Oligocene Molluscan Biostratigraphy and Paleontology of the Lower Part of the Type Temblor Formation, California
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Oligocene Molluscan Biostratigraphy and Paleontology of the Lower Part of the Type Temblor Formation, California GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 791 Oligocene Molluscan Biostratigraphy and Paleontology of the Lower Part of the Type Temblor Formation, California By WARREN O. ADDICOTT GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 791 Marine mollusks from the basal shale (Cymric Shale Member) and the overlying sandstone (Wygal Sandstone Member) are of provincial Oligocene age. Warm-water assemblages from the Wygal Sandstone Member represent a previously unrecognized biostratigraphic unit of late Oligocene age in California UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1973 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ROGERS C. B. MORTON, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY V. E. McKelvey, Director Library of Congress catalog-card No. 72-600377 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing OfBce, Washington, D.C. 20402 Price: paper cover-$1.25, domestic postpaid; $1.00, GPO Bookstore Stock No. 2401-00284 CONTENTS Page Page Abstract ___________________________ 1 Systematic descriptions Continued Introduction _________________________ 1 Class Pelecypoda _____________ 22 Acknowledgments _____ _________________ 3 Order Nuculoida _________ 22 Reports dealing with mollusks from the lower part Family Nuculidae ____ 22 of the Temblor Formation ______________________ 3 Family Nuculanidae __ 22 Stratigraphy ____________________________ 4 Order Arcoida ___ ____ 23 Wygal Sandstone Member __________________ 4 Family Arcidae ______ 23 Provincial age and correlation ____________________ 6 Order Mytiloida _________ 24 General considerations ________________ 6 Family Mytilidae 24 Cymric Shale Member ________________________ 8 Order Pterioida _________ 24 Wygal Sandstone Member ____________________ 10 Family Pectinidae 24 Santos Shale Member ________________________ 13 Family Ostreidae ____ 27 Agua Sandstone Member _____________ 14 Order Veneroida _________ 27 Paleobathymetry _________________________________ 14 Family Lucinidae __ 27 Zoogeography and paleoclimatology _______________ 15 Family Ungulinidae _ 29 Systematic descriptions ___________________________ 16 Family Mactridae 29 Class Gastropoda ____________________________ 17 Family Solenidae ____ 30 Order Archaeogastropoda ______________ 17 Family Tellinidae ____ 30 Family Trochidae ___________________ 17 Family Veneridae ____ 35 Order Mesogastropoda ___________________ 17 Order Myoida ___________ 37 Family Cerithiidae? __________________ 17 Family Myidae ______ 37 Family Calyptraeidae __-___________ 17 Class Scaphopoda __________ 38 Family Naticidae _______________ 18 Family Dentaliidae 38 Family Ficidae _______________ 20 Fossil localities __ ______________ 38 Order Neogastropoda ____________ 20 References _ _________________ 40 Family Neptuneidae __________________ 20 Index ____________________ 45 ILLUSTRATIONS [Plates 1-9 follow index] PLATE 1. Acila, Anadara, Crenomytilust, Leptopecten, Vertipecten, Yoldia. 2. Crassostrea, Lucinoma, Pecten, Vertipecten. 3. Crenomytilusl, Here, Lucinoma, Miltha, Vertipecten. 4. Crenomytilus, Felaniella, Solen, Spisula, Tellina, Tellinal. 5. Heteromacoma, Mac/oma, Pseudocardiumt, Tellina. 6. Amiantis, Dosinia, Heteromacoma, Pitar, Securella, Tellina. 7. Amiantis, dementia, Dosinia. 8. Calyptraea, cerithiid?, dementia, Crepidula, Dentalium, Natica, Panopea, Tegula. 9. Bruclarkia, Calicantharus, Ficus, Kelletial, NeDerita, Polinices, Sinum, Siphonaliat. Page FIGURE 1. Index map showing location of Temblor Range _____________________________________ 2 2. Stratigraphic nomenclature of the type Temblor Formation, Temblor Range, Kern County, Calif _ 3. Geologic index map showing distribution of the Temblor Formation, central Temblor Range, Kern County, Calif __________________________________________________________________________ 5 4. Molluscan and foraminiferal provincial stage classification of the type Temblor Formation ____ 8 5. Zoogeographic profiles for selected Tertiary faunal assemblages from the San Joaquin basin, California _ 16 TABLES Page TABLE 1. Systematic list of mollusks from the Wygal Sandstone Member of the Temblor Formation, Temblor Range, Calif _________________________________________________________________________ 7 III IV CONTENTS Page TABLE 2. Chart showing specifically determined mollusks from the Wygal Sandstone Member of the Temblor For mation __________________ 11 3. Chart showing ranges of some species of Bruclarkia and Vertipecten _____________________________ 12 4. Molluscan species from the Wygal Sandstone Member that are not known to occur in strata of Refugian age 12 5. Molluscan genera and subgenera from