Freshwater Diatom Paleontology and Paleolimnology of the Late Eocene Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Colorado, Boulder CU Scholar Geological Sciences Graduate Theses & Geological Sciences Dissertations Spring 1-1-2011 Freshwater Diatom Paleontology and Paleolimnology of the Late Eocene Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado Mary Ellen Benson University of Colorado at Boulder, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.colorado.edu/geol_gradetds Part of the Geology Commons, and the Paleontology Commons Recommended Citation Benson, Mary Ellen, "Freshwater Diatom Paleontology and Paleolimnology of the Late Eocene Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado" (2011). Geological Sciences Graduate Theses & Dissertations. Paper 21. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Geological Sciences at CU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geological Sciences Graduate Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CU Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FRESHWATER DIATOM PALEONTOLOGY AND PALEOLIMNOLOGY OF THE LATE EOCENE FLORISSANT FORMATION, TELLER COUNTY, COLORADO by MARY ELLEN BENSON B.S., Geography, East Carolina University, 1969 M.S., Geology, University of Idaho, 1980 M.S.W., Smith College School for Social Work, 1989 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geological Sciences 2011 i This thesis entitled: Freshwater Diatom Paleontology and Paleolimnology of the Late Eocene Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado written by Mary Ellen Benson has been approved for the Department of Geological Sciences _______________________________________ Dena M. Smith _______________________________________ Anne Jennings _______________________________________ David Budd _______________________________________ Sarah A. Spaulding _______________________________________ J. Patrick Kociolek Date________________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. ii iii Benson, Mary Ellen (Ph.D., Geological Sciences) Freshwater Diatom Paleontology and Paleolimnology of the Late Eocene Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado Thesis directed by Associate Professor Dena M. Smith The late Eocene Florissant lake shales are host to the most diverse early freshwater diatom flora known in the fossil record. These 34.05 ± 0.08 Ma deposits also yield well- preserved terrestrial and aquatic fossils that represent life during the approach to the final phase of cooling that followed the thermal maximum of the early middle Paleogene. This study begins with a synthesis of the earliest (pre-Neogene) records of non-marine diatom genera from the Florissant and 8 other fossil localities. Nearly all pre-Neogene diatom genera are extant genera, and genus richness increased through time. Cumulative richness for the Florissant diatoms is 33 genera, 14 of which are first-time recorded occurrences. Florissant has 18 more genera than any of the 6 older floras examined. The next component of the study is a detailed floristics assessment of the Florissant diatoms conducted at the Clare's Quarry site. A total of 20 freshwater diatom genera are described and imaged, 8 of which are first occurrences in the geologic record. Among these 20 genera, 4 new species and 2 new varieties are named. As many as 48 taxa show affinities for known modern species. In total, 55 taxa are described and illustrated. The study concludes with an integrated examination of the paleolimnology of Florissant lake at Clare's Quarry from sedimentological characteristics of host lithologies, autecological preferences of the most similar modern diatom taxa (modern analogs), and the occurrences of iii iv associated macrofossils. Evidence is found in support of an anoxic hypolimnion and a deep bathymetry for the depocenter. The interpreted diatom paleoecology places this plankton-rich, open-water lake site within range of major stream outflow that introduced lake marginal and non-lake-dwelling diatoms, and plant and insect macrofossils into the lake. Slow suspension settling of diatoms, fine clays, and airfall tuffs characteristic of deep lake sedimentation is interrupted by fines of episodic distal turbidites. This investigation demonstrates the power of integrating data from allied sub-disciplines to better characterize paleoenvironments and their inhabitants. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this manuscript to the person who had the most profoundly positive influence in my life through her independent spirit, her scholarly achievements, the strength and clarity of her convictions, her love of family and friends, her laughter, her sense of adventure, and her compassion for others; and who fostered and facilitated my love for learning: my mother, Frances Caroline Jilcott Benson. v vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Dena Smith and Herb Meyer for inviting me to participate in this project that was partially funded by a grant with the National Park Service, for which they are principal investigators. I am additionally grateful to Dena Smith for her advisement regarding the conceptualization and execution of the research and for editorial suggestions that I have incorporated into the manuscript. Herb Meyer has been of vital assistance with the National Park Service permitting process to gain access to sites and collect in the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and has provided field assistants from the Park Service staff. Nancy Clare Anderson and Toni Clare allowed access and granted permission to collect in the privately- owned Florissant Fossil Quarry (Clare‟s Quarry). Sarah Spaulding convinced me, just on a whim, to attend her diatom course in Iowa, which laid the groundwork for my eventual pursuit of this degree. Later, she provided her advisement and assistance in the initial field collecting for this project at Clare‟s Quarry, arranged for access to the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) lab and made available her microscope and camera set-up and reference materials. Sarah made suggestions for my identification of the diatom taxa, consulted on the project throughout, and gave thoughtful review of the manuscript. Patrick Kociolek, while at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and later, at the University of Colorado at Boulder Museum of Natural History, provided access to microscope and camera facilities and reference materials. Patrick assisted with diatom identifications, provided information on early freshwater taxa, rendered consultation, and gave thoughtful review of the manuscript. I am indeed grateful to Anne vi vii Jennings of INSTAAR and David Budd of the University of Colorado Department of Geological Sciences for their review and endorsement of my research project proposal and for their critical review of the manuscript. I thank additional diatomists Mark Edlund, Marina Potapova, Eugene Stoermer, Alex Wolfe, Jessica Black, Horst Lange-Bertalot, Elizabeth Fourtanier, Sam Van Landingham, David Harwood, David Jewson, Becky Bixby, Matt Julius, Sam Rushforth, Berengere Laslandes, and Evan Thomas who gave generously of their time in discussion about diatom taxonomy and systematics; and to Diane Winter and Eugene Stoermer for suggestions on matrix disaggregation techniques. I am grateful to field assistants Melissa Barton, Yinan Wang, Mark Gorman, Joe Hartel, and George Whitney who aided in the collection and documentation of the sample material. Mark Gorman played a key supportive role in sample collection. George Whitney also conducted a water-well survey that contributed to the subsurface understanding of the Florissant shales south of the Monument. The expertise of Paul Rice on the Field Emission SEM and the FIB (focused ion beam) SEM at the University of Colorado Nanomaterials Characterization Facility was essential to the imagery of fine structures of the diatom valves that enhanced identification. Petrographic thin sections and polished sections were prepared by Scott Wagner of Wagner Petrographic in Lindon, Utah. I am grateful to the following members of the Mineral Resources and Environmental Science Center and the Crustal Imaging and Environmental Science Center of the U.S. Geologic Survey in Denver: Poul Emsbo for his continued support; George Breit for the use of his wet lab facility in which to process the samples and to make light microscopy slides, for his invaluable vii viii suggestions as to methods for matrix disaggregation experiments, and for performing x-ray diffraction analysis on selected rock samples; Richard Grauch who provided the use of a microscope with a digital camera; Doug Yager and Ed DeWitt who assisted with petrographic analyses of the mineral constituents of the samples; Heather Lowers and David Adams for training and assistance with SEM imagery and EDS (electron dispersal spectrometry) on the low- vacuum scanning electron microscope; Brenda Dutton of the Information Technology Team for program assistance; and John Horton and Carma San Juan for assistance with GIS map generation. Additional thanks are extended to Loretta Ulibarri of the Visual Information Group of the Publications Department for her suggestions for image plate assembly in Adobe Photoshop. Neal Fishman of the Energy Resources and Environmental Science Center provided use of a petrographic microscope and his knowledge of petrography