High-Resolution Faunal Gradient Analysis and an Assessment of the Causes of Meter-Scale Cyclicity in the Type Cincinnatian Series (Upper Ordovician)

Palaios ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 545-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. WEBBER
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Gradient Analysis ◽  
Upper Ordovician ◽  
Cincinnatian Series

scholarly journals Paleoecology of Cyclocrinites darwini (Miller) - a cyclocrinitid alga from the Cincinnatian series (Upper Ordovician)

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 177-177
Author(s):  
Peter B. Lask
Keyword(s):  
Structural Similarity ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Energy Conditions ◽  
Upper Ordovician ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Coral Rubble ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Lateral Branches ◽  
Key Largo ◽  
Cincinnatian Series

Cyclocrinitids are considered to be calcareous green algae closely related to, or members of, the dasycladacean algae. Cyclocrinitids are characterized by a globular thallus 1-5 cm in diameter consisting of whorls of calcified meromes borne from a tubular or spherical central axis. The species Cyclocrinites darwini is distinguished from other cyclocrinitids by the presence of lateral branches arranged in a stellate pattern at the distal end of each merome.C. darwini is restricted to strata of the Cincinnatian Series. Specimens are commonly found in shale-filled channels cutting through nodular, irregularly-bedded limestones within the Mt. Auburn Formation and the lower Sunset Member of the Arnheim Formation. Numerous specimens are also known from the Bellevue Member of the Grant Lake Formation at Maysville, Kentucky. Each of these units has been interpreted to be the top of separate shoaling-upward, third-order cycles. These facies are abundantly fossiliferous, often consisting of broken, abraded, and reworked material.The modern dasyclad Neomeris is cited for its structural similarity to the cyclocrinitids and ecological parallels have been postulated as well. Neomeris and a similar dasyclad Batophora, thrive while attached to pieces of coral rubble at depths of less than 3 m in the high-energy conditions associated with a reef crest environment at Key Largo, Florida.It is likely that C. darwini lived under similar conditions, attached to rubble in shoaling areas. Preservation only occurred in instances when thalli were broken off from their holdfasts and swept into ripple troughs or downslope channels cutting across the shoals. It has been suggested that the presence of cyclocrinitids is indicative of relatively quiet environments below wave base. For Cyclocrinites darwini, the opposite would appear to be the case.

Chronometric calibration of mid-Ordovician to Tournaisian conodont zones: a compilation from recent graphic-correlation and isotope studies

1992 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry G. Fordham
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Lower Devonian ◽  
New South ◽  
Upper Ordovician ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Isotope Studies ◽  
Stratotype Section ◽  
Upper Silurian

AbstractThree available graphic-correlation analyses are used to calibrate mid-Palaeozoic conodont zonations: Sweet's scheme for the mid- to Upper Ordovician; Kleffner's for the mid- to Upper Silurian; and Murphy & Berry's for the lower and middle Lower Devonian. The scheme of Sweet is scaled by applying the high-precision U-Pb zircon date of Tucker and others for the Rocklandian and linked with that of Kleffner by scaling the graptolite sequence of the Ordovician-Silurian global stratotype section to fit two similarly derived dates from this sequence. The top of Kleffner's scheme, all of Murphy & Berry's, as well as standard zones to the Frasnian are calibrated by using tie-points of the latest Cambridge-BP time-scale (GTS 89). However, the recent microbeam zircon date by Claoué-Long and others for the Hasselbachtal Devonian-Carboniferous auxiliary stratotype is used to calibrate the standard Famennian zones. Also the similarly derived but preliminary determination reported by Roberts and others from the Isismurra Formation of New South Wales is tentatively taken as the top of the Tournaisian and so used to calibrate Tournaisian zones. Despite the considerable extrapolation required to compile these schemes and their inherent errors, the resultant time-scale closely agrees with other dates of Tucker and others from the Llanvirn as well as the GTS 89 Homerian-Gorstian tie-point. This suggests that stratigraphic methods can be usefully applied to geochronometry. The Llandovery appears to have lasted longer (16 m. y.) than usually envisaged and the Ordovician-Silurian boundary may need to be lowered to approximately 443.5 Ma. Certainly, chrons varied widely in duration and further stratigraphic studies to estimate their relative durations as well as high-resolution dating for their calibration will be crucial to more accurate biochronometries.

Trans-Pacific graptolite faunal relations: the biostratigraphic position of the base of the Cincinnatian Series (Upper Ordovician) in the standard Australian graptolite zone succession

1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 992-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stig M. Bergström ◽  
Charles E. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Close Correlation ◽  
Late Ordovician ◽  
Upper Ordovician ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Type Area ◽  
Cincinnatian Series ◽  
Early Late ◽  
Drill Cores

Recent studies of drill-cores and outcrops have resulted in the discovery of previously unknown, taxonomically diverse, graptolite faunas in the late Middle (Mohawkian) and early Late Ordovician (Cincinnatian) strata in the Cincinnati region, the type area of the Cincinnatian Series. These faunas contain several zonal indices and other biostratigraphically important species that are used for close correlation with the standard graptolite zone succession in New York and Quebec. The new data show that the base of the Cincinnatian Series in its type area is near the middle of the Climacograptus (Diplacanthograptus) spiniferus Zone. Significantly, about a dozen Cincinnati region graptolite species are shared with apparently coeval strata in the standard Australian graptolite zone succession in Victoria, and this key faunal evidence indicates that the base of the typical Cincinnatian corresponds to a level near the middle of the Climacograptus (Climacograptus) baragwanathi Zone (Ea2) of the Eastonian Stage. This represents a considerable revision of some recently published correlations of the basal Cincinnatian in terms of the Australian graptolite zone succession.

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