Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T10:01:07.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A varied Middle Ordovician sponge spicule assemblage from western Newfoundland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Xi-Guang Zhang  and
Brian R. Pratt
Xi-Guang Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 114 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada,
Brian R. Pratt
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 114 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abundant and morphologically fairly diverse siliceous sponge spicules of Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) age were collected from the Table Cove Formation of Port au Port Peninsula, western Newfoundland. Without co-occurrence of appropriate sponge body fossils, it is difficult to refer these disarticulated sponge spicules to existing or to new taxa. However, representatives of demosponges and hexactinellids are recognized. While marked differences are noted between older and younger lithistid dendroclones, for example, spicule form in these Middle Ordovician specimens is similar overall to previously known assemblages of various ages, demonstrating the morphologically conservative nature of the spicular skeleton.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , May 2000 , pp. 386 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitchison, J. C., Flood, P. G., and Malpas, J. 1998. Lowermost Ordovician (basal Tremadoc) radiolarians from the Little Port Complex, western Newfoundland. Geological Magazine, 135:413–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvaro, J. J., and Vennin, E. 1996. Spicules d' éponges et Chancelloriidae cambriens des Chaînes Ibériques, NE Espagne. Revue de Micropaléontologie, 39:293–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, C. R., and Poplawski, M. L. S. 1973. Lower and Middle Ordovician conodonts from the Mystic Formation, Quebec, Canada. Journal of Paleontology, 47:760–790.Google Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1986. Siliceous microfossils from the Upper Cambrian of Queensland. Alcheringa, 10:195–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1990. Spicules, p. 24–37. In Bengtson, S., Conway Morris, S., Cooper, B. J., Jell, P. A., and Runnegar, B. N. (eds.), Early Cambrian fossils from South Australia. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir 9.Google Scholar
Bergtröm, S. M. 1979. First report of the enigmatic Ordovician microfossil Konyrium in North America. Journal of Paleontology, 53:320–327.Google Scholar
Brasier, M., Green, O., and Shields, G. 1997. Ediacarian sponge spicule clusters from southwestern Mongolia and the origins of the Cambrian fauna. Geology, 25:303–306.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, G. A., and Cooper, B. J. 1993. Shelly fossils from the Early Cambrian (Toyonian) Wirrealpa, Aroona Creek, and Ramsay limestones of South Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 67:758–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J. Y., Hou, X. G., and Lu, H. Z. 1989. Lower Cambrian leptomitids (Demospongea), Chengjiang, Yunnan. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 28:17–31.Google Scholar
Danelian, T., and Clarkson, E. N. K. 1998. Ordovician radiolaria from bedded cherts of the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology, 34:133–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Freitas, T. A. 1991. Ludlow (Silurian) lithistid and hexactinellid sponges, Cape Phillips Formation, Canadian Arctic. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 28:2042–2061.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vos, , Rützler, L. K., Boury-Esnault, N., Donadey, C. and Vacelet, J. 1991. Atlas of Sponge Morphology. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 117 p.Google Scholar
Dong, X.-P., and Knoll, A. H. 1996. Middle and Late Cambrian sponge spicules from Hunan, China. Journal of Paleontology, 70:173–184.Google Scholar
Dreesen, R., Bless, M. J. M., Conil, R., Flajs, G., and Laschet, C. 1985. Depositional environment, paleoecology and diagenetic history of the “marbre rouge à crinoïdes de Baelen” (late Upper Devonian, Verviers Synclinorium, eastern Belgium). Annales la Société Géologique de Belgique, 108:311–359.Google Scholar
Finney, S. C., and Skevington, D. 1979. A mixed Atlantic-Pacific province Middle Ordovician graptolite fauna in western Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 16:1899–1902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatehouse, C. G. 1968. First record of lithistid sponges in the Cambrian of Australia. Bulletin of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, 92:57–68.Google Scholar
Klappa, C. F., and James, N. P. 1980. Small lithistid sponge bioherms, early Middle Ordovician Table Head Group, western Newfoundland. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, 28:425–451.Google Scholar
Koltun, V. M. 1970. Fauna Kurilo-Kamchatskogo zheloba i usloviya ee sushchestvovaniya. Trudy Instituta Okeanologii, 86:165–213, pls. 1-8.Google Scholar
Kruse, P. D. 1983. Middle Cambrian ‘Archaeocyathus’ from the Georgina Basin is an arthaspidellid sponge. Alcheringa, 7:49–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kruse, P. D. 1996. Update on the northern Australian Cambrian sponges Rankenella, Jawonya and Wagima . Alcheringa, 20:161–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Land, L. S. 1976. Early dissolution of sponge spicules from reef sediments, North Jamaica. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 46:967–969.Google Scholar
