Downloaded from http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/ at Universitetet i Oslo on January 6, 2017 Research article Journal of the Geological Society Published online September 9, 2016 doi:10.1144/jgs2016-059 | Vol. 174 | 2017 | pp. 18–22 A new Lagerstätte from the Late Ordovician Big Hill Formation, Upper Peninsula, Michigan James C. Lamsdell1,2*, Steven T. LoDuca3, Gerald O. Gunderson4, Ronald C. Meyer5 & Derek E. G. Briggs1,6 1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA 2 Present address: Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA 3 Department of Geography and Geology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, USA 4 6413 Elmwood Avenue, Middleton, WI 53562, USA 5 352e Raintree Ct., Louiseville, CO 80027, USA 6 Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: A new exceptionally preserved marginal marine biota is reported from the Late Ordovician Big Hill Formation of Stonington Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The new Lagerstätte hosts a moderately diverse fauna of medusae, linguloid brachiopods, non-mineralized arthropods and orthocone nautiloids, alongside dasycladalean green algae. The biota is similar to those of Lagerstätten from the Late Ordovician of Canada, revealing an extensive distribution of a distinctive marginal marine palaeocommunity in Laurentia at this time. The Big Hill biota extends the geographical range of exceptionally preserved Late Ordovician faunas in Laurentia and indicates that further examples remain to be discovered. Received 26 May 2016; revised 5 July 2016; accepted 10 July 2016 Konservat Lagerstätten, which preserve organisms that do not Geological setting otherwise survive normal decay processes, provide unique windows on ancient ecosystems.