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Trilobites from the base of the type Whiterockian (Middle Ordovician) in Nevada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Richard A. Fortey  and
Mary L. Droser
Richard A. Fortey
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England
Mary L. Droser
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, U.S.A.
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Abstract

No trilobite species, and very few genera, pass from the Lower (Ibexian) into the Middle Ordovician (Whiterockian), which is a turning point in Laurentian trilobite history. Trilobites from three sections exposing the base of the Whiterock Series (basal Middle Ordovician) in Nevada are described and illustrated. They are attributable to different, and generally more open-shelf, biofacies from the Bathyurid biofacies trilobites described from the Ibex area, Utah, by Fortey and Droser (1996), but include species in common, which allow correlation into the Ibexian type section. At Little Rawhide Mountain the basal Middle Ordovician is developed in Olenid biofacies, described for the first time in western North America from rocks of this age. Correlation based on species-level similarity shows that the “spike” that has been used to define the type base of the Whiterockian (and hence the Middle Ordovician) at Whiterock Canyon is at a level younger than the base of the Whiterockian assumed in recent discussions of its international correlation. The type Whiterock base correlates with the Psephosthenaspis glabrior trilobite Subzone at Ibex, well above the major change in trilobite faunas at the base of the Psephosthenaspis Zone (P. microspinosa Subzone). In all study sections there is an abrupt change of facies after trilobite Zone J, possibly associated with regression. Four new species are described: Cloacaspis tesselata, Harpillaenus rossi, Acidiphorus? lineotuberculatus, and Benthamaspis serus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 73 , Issue 2: Papers from the Second International Trilobite Conference, August 1997 , March 1999 , pp. 182 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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