Gastropoda of the Fox Hills Formation (Maestrichtian) of North Dakota J
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University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects 1971 Gastropoda of the Fox Hills Formation (Maestrichtian) of North Dakota J. Mark Erickson University of North Dakota Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Part of the Geology Commons Recommended Citation Erickson, J. Mark, "Gastropoda of the Fox Hills Formation (Maestrichtian) of North Dakota" (1971). Theses and Dissertations. 84. https://commons.und.edu/theses/84 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GASTROPODA OF THE FOX HILLS FORMATION (MAESTRICHTIAN) OF NORTH DAKOTA by J. Mark Erickson Bachelor of Science, Tufts University 1965 Master of Science, University of North Dakota 1968 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Grand Forks, North Dakota August 1971 ' : ' \-, This dissertation submitted by J. Mark Erickson in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of :North Dakota is hereby approved by the Faculty Advisory Committee under whom the work has been done. te School ii 33U6,Q6 Permission GASTROPODA OF THE FOX HILLS FORMATION (MAESTRICHTIAN) OF Title ----------------------------------NORTH DAKOTA In presenting this dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of North Dakota, I agree that the Library of this University shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for extensive copying for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised my dissertation work or, in his absence, by the Chairman of the Department or the Dean of the Graduate School. It is understood that any copying or pub lication or other use of this dissertation or part thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permis sion. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of North Dakota in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my dis sertation. Date ----------------- iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES •• . vi . LIST OF FIGURES ••• . vii ABSTRACT ••• viii INTRODUCTION . 1 Purpose and Definition of the Problem Location Previous Work Methods of Research Acknowledgments STRATIGRAPHY . 15 Definition of the Fox Hills Formation Fox Hills Formation in North Dakota Interpretation of Members Age and Correlation PALEOECOLOGY • • . 36 Interpretation of Sedimentary Environments Gastropod Synecology Gastropod Autecology PROCEDURES IN SYSTEMATICS . 71 Philosophy Taxonomy Terminology SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY . 77 SYSTEY.ATIC DESCRIPTIONS . 80 Streptoneura Archaeogastropoda . Mesogas tropoda Neogastropoda Euthyneura Opisthobranchia. iv SUMMA,.T{.Y OF. CON CL US IONS 193 PLATES 196 APPENDIX A 222 APPENDIX B 227 REFERENCES 234 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. List of Gastropod Species Found in the Fox Hills Formation (Maestrichtian) of North Dakota ••• . 56 2. Probable Feeding Preferences of Fox Hills Gastropod Genera Based on Modern Relatives ••• 61 3. Comparison of Fox Hills Gastropod Genera with Occurrences of the Same, or Closely Related, Genera from Upper Cretaceous Rocks of Central and Western North America •••••••••• • • • • ti • 64 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Index Map Showing Approximate Locations of Contact of Fox Hills Formation and Location of Significant Outcrops . 6 2. Composite, Diagramatic Section of the Fox Hills Formation in South-Central North Dakota 23 3. Historical Development of Fox Hills Nomenclature in North and South Dakota ..•.••. 24 4. Correlation Chart of Midcontinent and East Coast Campanian and Maestrichtian Formations . 33 s. Paleoenvironmental Interpretation of Fox Hills Depositional Environments •••• 37 6. Speden's (1970) Interpretation of Facies Relationships of the Fox Hills Formation in the Type Area of South Dakota • • . • . • . • . 38 7, Schematic Diagram of Sedimentary Relationships at Locality A467, Sioux Co., N. Dak .••••. 42 8. Environmental Conditions in South-Central North Dakota at Beginning of Fox Hills Deposition .•.•••.. 53 9, Environmental Conditions and Lithofacies Relationships in South-Central North Dakota Midway Through Fox Hills Deposition. • • . .••.••••.••• 54 10. Environmental Conditions and Lithofacies Relationships in South-Central North Dakota Late in Fox Hills Deposition • • • • • • • 55 11. Comparison of Compositions of Midcontinent Upper Cretaceous Gastropod Faunas (Data from Sohl, 1967b) with Fox Hills Fauna of North Dakota 59 12 ..Map Schematically Depicting Probable Areas of Origin for Selected Gastropod Genera in the Fox Hills Formation in North Dakota ••...