Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T12:14:50.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A modern assessment of Ordovician chitinozoans from the Shelve and Caradoc areas, Shropshire, and their significance for correlation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

THIJS R. A. VANDENBROUCKE ,
ANTONIO ANCILLETTA ,
RICHARD A. FORTEY  and
JACQUES VERNIERS
THIJS R. A. VANDENBROUCKE*
Affiliation:
Research Unit Palaeontology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S 8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
ANTONIO ANCILLETTA
Affiliation:
Research Unit Palaeontology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S 8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
RICHARD A. FORTEY
Affiliation:
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
JACQUES VERNIERS
Affiliation:
Research Unit Palaeontology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S 8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
*
‡Author for correspondence: thijs.vandenbroucke@ugent.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

New chitinozoan data are presented from the classical section along the Onny River in the type Caradoc area, and from the deeper-water sections in the Shelve area, including the former British candidate GSSP for the base of the Upper Ordovician Series. The rich and well-preserved chitinozoan fauna of the Onny River has been a standard for 40 years, but new data revise some of the identifications. The assemblages are now attributed to biozones that are more readily applicable for international correlation. The main part of the section can be interpreted as belonging to the originally Baltoscandian Spinachitina cervicornis Biozone, although this is uncertain in the lower part. Within this biozone, the Fungochitina actonica Subzone has been defined. The Onny Formation at the top of the section is equated with the Acanthochitina latebrosa–Ancyrochitina onniensis Biozone; contrary to earlier reports, Acanthochitina barbata is absent. The Lower Wood Brook and Spy Wood Brook section from the Shelve Inlier yielded a great number of moderately to well-preserved chitinozoans, but a low-diversity assemblage. Their ranges have been neatly positioned against the well-known graptolite stratigraphy in the area. A local Eisenackitina rhenana Biozone? has been recognized, allowing us to suggest some international correlations.

Keywords

chitinozoansbiostratigraphyCaradocWelsh Borderlandtype section
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 146 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 216 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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.)

Footnotes

†

Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen).

