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The stratigraphic distribution of graptolites in the classic upper Middle Ordovician Utica Shale of New York State: an evolutionary succession or a response to relative sea-level change?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Daniel Goldman ,
Charles E. Mitchell  and
Michael P. Joy
Daniel Goldman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469. E-mail: goldman@neelix.udayton.edu
Charles E. Mitchell
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260. E-mail: cem@acsu.buffalo.edu, joy@acsu.buffalo.edu
Michael P. Joy
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260. E-mail: cem@acsu.buffalo.edu, joy@acsu.buffalo.edu
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Abstract

The stratigraphic distribution of graptoloid species within the upper Middle Ordovician strata of New York State represents a complex pattern of origination, extinction, faunal migration, and fluctuating relative abundances. In particular, the observed patterns of species turnover at graptolite biozone boundaries are apparently strongly correlated with lithofacies, sampling strategies, and the depositional effects of relative sea-level change.

Vertical facies changes that occur within third-order depositional sequences and fourth- or fifth-order parasequences are mirrored by changes in the graptoloid faunal composition. Large-scale faunal turnovers at biozone boundaries tend to occur either at sequence boundaries or at flooding surfaces within sequences (e.g., the base of Highstand System Tracts). The base of the Corynoides americanus and Climacograptus (D.) spiniferus Zones coincide with major onlap events, and the Orthograptus ruedemanni Zone fauna appears just below a Lowstand Systems Tract. Within individual biozones, smaller-scale changes such as the fluctuating relative abundances of graptoloid species coincide with higher-order parasequence cyclicity. These distribution patterns resemble recent computer-generated models for the sequence stratigraphic distribution of hypothetical taxa.

By combining good biogeographic control with a detailed sampling program, we are able to see through the patterns attributable to depositional cyclicity and identify the different components of faunal turnover (migration, speciation, and extinction).

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 273 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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