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A Survey of Lower Cambrian Faunas in the Southern Great Basin, California and Nevada Robert G

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A Survey of Lower Cambrian Faunas in the Southern Great Basin, California and Nevada Robert G A survey of lower Cambrian faunas in the southern Great Basin, California and Nevada Robert G. Eby 3619 Underwood Street, Houston, TX 77025 [email protected] abstract—Fossiliferous lower Cambrian sedimentary rocks are exposed in many mountain ranges of the southern Great Basin from central Nevada southward to the central Mojave Desert and from California’s White and Inyo Mountains eastward into western Utah. The fossil faunas in these rocks include, in addition to the relatively common olenelline trilobites, two other orders of trilobites, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods, hyolithids, archaeocyathids, echinoderms, small conical fossils of uncertain affinities, and remains of soft-bodied panarthropods. These fossils are in an easterly thinning wedge of sedimentary rocks formed as the Late Proterozoic to Cambrian seas prograded eastward from the continental margin onto the craton. The thickest sections, in the White and Inyo Mountains, continue upward from Proterozoic through Cambrian and higher sedimentary rocks while the thinnest sections, in the eastern areas, contain only uppermost lower Cambrian and higher sedimentary rocks. Introduction below the oldest olenellines. These older fossil types were Charles Doolittle Walcott (1891) first suggested not seen to range through the Precambrian, rather their subdividing the Cambrian System into Lower, Middle lowest occurrences were often not far below the lowest and Upper Series. Walcott (1912) further suggested trilobites. The progression of the recognition of the lower the name Waucoban be used for the lower Cambrian boundary of the Cambrian has been described with after fossiliferous sections near Waucoba Springs in the references by Palmer (1998). Presently, the International northern Inyo Mountains of California. Historically, the Union of Geological Sciences, through its Subcommission Cambrian has been subdivided on the basis of its trilobite on Cambrian Stratigraphy, has refined and renamed the faunas, with the lower Cambrian of most of North subunits of the Cambrian so that they may be recognized America defined by the range of trilobites of the suborder internationally (Gradstein, et al., 2012). This subdivision Olenellina. While the lower-middle Cambrian boundary is shown in figure 1 where some of the series and stages was rather well defined at the extinction level of the have been given provisional numerical names until formal olenellines, the base of the lower Cambrian has long been names are adopted. poorly defined. This is because no trilobites and few other Whereas the Cambrian had previously been subdivided fossils had been found below the lowest occurrence of the into the three Lower, Middle and Upper Series, it is now olenellines. subdivided into four series. Furthermore, another entire The arrangement of the continents today is very system, the Ediacaran, has been identified below the different than during the Cambrian because of the Cambrian. The Ediacaran is based on a fossil fauna of rare continual rearrangement of the earth’s surface by plate small shelly fossils of unknown affinities and enigmatic tectonics. While most of North America, including Greenland, belonged to a single paleo-continent referred to as Laurentia, pieces of other continents have since been added and parts have been taken away. Northern Scotland was part of Laurentia that was lost when the Atlantic Ocean opened and coastal New England, the Canadian maritime provinces and eastern Newfoundland belonged to the paleo-continent Avalonia. The fossil faunas of these paleo continents seem to have been very different from one another, usually not even sharing the same families. Because of these differences, precise correlations between the continents can be quite difficult. While the lower Cambrian had been defined by the range of the Olenellina, the sedimentary rocks below the Cambrian, the Precambrian, had historically been seen to Figure 1. International Cambrian zonation showing currently largely lack fossils. However, with time and more study, recognized ages of boundaries and approximate correlations to various fossil types were recognized to consistently occur Laurentian zonation. 