References

Achab, A. 1977. Les chitinozoaires de la zone à Dicellograptus complanatus Formation de Vauréal, Ordovicien supérieur, Ile d'Anticosti, Québec. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14, 413–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Achab, A. 1981. Biostratigraphie par les Chitinozoaires de l'Ordovicien Supérieur-Silurien Inférieur de l'Ile d'Anticosti. Résultats préliminaires. In Field Meeting, Anticosti-Gaspé, Québec. Vol. II: Stratigraphy and Paleontology (ed. Lespérance, P. J.), pp. 143–57. Quebec: IUGS Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy, Ordovician–Silurian Boundary Working Group.Google Scholar
Al-Hajri, S. 1995. Biostratigraphy of the Ordovician chitinozoa of northwestern Saudi Arabia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 89, 27–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bancroft, B. B. 1933. Correlation tables of the stages Costonian–Onnian in England and Wales. Gloucester: Blakeney (privately printed), 4 pp.Google Scholar
Bergström, S. M., Finney, S. C., Xu, Chen, Pålsson, C., Zhi-hao, Wang & Grahn, Y. 2000. A proposed global boundary stratotype for the base of the Upper Series of the Ordovician System: the Fågelsång section, Scania, southern Sweden. Episodes 23, 102–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettley, R. M., Fortey, R. A. & Siveter, D. J. 2001. High-resolution correlation of Anglo-Welsh Middle to Upper Ordovician sequences and its relevance to international chronostratigraphy. Journal of the Geological Society, London 158, 937–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cave, R. & Hains, B. A. 2001. Geology of the country around Montgomery and the Ordovician rocks of the Shelve area. Memoir for the 1:50.000 Geological Sheet 165 with part of Sheet 151 (Welshpool). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Dean, W. T. 1958. The faunal succession in the Caradoc series of south Shropshire. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 3, 193–231.Google Scholar
Dean, W. T. 1960. The Ordovician Rocks of the Chatwall District, Shropshire. Geological Magazine 97, 163–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, W. T. 1964. The geology of the Ordovician and adjacent strata in the southern Caradoc District of Shropshire. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 9, 259–96.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Harper, D. A. T., Ingham, J. K., Owen, A. W., Parkes, M. A., Rushton, A. W. A. & Woodcock, N. H. 2000. A revised correlation of Ordovician Rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London, Special Report no. 24, 83 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Harper, D. A. T., Ingham, J. K., Owen, A. W. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1995. A revision of Ordovician series and stages of the historical type area. Geological Magazine 132, 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. A. 1989. Llandeilo and Caradoc Graptolites of the Builth and Shelve Inliers. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society no. 141, 89 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, J. M. 1979. The stratigraphy and brachiopods of the upper part of the type Caradoc of south Salop. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 32, 183–304.Google Scholar
Jansonius, J. 1964. Morphology and classification of some Chitinozoa. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 12, 901–18.Google Scholar
Jenkins, W. A. M. 1967. Ordovician Chitinozoa from Shropshire. Palaeontology 10, 436–88.Google Scholar
Lynas, B. D. T. 1985. Geological notes and local details for 110.000 sheet SO 29 NE (Chirbury and Priest Weston). Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Murchison, R. I. 1839. The Silurian System. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Nõlvak, J. 2001. Distribution of Chitinozoans. In Estonian Geological Sections, Bulletin 3, Valga (10) drill core (ed. Poldvere, A.), pp. 8–10. Geological Journal of the Geological Survey of Estonia, Tallinn.Google Scholar
Nõlvak, J. 2005. Distribution of Ordovician Chitinozoans. In Estonian Geological Sections, Bulletin 6, Mehikoorma (421) core (ed. Poldvere, A.), pp. 20–2. Geological Journal of the Geological Survey of Estonia, Tallinn.Google Scholar
Nõlvak, J. & Grahn, I. 1993. Ordovician chitinozoan zones from Baltoscandia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 79, 245–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nõlvak, J., Hints, O. & Männik, P. 2006. Ordovician timescale in Estonia: recent developments. Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences 55 (2), 95–108.Google Scholar
Paris, F. 1981. Les chitinozoaires dans le Paléozoïque du sud-ouest de l'Europe (cadre géologique – étude systématique – biostratigraphie). Mémoire de la Société géologique et minéralogique de Bretagne no. 26, 1–496.Google Scholar
Paris, F. 1990. The Ordovician chitinozoan biozones of the Northern Gondwana Domain. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 66, 181–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pocock, R. W., Whitehead, T. H., Wedd, C. B. & Robertson, T. 1938. Shrewsbury district, including the Hanwood Coalfield (Sheet 152). Memoir of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., Owen, A. W., Owens, R. M. & Prigmore, J. K. 2000. British Cambrian to Ordovician Stratigraphy. Geological Conservation Review Series, no. 18. Peterborough, UK: Joint Nature Conservation Committee, 435 pp.Google Scholar
Savage, N. M. & Bassett, M. G. 1985. Caradoc–Ashgill conodont faunas from Wales and the Welsh Boderland. Palaeontology 28, 679–713.Google Scholar
Smith, N. J. P. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1993. Cambrian and Ordovician stratigraphy related to structure and seismic profiles in the western part of the English Midlands. Geological Magazine 130, 665–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strachan, I. 1986. The Ordovician graptolites of the Shelve District, Shropshire. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology series 40, 1–58.Google Scholar
Turner, R E. 1982. Reworked acritarchs from the type section of the Ordovician Series, Shropshire. Palaeontology 25, 119–43.Google Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A. 2004. Chitinozoan biostratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician Fågelsång section, Scania, southern Sweden. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 130, 217–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A. 2008 a. An Upper Ordovician Chitinozoan Biozonation in British Avalonia (England & Wales). Lethaia 41, 275–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A. 2008 b (for 2007). Upper Ordovician chitinozoans from the historical type area in the UK. Palaeontographical Society Monograph no. 628, Vol. 161, 113 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A., Fortey, R. A., Siveter, D. J. & Rickards, R. B. 2003. Chitinozoans from key sections in the Upper Ordovician Series: new GSSP's and classical British sections. In Ordovician from the Andes (eds G. L. Albanesi, M. S. Beresi & S. H. Peralta), p. 151. Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on the Ordovician System. INSUGEO, Serie Correlación Geológica 17.Google Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A., Rickards, R. B. & Verniers, J. 2005. Upper Ordovician Chitinozoan biostratigraphy from the Type Ashgill Area (Cautley district) and the Pus Gill section (Dufton district, Cross Fell Inlier), Cumbria, Northern England. Geological Magazine 142, 783–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A., Verniers, J. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 2003. A chitinozoan biostratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician and lower Silurian strata of the Girvan area, Midland Valley, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 93, 111–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenbroucke, T. R. A., Williams, M., Zalasiewicz, J. A., Davies, J. R. & Waters, R. A. 2008. Integrated Upper Ordovician graptolite–chitinozoan biostratigraphy of the Cardigan and Whitland areas, southwest Wales. Geological Magazine 145, 199–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webby, B. D., Cooper, R. A., Bergström, S. M. & Paris, F. 2004. Chapter 2: Stratigraphic framework and time slices. In The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (eds Webby, B. D., Droser, M. L., Paris, F. & Percival, I.), pp. 41–7. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittard, W. F. 1931. The Geology of the Ordovician and Valentian rocks of the Shelve County, Shropshire. Proceedings of the Geologist's Association 42, 322–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittard, W. F. 1952. A geology of south Shropshire. Proceedings of the Geologist's Association 63, 143–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittard, W. F. 1979. An account of the Ordovician rocks of the Shelve Inlier in west Salop and part of north Powys. Bulletin of the British Museum Natural History (Geology) 33, 1–69.Google Scholar
Williams, A., Strachan, I., Bassett, D. A., Dean, W. T., Ingham, J. K., Wright, A. D. & Whittington, H. B. 1972. A Correlation of Ordovician rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society of London, Special Report No. 3.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1984. The Pontesford Lineament, Welsh Borderland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 141, 1001–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. & Gibbons, W. 1988. Is the Welsh Borderland Fault System a terrane boundary? Journal of the Geological Society of London 145, 915–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar