The Pridoli (Silurian) Lithostratigraphy and Biostratigraphy of Gorny Altai

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 1269-1284
Author(s):  
N.V. Sennikov ◽  
N.V. Novozhilova ◽  
O.T. Obut ◽  
R.A. Khabibulina

Abstract —The paper presents new data on the upper Silurian litho- and biostratigraphy of the Gorny Altai area. Sediments within this interval store a succession of taxonomically representative middle–upper Ludfordian, lower Pridoli, and Lower Devonian (Lochkovian–Pragian) conodont assemblages. The new fauna constraints made a basis for updated correlations of the local and regional stratigraphic units at the Silurian/Devonian boundary of Gorny Altai with the stages of the International Stratigraphic Chart. The correlation results reveal a mismatch between the boundaries of the local and regional Silurian units and the respective boundaries of stages in the International Stratigraphic Chart.

1992 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry G. Fordham

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.


Radiometric dating cannot as yet approach the resolution obtainable in Silurian and Devonian biostratigraphy. Progress towards achievement of a global standard for the Wenlock and Emsian interval (against which evolution and environment must be seen) is reviewed. In biostratigraphical correlation with this standard certain groups are especially useful. Correlation between marine Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian rocks and their equivalents in the Old Red Sandstone magnafacies presents particular problems and yet the latter provides significant evidence of plant and vertebrate evolution at this time. The recognition of widespread physical events such as volcanic episodes may sometimes prove useful. Sea level curves seldom provide a precise synchronology not achievable through biostratigraphy. Quantitative methods of correlation are so far of theoretical rather than practical interest.


Author(s):  
Henning Blom

NOTE: This monograph was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this monograph, for example: Blom, H. (1999). Vertebrate remains from Upper Silurian – Lower Devonian beds of Hall Land, North Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 182, 1-80. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v182.5126 _______________ Vertebrate microscopic remains of twenty-six taxa of thelodonts, heterostracans, osteostracans, anaspids, acanthodians and chondrichthyans are described from limestone beds in two localities of Late Silurian - Early Devonian age of the Chester Bjerg Formation, Hall Land, North Greenland. The limestone beds form a minor part of a monotonous calcareous sandstone-siltstone-mudstone sequence at the top of the Franklinian Basin succession.Stratigraphical recognition using several thelodont and acanthodian taxa, supported by regional geological and structural trends, suggests a Silurian-Devonian boundary interval between beds of the Halls Grav and Monument localities. This possible resolution of the previous problematic correlation between the two distant sections of monotonous nature demonstrates the potential biostratigraphic utility of thelodonts in Silurian -Devonian marine successions.The Chester Bjerg Formation thelodont assemblage is unique with several new endemic taxa, but Loganellia cf. L. tuvaensis is very similar to the type material of the Tuva region south of Siberia, Russia and indicates a Late Silurian age for the beds of the Halls Grav locality. Canonia cf. C. grossi suggests an Early Devonian age for the Monument locality, since Canonia is so far only found in Lower Devonian marine strata of Arctic Canada and Russia. Fragments of cosmopolitan acanthodian genera such as Poracanthodes, Gomphonchus and Nostolepis are found together with heterostracans, osteostracans, anaspids and chondrichthyans at both localities but do not give a more exact age determination than Late Silurian - Early Devonian. New thelodont taxa are Loganellia almgreeni sp. nov., Paralogania foliala sp. nov., Praetrilogania grabion gen. et sp. nov. and Thulolepis striaspina gen. et sp. nov. Nostolepis halli sp. nov. is a new acanthodian species.


2001 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
AFONSO C. R. NOGUEIRA ◽  
ROSEANE R. SARGES

The waterfalls of the Presidente Figueiredo municipality represent a fascinating natural scenery of northeast state of Amazonas, northern Brazil. The falls, generally less than 10m high, are developed on siliciclastic rocks of the Nhamundá (Lower Silurian), and Manacapuru (Upper Silurian - Lower Devonian) formations. Morphological and structural analyses of these features indicate that most of them originated through Quaternary neotectonics and are installed in NE-trending normal fault escarpments. Waterfalls also developed within pseudokarstic features, but are less frequent. The origin of the Presidente Figueiredo waterfalls probably goes back to the Neogene, when the region was submitted to laterization processes associated with a humid climate and a dense rainforest. These conditions favored the development of caves in quartzarenites of the Nhamundá Formation. During the Quaternary, the region was subjected to NE-trending normal faulting which displaced laterite layers, rivers and streams giving rise to waterfalls. These climatic and tectonic phenomena promoted intense relief dissection, as indicated by fault escarpment retreat and cave dismantlement, responsible for the present-day morphologic configuration.


2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-512
Author(s):  
Juan José Rustán ◽  
Beatriz G. Waisfeld ◽  
N. Emilio Vaccari

AbstractThe homalonotid trilobite Burmeisteria Salter, 1865 is revised from material from the Lower Devonian of central western Argentina (the Talacasto Formation in the Precordillera Basin). In contrast to other closely related Devonian marine basins from South America (mainly Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay), the only species recognized in Argentina include Burmeisteria herschelii (Murchison, 1839) and B. notica (Clarke, 1913). New observations on the structure of the carapace indicate that structures sometimes interpreted as granules with taxonomic meaning are, in fact, taphonomic characters that represent the fillings of pore canals exposed by decortication. The antero-ventral process of the rostral plate may be a locking device during enrollment, which allowed long-term defensive behavior with a minimum of muscular energy. Burmeisteria is an upper Silurian to Middle Devonian endemic representative of southwestern Gondwanan (Malvinokaffric) basins. In the Argentine Precordillera Basin, this genus is virtually restricted to a sandy, Pragian, stratigraphic interval capped by a marker bed first reported by Keidel in 1921.


Palaios ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (9) ◽  
pp. 405-423
Author(s):  
ANYA V. HESS ◽  
JEFFREY M. TROP

ABSTRACT Silurian–Devonian boundary interval strata deposited during the expansion of land plants record a major perturbation of the carbon cycle, the global Klonk Event, one of the largest carbon isotope excursions during the Phanerozoic. In the Appalachian Basin, these marine strata record the regional buildup to the Acadian Orogeny. This study reports new sedimentologic, paleontologic, ichnologic, and carbon isotope data from an exceptional quarry exposure in central Pennsylvania, USA, a historically understudied area between better-documented outcrops >500 km away to the southwest (West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland) and northeast (New York). Facies spanning the continuous 113-m thick outcrop are dominantly carbonate and fine-grained siliciclastic strata interpreted as being deposited in supratidal through subtidal environments, including oxygen-limited environments below storm wave base. They record parts of three transgressive-regressive cycles, in the (1) upper Silurian Tonoloway Formation, (2) upper Silurian–Lower Devonian Keyser Formation through lower Mandata Member of the Old Port Formation, and (3) Lower Devonian Mandata through Ridgeley Members of the Old Port Formation. Micrite matrix δ13Ccarb analyses exhibit a large, positive δ13Ccarb excursion (>5‰ amplitude). Outcrops of this interval in the Appalachian Basin occur in two belts, between which correlation has been historically challenging. The regional correlation presented herein is based on carbon-isotope trends and is more consistent with published conodont biostratigraphy and volcanic ash ages, an improvement over published correlations based on lithostratigraphy. Transgressive-regressive trends at the central Pennsylvania study site are not consistent with regional trends, indicating that local controls (tectonics, sediment supply) rather than global (eustasy) dominated depositional patterns in the Silurian–Devonian boundary interval in the Appalachian Basin.


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