Lindström, M. 1955. Condonts from the lowermost Ordovician strata of south-central Sweden. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockolm Forhandlingar, 76:517–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehl, D. 1998. Porifera and Chancelloriidae from the Middle Cambrian of the Georgina Basin, Australia. Palaeontology, 41:1153–1182.Google Scholar
Mehl, D., and Lehnert, O. 1997. Cambro-Ordovician sponge spicule assemblages in the Ordovician of the Argentine Precordillera and paleoenvironmental ties. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 204:221–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, R. W., and Kay, M. 1966. Ordovician graptolites from the middle Table Head Formation at Black Cove, near Port-au-Port, Newfoundland. Journal of Paleontology, 40:1223–1229.Google Scholar
Mostler, V. H. 1978. Ein Beitrag zur Mikrofauna der Pötschenkalke an der Typlokalität unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Poriferenspiculae. Geologisch-Paläontologische Mitteilungen Innsbruck, 7:1–28.Google Scholar
Mostler, V. H. 1986a. Beitrag zur stratigraphischen Verbreitung und phylogenetischen Stellung der Amphidiscophora und Hexasterophora (Hexactinellida, Porifera). Mitteilungen der osterreichen geologischen Gesellschaft, 78:319–355.Google Scholar
Mostler, V. H. 1986b. Neue Kieselschwämme aus den Zlambachschichten (Obertrias, Nördliche Kalkalpen). Geologisch-Paläontologische Mitteilungen Innsbruck, 13:331–361.Google Scholar
Nazarov, B. B. 1988. Palaeozoic Radiolaria: Practical manual of microfauna of the USSR, 2. Nedra, Leningrad.Google Scholar
Nazarov, B. B., and Popov, L. Ye. 1976. Radiolyarii, bezzamkovyye brakhiopody Iorganizmy neyasnogo sistematicheskogo polozheniya iz srednego ordovika vostochnogo kazakhstana. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 1976 (4):33–42 [Radiolarians, ecardine brachiopods and organisms of uncertain systematic position from the Middle Ordovician of eastern Kazakhstan. Paleontological Journal, 10:407-416].Google Scholar
Paquette, J., Stearn, C. W., and Klappa, C. F. 1983. An enigmatic fossil of sponge affinities from Middle Ordovician rocks of western Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 20:1501–1512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, B. R., and James, N. P. 1982. Cryptalgal-metazoan bioherms of early Ordovician age in the St. George Group, western Newfoundland. Sedmentology, 29:543–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, B. R., and James, N. P. 1989. Early Ordovician thrombolite reefs, St. George Group, western Newfoundland, p. 231–240. In Geldsetzer, H. H. J., James, N. P., and Tebbutt, G. E. (eds.), Reefs, Canada and adjacent areas. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 13.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K. 1975. Some unusual hexactinellid sponge spicules from the Cambrian Wilberns Formation of Texas. Journal of Paleontology, 49:412–415.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K. 1977. A new Middle Ordovician sponge from western Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 14:2662–2668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rigby, J. K. 1986. Sponges of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian), British Columbia. Palaeontographica Canadiana, 2:1–105.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K., and Chatterton, B. D. E. 1989. Middle Silurian Ludlovian and Wenlockian sponges from Baillie-Hamilton and Cornwallis Islands, Arctic Canada. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin, 391:1–69.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K., and Desrochers, A. 1995. Lower and Middle Ordovician lithistid demosponges from the Mingan Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Quebec, Canada. The Paleontological Society Memoir 41, 35 p.Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K., and Webby, B. D. 1988. Late Ordovician sponges from the Malongulli formation of central New South Wales, Australia. Palaeontographica Americana, 56:1–147.Google Scholar
Stenzel, S. R., and James, N. P. 1995. Shallow-water stromatactis mud-mounds on a Middle Ordovician foreland basin platform, western Newfoundland, p. 127–149. In Monty, C. L. V., Bosence, D. W. J., Bridges, P. H., and Pratt, B. R. (eds.), Carbonate mud-mounds, their origin and evolution. International Association of Sedimentologists, Special Publication, 23.Google Scholar
Stenzel, S. R., Knight, I., and James, N. P. 1990. Carbonate platform to foreland basin: revised stratigraphy of the Table Head Group (Middle Ordovician), western Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 27:14–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webby, B. D., and Trotter, J. 1993. Ordovician sponge spicules from New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 67:28–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H., Burden, E., Quinn, L., Von Bitter, P., and Bashforth, A. 1996. Geology and paleontology of the Port au Port Peninsula, western Newfoundland. A field guide. Canadian Paleontology Conference, Field Trip Guidebook No. 4, Geological Associati of Canada, 74 p.Google Scholar
Zhang, X.-G., and Pratt, B. R. 1994. New and extraordinary Early Cambrian sponge spicule assemblage from China. Geology, 22:43–46.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar