Carboniferous Formations and Faunas of Central Montana
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Carboniferous Formations and Faunas of Central Montana GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 348 Carboniferous Formations and Faunas of Central Montana By W. H. EASTON GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 348 A study of the stratigraphic and ecologic associa tions and significance offossils from the Big Snowy group of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1962 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Thomas B. Nolan, Director The U.S. Geological Survey Library has cataloged this publication as follows : Eastern, William Heyden, 1916- Carboniferous formations and faunas of central Montana. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1961. iv, 126 p. illus., diagrs., tables. 29 cm. (U.S. Geological Survey. Professional paper 348) Part of illustrative matter folded in pocket. Bibliography: p. 101-108. 1. Paleontology Montana. 2. Paleontology Carboniferous. 3. Geology, Stratigraphic Carboniferous. I. Title. (Series) For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, B.C. CONTENTS Page Page Abstract-__________________________________________ 1 Faunal analysis Continued Introduction _______________________________________ 1 Faunal relations ______________________________ 22 Purposes of the study_ __________________________ 1 Long-ranging elements...__________________ 22 Organization of present work___ __________________ 3 Elements of Mississippian affinity.._________ 22 Acknowledgments--.-------.- ___________________ 3 Elements of Pennsylvanian affinity__________ 22 Analysis of previous work ____________________________ 4 Proemial Pennsylvanian elements.__________ 23 Papers dealing primarily with equivalents of the Big Age of individual units ____________________ 23 Snowy group in Montana--_-__-____-____-__--_ 4 Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. _____ 24 Incidental reports.______________________________ 7 Ecology ._.________.._____-___-_________-_- 25 Resume__ _ _____________________________________ Descriptive paleontology-___________________________ 26 Carboniferous systems._____________________________ Plants.___________---__-_--_---_---_-_--_--__. 26 Mississippian system ____________________________ Protozoa- _________-__----_-___-_-_--_--___-__- 27 Madison group_____________________________ Porifera. ______________________________________ 28 Mission Canyon limestone_______________ Coelenterata __________________________________ 28 Charles formation_______________________ Class Anthozoa.___________________________ 28 Lower part of Big Snowy group._.____________ Class Scyphozoa________--_---__-______-__ 35 Kibbey sandstone.._____________________ 11 Echinodermata_ ______________________________ Otter formation-._______________________ 11 36 Heath formation._______________________ 12 Class Criiioidea______-___-___-_____-_-____ 36 Mississippian or Pennsylvanian system ____________ 14 Class Asterozoa._________-___---_-_-_--__-. 38 Middle part of Big Snowy group.._____________ 14 Class Echinoidea. _________________________ 38 Cameron Creek formation_________ ______ 14 Brachiopoda. __.______-__-_-_-_--_---__--_-__- 38 Alaska Bench limestone__________________ 15 Annelida. ________________-_-__-__-_--_--_-_-_. 89 Pennsylvanian system ___________________________ 16 Mollusca_ ___________---__---_------------_-_. 90 Upper part of Big Snowy group._--___________ 16 Class Pelecypoda___________-_____-_--_-__. 90 Devils Pocket formation. ________________ 16 Class Gastropoda._______-____-___-------_. 98 Beds overlying Big Snowy group________ ____________ 17 Class Scaphopoda._______-____-_-_.-______. 101 Pennsylvanian (?), Permian (?), or Triassic(?) un- Class Cephalopoda.____________--_--__-_-_. 101 diff erentiated- _ _______________________________ 17 Jurassic system-________________________________ 17 Arthropoda. ---------------------------------- 103 Unconformities. ____________________________________ 17 Chordata. __________-__--_----__-_-----------. 103 Faunal analysis,____________________________________ 18 Conodonts- ----------------------------------- 104 Preservation ____________________________________ 18 References cited_________________-______--_-_------ 104 Distribution.. __________________________________ 18 Locality list-______-___________-----------------__. 109 Paleontological characteristics of the formations 18 Measured sections -^,------------------------------ 114 Interregional and intercontinental correlation 1. Belt Creek...