) trace fossils (dominantly Planolites and Paleophycus) on their lower bedding surfaces. Detailed examination of sandstone beds in outcrop and in three boreholes that penetrate the formation shows that the beds are composed internally of a basal fossil hash layer overlain by flat, hummocky, and wave-rippled divisions. Bed tops show a variety of wave-ripple forms and are heavily bioturbated (dominantly Bifungites, Conostichus, Diplocraterion, Didymaulichnus, Teichichnus). Sandstone sheets are interpreted as storm deposits (tempestites) resulting from tropical storms (hurricanes) transporting fine-grained suspended sediment from a delta plain onto a muddy shelf to the west.



Ichnos ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Christopher ◽  
A. Stanley ◽  
Ron K. Pickerill


1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 851-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Eckert

Pycnocrinus altilis n. sp. is described from the Upper Ordovician Georgian Bay Formation of Ontario. Closely related to P. dyeri (Meek), 1872, the cup of P. altilis is characterized by stellate ornamentation of plates comprising ridges bounded by deep subtriangular pits. Pycnocrinus altilis inhabited submarine channels in the prodeltaic regime of the Queenston deltaic complex and is inferred to have been anchored to the substrate by a distally coiled column.



2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Ove R. Ebbestad ◽  
Christopher A. Stott

Shell repairs resulting from presumed failed predation are documented in gastropods from the Late Ordovician (Cincinnatian; Richmondian) mid-to-upper Kagawong Submember of the Georgian Bay Formation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. The bryozoan–mollusc biota and associated sediments generally suggest nearshore, shallow (<10 m), low energy (lagoonal), and perhaps mesotrophic to eutrophic conditions. Two sample sets from this unit have been studied for shell repair. One of the more commonly applied estimates of shell repair frequencies involves division of the number of individuals with at least one scar by the total number of individuals in the sample (the Individuals with scars method). Using this calculation, 207 specimens of Lophospira trilineata Ulrich and Scofield yielded a shell repair frequency of 4.8%; in 28 specimens of Trochonemella sp. the shell repair frequency was 35.7%. Repairs in Trochonemella occur primarily in the larger size class, suggesting that a size refuge was achieved by this species. Low repair frequencies in L. trilineata suggest predation with a higher success rate or fewer encounters. This study demonstrates that the paradigm of a standardized low level of shell repair in Ordovician and Silurian gastropods is oversimplistic and a range of frequency rates can be expected.



2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 1138-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Bernard Caron ◽  
David M. Rudkin ◽  
Stuart Milliken

The discovery of a new naraoiid nektaspid in the Upper Silurian (Pridolian) of southeastern Ontario significantly extends the range of this unusual group. Nektaspids are nonmineralized arthropods typical of Early and Middle Cambrian soft-bottom communities, but were thought to have become extinct in the Late Ordovician. The unique holotype specimen of Naraoia bertiensis n. sp. comes from a Konservat–Lagerstätte deposit renowned for its eurypterid fauna (the Williamsville Member of the Bertie Formation). Naraoia bertiensis lacks thoracic segments and is morphologically similar to Naraoia compacta from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, save for the presence of a long ventral cephalic doublure and a subtly pointed posterior shield. To examine the phylogenetic relationships of the new naraoiid, we coded characters of the holotype specimen and of nine previously described nektaspids. The results confirm a sister taxon relationship between Naraoia compacta and Naraoia bertiensis and the monophyly of nektaspid forms lacking thoracic segments (family Naraoiidae). This latter group may have arisen from an ancestral segment-bearing form through heterochronic loss of thoracic segments early in the Cambrian. The disjunct occurrence of a naraoiid nektaspid in the Late Silurian resembles the reappearance of other “Lazarus taxa” that were thought to have been eliminated during mass extinction events. The naraoiid lineage survived the Late Ordovician biotic crisis, but in this case the “Lazarus effect” seems likely to be taphonomic in origin.





2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1447-1470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stig M. Bergström ◽  
Mark Kleffner ◽  
Birger Schmitz ◽  
Bradley D. Cramer

δ13C values of 142 samples from the Manitoulin Formation and subjacent strata collected from 14 exposures and two drill-cores on Manitoulin Island, Bruce Peninsula, and the region south of Georgian Bay suggest that the Manitoulin Formation is latest Ordovician (Hirnantian) rather than earliest Silurian in age. A δ13C excursion identified as the Hirnantian isotope carbon excursion (HICE), which has a magnitude of nearly 2.5‰ above baseline values, is present in an interval from the upper Queenston Formation to the lower to middle part of the Manitoulin Formation in most of Bruce Peninsula and in the area south of Georgian Bay, whereas on Manitoulin Island the HICE appears to be absent. This indicates that a significant part of the Manitoulin Formation is older on the Bruce Peninsula and in its adjacent region than on Manitoulin Island. The chemostratigraphically based conclusions are consistent with biostratigraphic data from conodonts and brachiopods. The Hirnantian δ13C curve from Anticosti Island, Quebec is closely similar to those of southern Ontario. Traditionally, the Ordovician–Silurian boundary has been placed at the base of the Manitoulin Formation, but the new results suggest that it is more likely to be at, or near, the base of the overlying Cabot Head Formation. These new results have major implications for the interpretation of the geologic history and marine depositional patterns of the latest Ordovician of a large part of the North American Midcontinent.



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