Ordovician: the Cincinnatian and the Richmondian Invasion

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P. David Polly Department of Geological Sciences The Cincinnatian (painting by John Agnew from A Sea Without Fish: Life in the Ordovician Sea of the Cincinnati Region, D.L. Indiana University Meyer and R.A. Davis, Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA [email protected] Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana

Objectives

1. The Ordovician system in Indiana 2. Cambrian and Ordovician life 3. Taconic Orogeny and the formation of the Cincinnati Arch 4. Paleogeography of the Cincinnatian in Indiana 5. Facies 6. Cincinnati School of paleontology 7. Ordovician life 8. The Richmondian invasion and the end-Ordovician extinction Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Bedrock and Physiography

Ordovician

Oldest (470 mya) Silurian Devonian

Mississippian Pennsylvanian

Youngest (300 mya) Map of Indiana showing physiographic divisions. 2001, by Bedrock Geology of Indiana. 2002. Henry Gray. Indiana Geological Survey. H. H. Gray (data compiler). Indiana Geological Survey. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana

Ordovician Rock Units

Three main formations:

Kope Fm Dillsboro Fm Whitewater Fm

Global stage: Katian NA series: Cincinnatian Sequence: Tippecanoe Age range: 445.6 - 455.8 mya Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Cambrian: Burgess Shale, British Columbia A classic soft-preservation Middle Cambrian site 505 million years

Hallucigenia

Anomalocaris

Wolcott Quarry, British Columbia

Evolution of Trophic Levels and ‘Evolutionary Arms Race’

Pre-vendian: primary producers (stromatolites)

Vendian / Ediacaran: primary producers, soft bodied animals, few scavengers, few grazers, few predators.

Earliest Cambrian: primary producers, soft and shelly bodied animals, some grazers, some scavengers, few predators.

Middle Cambrian: many shelly bodied animals, many grazers, scavengers, predators, all bottom dwelling, move into intertidal waters.

Ordovician: first floating, swimming, and burrowing animals. Three-fold increase in number of species. Most dramatic increase in diversity recorded during geologic history.

Shells, spines, and other skeletal parts, as well as swimming and burrowing, evolved in the context of increasing predation Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana

Madison, Indiana Bedrock Geology of Indiana. 2002. (photos by PD Polly) H. H. Gray (data compiler). Indiana Geological Survey. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Regional structure Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana A typical orogenic episode Continental side Oceanic Side Oceanic Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Modern Orogeny Mountains and Island Arcs

Eurasian Plate

China

Trench

Foreland Basin Korea Japan Pacific Plate Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana The Taconic Orogeny (Cambrian through Ordovician) Subduction zones shown in black

From Potter, 2007, Exploring the Geology of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Region. Kentucky Geological Survey, Special Publication 8. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana The Taconic Orogeny

Late Ordovician

Late Cambrian

Early Cambrian Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Taconic orogeny shifted blocks of Precambrian basement to form Cincinnati Arch (Early Cambrian through Ordovician)

Marine environments or facies of the Cincinnatian A facies is a body of rock that has specific characteristics (sedimentary or faunal) because it was formed under specific sedimentary conditions.

Meyer and Davis, 2009. A Sea Without Fish. Indiana U. Press, Bloomington. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana US 421 road cut at Madison, Indiana Contact between Dillsboro and Whitewater formations

Whitewater Fm.

Dillsboro Fm.

Photo 2008 by P. David Polly Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Tabulate coral heads at the base of the Saluda Limestone (Whitewater Fm.)

Photos 2008, P. David Polly Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Fossiliferous localities in the Cincinnati Arch

Stigall, 2010. Using GIS to assess the biogeographic impact of species invasions during the Richmondian invasion. Palaeontologia Electronica, 13.1.5A. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana The Cincinnati School Early paleontologists of the Ordovician (1840 – 1910)

Charles Schuchert Amateur collector, later Smithsonian scientist and Professor at Yale University 1858-1942

Samuel A. Miller Attorney and scientist 1837-1897

August Foerste (left), Dayton school teacher 1862-1936, and Ray Bassler (right), Smithsonian scientist 1878-1961, with Amadeus Grabau (center) New York paleontologist and stratigraphic geologist. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana

Charles Lyell Visits Cincinnati and the Ordovician* rocks there in 1842 (*thought of as Silurian in age at the time)

After seeing at Cincinnati several fine collections of recent and fossil shells in the cabinets of Messrs. Buchanan, Anthony, and Clark, I examined with care the quarries of blue limestone and marl in the suburbs. The organic remains here are remarkably well preserved for so ancient a rock, especially those occurring in a compact argillaceous blue limestone, not unlike the lias of Europe. …On both sides of the Atlantic, these ancient marine formations are characterized by a prodigious development of one peculiar family of mollusca, called brachiopoda…. --shells , which as they inhabit deep water, are little known, and have received no common name in our language.

-Lyell, 1845 Travels in North America Sir Charles Lyell British geologist, author of Lyell later visited David Dale Owen in New Harmony in Principles of Geology 1849. 1797-1875 Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Life in the Cincinnatian Seas

Crinoid Sea star Nautiloid Jellyfish (Echinodermata) (Echinodermata) (Mollusca) (Cnidaria)

Horn coral (Cnidaria)

Bryozoan colony Trilobite Brachiopods (Bryozoa) (Arthropoda) (Brachiopoda)

The Cincinnatian (painting by John Agnew from A Sea Without Fish: Life in the Ordovician Sea of the Cincinnati Region, D.L. Meyer and R.A. Davis, Indiana University Press. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Sepkoski’s three Evolutionary Faunas and five mass extinctions

Sepkoski, J. J., 1992. Phylogenetic and ecologic patterns in the Phaneroic history of marine biodiversity. Pp. 77-97 in N. Eldredge (ed.), Systematics, Ecology, and the Biodiversity Crisis. Columbia University Press, New York. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana

The Richmondian Invasion Change in fossils in Late Ordovician related to rise in sea level

Stigall, 2010. Using GIS to assess the biogeographic impact of species invasions during the Richmondian invasion. Palaeontologia Electronica, 13.1.5A. Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Global Sea Level through the Phanerozoic From Hallam and Vail

• Low sea level in Cambrian • Rising through the Ordovician • Falling starting at Late Ordovician Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Middle Ordovician (470 mya)

Taconic Mountains Transcontinental Arch

(c) Ron Blakey (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/nam.html) Department of Geological Sciences | Indiana University Geol G-308 (c) 2012, P. David Polly Paleontology and Geology of Indiana Late Ordovician (450 mya)

Taconic Mountains

Summary

Cincinnatian is a North American chronostratigraphic unit of Late Ordovician.

Taconic Orogeny created first mountain range along what is now the east coast during Cambrian and into Ordovician.

Cincinnati arch and associated basins formed during Taconic Orogeny.

Facies are different, contemporaneous sedimentary and life environments, often related to water energy level and water depth.

Different organisms live in different facies and the study of organisms across space and through time is both complicated and scientifically rewarding.

Changes in sea level changed water depth, facies, and geographic barriers, allowing the Richmondian Invasion of the Cincinnatian region.

Richmondian Invasion increased diversity by adding new species to paleocommunity.

End Ordovician extinction later decreased diversity.