__-----_------_--------------_- 114 problems_ ____________________________________ 19 2. Delpine____-_-_-__-_--_----_--------------- 114 Chester series of Illinois._____________________ 19 3. Judith River_____----_--------------------_- 115 Springer formation of Oklahoma._____________ 20 4. Alaska Bench_____________-__-___--_-_-----_ 116 Moscow basin._____________________________ 20 Cordilleran geosyncline______________________ 20 5. Potter Creek Dome___-_______-_-_--_-----_-_ 118 Rocky Mountains___________________________ 21 6. Durfee Creek Dome__________.__--__----__-_ 119 Brazer limestone________________________ 21 7. State Road 25 and Stonehouse Canyon. _______ 121 Sacajawea formation of Branson (1936)____ 21 Index ____________________-__-__----___----___--_-- 125 m IV CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS [Plates 3-13 follow index] Page Page PLATE 1. Exposures of Big Snowy rocks._ ____________ 9 PLATE 10. Big Snowy group brachiopods. 2. Exposures of Big Snowy rocks______________ 10 11. Big Snowy group brachiopods. 3. Big Snowy group Foraminifera, sponges, and 12. Big Snowy group brachiopods, mollusks, and corals. worm tubes. 4. Big Snowy group conularids, echinoderms, and 13. Big Snowy group mollusks, arthropods, and brachiopods. vertebrates. 5. Big Snowy group brachiopods. 14. Stratigraphic sections in central Montana^- In pocket 6. Big Snowy group brachiopods. 7. Big Snowy group brachiopods. FIGURE 1. Location of area studied with reference to 8. Big Snowy group brachiopods. Williston basin, areal extent of the Big 9. Big Snowy group brachiopods. Snowy group, and geographic boundaries _ _ 2 TABLES Page Page TABLE 1. Composition of the fauna and flora of the Bij TABLE 4. External characteristics of Late Mississippian Snowy group__-_-__--____--_-._________. 18 and Early Pennsylvanian species of Spirifer_ 68 2. Stratal distribution of all faunal elements-. _. 22 5. Stratigraphic distribution of the fossils.. _ _ _ In pocket 3. Age distinction of significant species.________ 22 CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS AND FAUNAS OF CENTRAL MONTANA By W. H. EASTON ABSTRACT Bench limestone and is considered probably of about the same age. This report is mainly concerned with the paleontological More than 4,000 specimens were studied and assigned to 187 recognition of stratigraphic units within the Big Snowy group faunal elements. Faunas are referred to beds in seven of central Montana as revised and enlarged by Gardner. These measured sections. Two new coral genera, Fasciculiamplexus outcrops are the nearest surface exposures of the oil-contain and Lonfficlava, and two new chonetid and productid brachio- ing Carboniferous sequence of the subsurface Williston basin pod genera, Nix and Rugoclostus, are proposed. The rugose in eastern Montana and in western North Dakota. The study coral genus Bradyphyllum Grabau, 1928, is emended. Fifty- was confined to the outcrop sections in the Big Snowy Moun seven distinct species of megafossils (excluding bryozoans) are tains and in the Little Belt Mountains. Stratigraphic units recognized without qualification, including 30 species which are well exposed and continuous, and structural relations are are new. Sixty-four of all the faunal elements are significant relatively orderly within that region. Therefore, the geology in age determinations. Of these 53 are of Mississippian affinity provides a local reference against which comparisons may be and 11 are of Pennsylvanian affinity. Ten additional elements made of outcrop sections in the northern Rocky Mountains and cross the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. The Big in the subsurface of the northern Great Plains. Snowy group contains faunules which are transitional between The Big Snowy group of this report consists, from oldest Mississippian and Pennsylvanian, with a recognizable increase to youngest, of the Kibbey sandstone. Otter formation, Heath in Pennsylvanian characteristics in progressively higher units, formation, Cameron Creek formation, Alaska Bench limestone, although the Mississippian element is numerically dominant (in and Devils Pocket formation. It is underlain by evaporites and all but the Devils Pocket formation which contains only two carbonate rocks of the Charles formation or by carbonate rocks elements). of the Mission Canyon limestone which are middle Mississip- INTRODUCTION pian in age. It is overlain by unnamed clastic and carbonate strata of Pennsylvanian( ?), Permian(?), or Triassic(?) age. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY 1 The Kibbey sandstone consists of about 240 feet of reddish sandstone from which no fossil has yet been collected. Inas This study of the fauna of the Big Snowy group was much as the Kibbey sandstone is gradational to the overlying originally undertaken at the suggestion of the late Otter formation of Chester age, it also is considered equivalent James Steele Williams in connection with the mapping to some part of the Chester strata. of some areas in central Montana by L. S. Gardner The Otter formation generally includes about 470 feet of and associates, and as