224 2017 desert symposium r. g. eby | survey of lower cambrian faunas in the southern great basin Stratigraphy The Lower Cambrian rocks in the region discussed here are exposed over an area of roughly 15,000 square miles. Stratigraphically, they range in thickness from no more than 250 meters in the southeast to well over 1,500 meters to the northwest representing an onshore to offshore distance of more than 250 miles (Stewart, 1970). Because of these great ranges, it is not surprising that coeval stratigraphic sections have greatly differing lithologies, both in detail and through the entire section. Therefore, rock units in nearby areas have been given differing formational names that have successfully Figure 2. Correlations of the various stratigraphic units in the four areas of the Southern Great Basin been applied over many areas with lower Cambrian exposures. The Laurentian lower Cambrian stages are also shown. Note that the columns here are not to scale as the upper units are somewhat thinner than the lower ones and the decades of research. stratigraphic columns represented on the left are much thicker than those on the right. The greatest differences in contemporaneous impressions of soft-bodied animals in sedimentary stratigraphic sections are rocks. The lowest Cambrian stage, the Fortunian of the seen to represent differences across depositional dip, Terreneuvian Series, is based on the earliest occurrences from onshore to offshore. At the same time, stratigraphic of trace fossils left by animals that burrowed into the differences along depositional strike, that is parallel to sediments, the earliest being Treptichnus pedum. Older shore, are seen to be much less. In general, four areas have animals are thought to have lived on or slightly above the been taken as representing these varying distances along seafloor and did not burrow into it. The next Cambrian depositional dip and the formation names from these stage, Stage 2 of the Terreneuvian, is defined by the first areas have been successfully applied along depositional occurrence of small shelly fossils, many attributable to strike. These four areas are: 1) the White and Inyo primitive mollusks, and the heavily calcified sponge group Mountains of California and the neighboring Esmeralda Archaeocyatha. The Terreneuvian Series in Laurentia County, Nevada; 2) the area around Death Valley National has been named the Begadean (Palmer, 1998) to simplify Park and the Spring Mountains of Nevada; 3) the central intra-continental correlation. The oldest trilobites, of Mojave Desert area of California and 4) the area farther the Olenellina, first appear in the following Cambrian north in eastern Nevada. Diagrammatic lower Cambrian Stage, Stage 3 of Series 2. This corresponds to the lower stratigraphic columns for these four areas and their half of Walcott’s Waucoban and has been named the correlations are shown in figure 2. Montezuman (Palmer, 1998) within Laurentia. Within Paleontology Laurentia, this stage includes the range of the Olenellina but is below the range of the family Olenellidae and its The principal information here is shown in figures 3A genus Olenellus. The next higher stage, Stage 4 of Series and 3B. There, 12 localities in the southern Great Basin 2, corresponds to the upper half of Walcott’s Waucoban with relatively well-described lower Cambrian faunas are and has been named the Dyeran (Palmer, 1998, Webster, listed. These localities are indicated on figure 4. In figure 2011a) in Laurentia. Within Laurentia, this stage is defined 3A the olenelline trilobites found in these areas are listed by the range of the Olenellida family and its Olenellus with Xs indicating occurrences described in the available genus. It is overlain by the Middle Cambrian Stage 5 of literature. Likewise, figure 3B lists the non- olenelline Series 3, named the Delmaran in Laurentia. trilobites and the other invertebrate taxa described in the literature. Over the last few decades, the systematic relationships of the Olenellinae has been significantly 2017 desert symposium 225 r. g. eby | survey of lower cambrian faunas in the southern great basin Figures 3A and 3B. Tables of the occurrences of species of lower Cambrian faunas in 12 areas of the Southern Great basin. Figure 3A lists only the olenellin Trilobites and Figure 3B lists the non-olenellin trilobites and other invertebrate fossils from available literature. For each location, all lower Cambrian taxa described in the literature from there are listed regardless of their stratigraphic occurrences. revised, with many species formerly assigned to Olenellus by cyanobacteria, such as Girvanella. They seem to form reassigned to several new genera, such as Bolbolenellus by overgrowths on core particles and are rolled around by and Nephrolenellus (Palmer and Repina, 1993, Palmer, water currents to become rounded. During the Cambrian, 1998 and Lieberman, 1998, 1999). The fossils listed for they appear to have been formed under intertidal or very each location represent all the lower Cambrian species shallow subtidal conditions and are rather common in and genera described from that location, grouping shallow water limestones. together taxa from differing stratigraphic horizons. While there are more than 40 mountain ranges and Two of the specimens listed, at the bottom of figure other areas of significant
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