the Wygal Sandstone Member that are not known to occur in strata of Refugian age __ ___________ _ 13 6. Mollusks from the Agua Sandstone Member of the Temblor Formation __ ___ ___ __________ 14 OLIGOCENE MOLLUSCAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF THE LOWER PART OF THE TYPE TEMBLOR FORMATION, CALIFORNIA By WARREN O. ADDICOTT ABSTRACT lower bathyal environments inferred from benthonic foram The type Temblor Formation consists of about 1,800 feet iniferal assemblages of the underlying Cymric Shale of alternating shale and sandstone units exposed in the Member and the overlying Santos Shale Member. central part of the Temblor Range along the southwest Fifty mollusks, almost all of them previously unrecorded margin of the San Joaquin Valley in central California. from the Wygal Sandstone Member, are treated systemati The lower part constitutes a unique stratigraphic continuum cally. Six of these represent new species, although only one, of marine middle Tertiary strata in the California Coast Vertipecten alexclarki n. sp., is represented by material Ranges. Molluscan stages of provincial late Oligocene and adequate to permit formal description. A new tellinid sub- early Miocene age can be recognized on the basis of assem genus, Olcesia (type: Macoma piercei Arnold), has its low blages from the lowest sandstone members of the formation. est stratigraphic occurrence in assemblages from the Wygal These units are directly associated with deeper water foram- Sandstone Member. iniferal assemblages that constitute the type section of the INTRODUCTION Zemorrian Stage of the provincial microfaunal sequence. Elsewhere in central and southern California, the Oligocene The type area of the Temblor Formation is in the and the earliest part of the Miocene are usually represented central part of the Temblor Range near the western by nonmarine deposition. margin of the San Joaquin basin about 40 miles A small assemblage from the Cymric Shale Member at west of Bakersfield, Calif, (fig. 1). In this area the the base of the Temblor Formation contains Bruclarkia Temblor Formation consists of alternating shale columbiana (Anderson and Martin), the presence of which suggests correlation with the upper part of the Refugian and sandstone totaling about 1,800 feet in thickness Stage [="Lincoln Stage" of western Washington]. The (Woodring and others, 1940). Cymric Shale Member was originally included in the lower The most definitive biostratigraphic study of the part of the overlying Zemorrian Stage of the microfaunal type Temblor Formation (Kleinpell, 1938) was chronology based on meager foraminiferal data. based on benthonic Foraminifera. In that report, Assemblages from the overlying Wygal Sandstone Mem ber comprise a biostratigraphic unit of provincial late and in an earlier one (Kleinpell, 1934), he showed Oligocene age that had previously been assigned to the that the lower part of the type Temblor Formation early Miocene "Vaqueros Stage." Included in this fauna are was of pre-middle Miocene age. Prior to Kleinpell's the stratigraphically restricted species Pecten sanctaecru- studies most workers regarded the Temblor Forma zensis Arnold, Bruclarkia seattlensis Durham, and Verti- tion to be wholly of middle Miocene age and to be pecten alexclarki n. sp. This fauna is correlated with the lower part of the Zemorrian Stage of the microfaunal referable to what later became known as the "Tem chronology. blor Zone" (Clark, 1941) or "Temblor Stage" The stratigraphically higher Agua Sandstone Member (Weaver and others, 1944; Durham, 1954). Klein contains small assemblages referable to the early Miocene pell's (1938) data were substantiated in a brief "Vaqueros Stage." Included are the stratigraphically re biostratigraphic analysis of known molluscan as stricted species Crassostrea vaquerosensis (Loel and Corey) semblages from the vicinity of the type Temblor and Macrochlamis magnolia (Conrad). This member is cor related with the upper part of the Zemorrian Stage. Formation by Woodring, Stewart, and Richards The molluscan fauna of the Wygal Sandstone Member is (1940, p. 131), who concluded that the lower part indicative of a warm, shallow-water depositional environ of the type Temblor Formation is "of the age of ment less than 20 fathoms and possibly much shallower at the Vaqueros elsewhere" [early Miocene]. the base. Many of these genera are today restricted to sub The molluscan faunas of the type Temblor For tropical and tropical latitudes along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America. The hermatypic coral Favites mation and its lateral correlatives in the northern provides further evidence of warm-water conditions. Yet, part of the Temblor Range have received only cur this inner sublittoral biofacies contrasts with the middle to sory study. The largest recorded faunal list prior MOLLUSCAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY,