Middle Devonian Chitinozoa of Indiana
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by IUScholarWorks MIDDLE DEVONIAN CHITINOZOA OF INDIANA <;u vE Special Report 18 c . 2- State of diana Department of N ural Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL STAFF OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY JOHN B. PATTON, State Geologist MAURICE E. BIGGS, Assistant State Geologist MARY BETH FOX, Mineral Statistician COAL AND INDUSTRIAL MINERALS SECTION GEOLOGY SECTION DONALD D. CARR, Geologist and Head ROBERT H. SHAVER, Paleontologist and Head CURTIS H. AULT, Geologist and Associate Head HENRY H. GRAY, Head Stratigrapher PEl-YUAN CHEN, Geologist N. K. BLEUER, Glacial Geologist DONALD L. EGGERT, Geologist EDWIN J. HARTKE, Environmental Geologist GORDON S. FRASER, Geologist JOHN R. HILL, Glacial Geologist DENVER HARPER, Geologist CARL B. REXROAD, Paleontologist WALTER A. HASENMUELLER, Geologist NELSON R. SHAFFER, Geologist GEOPHYSICS SECTION PAUL IRWIN, Geological Assistant MAURICE E. BIGGS, Geophysicist and Head ROBERT F. BLAKELY, Geophysicist JOSEPH F. WHALEY, Geophysicist DRAFTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION JOHN R. HELMS, Driller WILLIAM H. MORAN, Chief Draftsman and Head SAMUEL L. RIDDLE, Geophysical Assistant RICHARDT. HILL, Geological Draftsman ROGER L. PURCELL, Senior Geological Draftsman PETROLEUM SECTION GEORGE R. RINGER, Photographer G. L. CARPENTER, Geologist and Head WILBUR E. ST ALlONS, Artist-Draftsman ANDREW J. HREHA, Geologist BRIAN D. KEITH, Geologist EDUCATIONAL SERVICES SECTION STANLEY J. KELLER, Geologist R. DEE RARICK, Geologist and Head DAN M. SULLIVAN, Geologist JAMES T. CAZEE, Geological Assistant GEOCHEMISTRY SECTION SHERRY CAZEE, Geological Assistant R. K. LEININGER, Geochemist and Head WILLIAM E. HAMM, Geological Assistant LOUIS V. MILLER, Coal Chemist MARGARET V. GOLDE, Instrumental Analyst PUBLICATIONS SECTION JOSEPH G. HAILER, Geochemist/Analyst GERALDS. WOODARD, Editor and Head ROGERS. McCAY, Electronics Technician PAT GERTH, Sales and Records Clerk AUTHOR OF THIS REPORT: Dr. Wright is on the staff of the Cities Service Co., Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 50408, Tulsa, Okla. 74150. He was formerly a faculty member in the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, The Ohio State University, Marion Campus, Marion, Ohio 43302. Middle Devonian Chitinozoa of Indiana By ROBERT P. WRIGHT DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SPECIAL REPORT 18 PRINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF INDIANA BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA: 1980 STATE OF INDIANA Otis R. Bowen, Governor DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES Joseph D. Cloud, Director GEOLOGICAL SURVEY John B. Patton, State Geologist For sale by Geological Survey, Bloomington, Ind. 4 7 405 Price $3.50 Contents Page Page Abstract ........................ 1 Systematic paleontology . 7 Introduction ..................... 1 Genus Alpenachitina Dunn and Miller ... 7 Purpose of the study . .1 Genus Ancyrochitina Eisenack ....... 8 Acknowledgments . 2 Genus Angochitina Eisenack ....... .. 9 Stratigraphic summary . 2 Genus Hoegisphaera Staplin ........ 10 Jeffersonville Limestone ........... 3 Genus Eisenackitina Jansonius ...... 10 North Vernon Limestone ........... 4 Literature cited .................. 12 Detroit River Formation . 4 Appendix . 15 Traverse Formation . 5 Chitinozoa fauna .................. 5 Stratigraphic distribution . 5 Biogeography . 6 Illustrations Page Plate 1 Stratigraphic distribution of Chitinozoa and depositional environments during Middle Devonian time ........ Facing page 4 2-5 Devonian Chitinozoa from the Muscatatuck Group . Following appendix Figure 1 Map sho"\ing location of collecting sites in Indiana . 1 2 Chart showing correlation of Middle Devonian formations in Indiana and ranges of Chitinozoa . 3 Table Page Table 1 Abundance of Chitinozoa in samples from localities 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 ............................ 15 Middle Devonian Chitinozoa of Indiana By ROBERT P. WRIGHT Abstract Middle Devonian chitinozoans from the Muscatatuck Group of Indiana belong to eight species of the genera Alpenachitina, Ancyro chitina, Angochitina, Eisenackitina, and Hoegisphaera. The Chitinozoa are most abundant in the carbonate rocks that represent well-circulated open-water condi tions and are low in diversity or are absent 0 Limit of from lithographic and laminated dolomite Lafayette representing the shallower, more restricted environments. The local range zones of the chitinozoans from the Muscatatuck Group, O l when compared with the occurrence of Richmond 1 similar taxa from correlative strata in the midwestern United States, are quite parallel 0 I to the established conodont zones. The lowest Terre Haute occurrence of Alpenachitina eisenacki, Ango chitina callawayensis, and Eisenackitina in flata in the lowermost rocks of the Muscata tuck Group is in the Icriodus latericrescens robustus Zone, which is early Eifelian in age. Ancyrochitina hamiltonensis in association with A. cf. A. spinosa and Hoegisphaera glabra characterizes the upper part of the 30 Miles I I I Muscatatuck rocks, and the occurrence of 50Km those chitinozoans ranges from the upper part of the late Eifelian I. angustus Zone into the early Givetian I. latericrescens latericrescens Zone. Figure 1. Map showing location of collecting sites in Indiana. Introduction PURPOSE OF THE STUDY been fairly well established (Droste and This study of chitinozoans from the Muscata Shaver, 1975). This was an opportunity to tuck Group of Indiana is part of a larger compare the stratigraphic distribution of the effort that is being made by members of the Muscatatuck Chitinozoa with established Chitinozoa Working Group of the Interna conodont zones and to see if the occurrence tional Commission of Paleozoic Microflora to of the Chitinozoa was in some way controlled improve the use of these fossils in biostratig by normal-marine conditions. raphy and paleoecology. The Muscatatuck To satisfy these objectives, rocks from Group was selected for study because the three outcrops and two cores in Indiana were precise ages (Orr, 1971) and the various sampled (fig. 1). The rocks belonged to the depositional environments of the rocks have Jeffersonville and North Vernon Limestones 1 2 MIDDLE DEVONIAN CHITINOZOA OF INDIANA in central and southern Indiana and to the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Detroit River and Traverse Formations in This study was supported by funds from the northern Indiana. Most lithofacies were Graduate School of The Ohio State Univer sampled so that no lithologic type would be sity. Special thanks go to Curtis H. Ault, ignored. Although not all the samples Indiana Geological Survey, for allowing access contained chitinozoans, well-preserved speci to the Survey's well cores and for his able mens were found. Because the Chitinozoa assistance in the field. I am also grateful to were not compacted in the carbonate rocks, David W. Ehringer, Sellersburg Stone Co.; they were easily compared with taxa of other Leon Meshberger, Meshberger Stone, Inc.; and assemblages from correlative strata in Illinois, William Backus, May Stone & Sand, Inc., for Iowa, Ohio, and Ontario. permission to visit and collect from their The Chitinozoa still remain a problematical quarries. group because of the uncertainty of their Information in this report has been biologic affinity. First discovered in 1929 by discussed with Robert H. Shaver, Department the German scientist Eisenack from glacial of Geology, Indiana University; Sven Laufeld, erratics of Silurian rocks in the Baltic region Geological Survey of Sweden; and Steven R. of Europe, chitinozoans are now known Jacobson, Chevron Oil Co. F. H. Cramer, indisputably to occur in marine rocks ranging Institute of Palynological Investigations, in age from the Tremadocian (earliest Leon, Spain, Sven Laufeld, and Robert H. Ordovician) through latest Devonian. Because Shaver read the manuscript and offered the chemical nature of the body wall makes valuable assistance for its improvement. them resistant to treatment by concentrated Special thanks are due to J. Franklin, SEM acidic solutions, their tests are easily ex technician; Robert Wilkinson, photographer; tracted from sedimentary rocks with a and Karen Tyler, draftsman, all of the minimum of careful effort by using HCl, HF, Department of Geology and Mineralogy, The and HN03 without fear of losing the fossils. Ohio State University, for preparation of the More recently the quality of published illustrations. Marjorie Fields, The Ohio State illustrations has improved with the use of the University, Marion Campus, typed several scanning electron microscope. With this tool, drafts of the manuscript. chitinozoan morphology and its variability are more readily determined, which results in Stratigraphic Summary better comparisons among taxa. In addition, The Middle Devonian carbonate rocks of the recent publications have contained detailed cratonic Kaskaskia Sequence in Indiana make information about chitinozoan geographic up the Muscatatuck Group (Shaver, 1974). and stratigraphic locations. Such trends have This group includes the Jeffersonville and led to increased application of chitinozoans to North Vernon Limestones in the subsurface problems of general biostratigraphy (Laufeld, and outcrop belt in central and southern 1975; Laufeld and others, 1975; Cramer and Indiana and the Detroit River and Traverse Diez de Cramer, 1972; Achab, 1977; and Formations in northern Indiana. Rocks of the many others), even to dating autochthonous Jeffersonville and Detroit River were the sedimentary sequences (Neville, 1974) and initial sediments deposited primarily