•••••.• 65 ABSTRACT The Fox Hills Formation (Maestrichtian, Upper Cretaceous) in North Dakota contains a gastropod fauna of thirty-seven species. Five species, loganensis n. sp., Piestochilus feldmanni n. sp., Hercorhyncus (Hercorhyncus) hollandi n. sp., cvancarai n. sp., described. Twenty-four genera in eighteen families representing four orders and two subclasses of Gastropoda are present. Eleven species in a like number of genera are newly reported from the Fox Hills For- mation. Goniocylichna bisculnturata and rectilabrum occur in common with the gastropod fauna of the Ripley Formation of the Mississippi Embayment, which has the closest compositional affinity with the Fox Hills fauna of North Dakota. In North Dakota, examination of the geographic distribution of Fox Hills genera indicates a blending of faunal elements from two sources. Genera such as Hercorhyncus, Goniocylichna, Amuletum, Remera, Cancellaria Semitriton, Pyropsis, and Neritina are prevalent in Gulf Coast and Mississippi Embayment faunas and represent a strong migrational influence from the southern mid continent. A less prominent, but well established, portion of the fauna including and Serrifusus has close relatives among Pacific Coast and western Canadian faunas. The ranges of these groups overlap in the northern Western Interior where their zoogeographic distribution was probably at least partially controlled by their respective limits of tolerance of water temperatures. Four members and five major lithofacies resulted from depo5~ tion in a nearshore, deltaic and lagoonal complex. The gastropod fauna is compatible with data on the bivalve fauna compiled by other workers which indicate a range of water depth of zero to eighty fathoms for Fox Hills sedimentation. If modern analogues of glau conite formation and wave activity are valid, depths must have been at least sixteen fathoms over much of the area. Water temperatures of fifteen degrees Celsius occurred, and the Fox Hills sea is thought to have become periodically thermaily stratified over large, restricted areas. Interpretation of sedimentary regimes indicates that massive storms of hurricane intensity occasionally destroyed the thermoclines, scoured large portions of the nearshore sedimen tary complex, and redeposited some of the material farther inshore where it was subsequently reworked into barrier bars and spits. These storm deposits contain the most fossiliferous units of the Fox Hills Formation. An unnamed stratigraphic unit, probably of member rank, representing a minor marine transgression, or a major storm, late in the history of Fox Hills sedimentation deposited a blanket sandstone that frequently contains a re-worked, estuarine, Crassostrea-Dakotia faunal complex. This sandstone or correlative units, covered a wide area which probably included some terrestrial environments represented by sediments presently found in the Hell Creek Formation. INTRODUCTION Purpose and definition of problem.--As I write this it was exactly ninety-five years ago that F. V. Hayden transmitted, on June 1, 1876, to the Secretary of the Interior for his approval a memoir by F. B. Meek entitled 11 A Report on the Invert.ebrate Cretaceous and Ter tiary Fossils of the Upper Missouri Country" with the following state- ment: To the geologist who may hereafter study the various groups of sedimentary strata over our widely-extended western domain, this volume will prove indispensible. The different divisions or groups of the Cretaceous and Tertiary ages, especially of tne former, were originally established by the invertebrate remains herein described, and it therefore forms the basis of our knowl edge of two of the most important formations of the West (Meek, 1876, p. III). Our acquaintance with the gastropod fauna of the Fox Hills Formation of the "Upper Missouri Country" has. grown by the addition of only one species since that time, nearly a century ago. Only recently (Feldmann, 1967; Speden, 1970) has the bivalve fauna of the Fox Hills been reexam ined and modernized. The Cephalopoda have not been restudied. If ever a work could be said to have inhibited research in a par ticular discipline, surely Meek's monograph did. The fault, however, was Lot in any error in truth, but rather in its greatness--its utter com pleteness. The last had been written of the first explorations of ~he territories! What more needed to be done in the Dakotas? And so the wandering eye of the paleontological devotees turned from the northern prairies of the Western