Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:16:25.201Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A trilobite fauna from the highest Shineton Shales in Shropshire, and the correlation of the latest Tremadoc

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. A. Fortey  and
R. M. Owens
R. A. Fortey
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K.
R. M. Owens
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff CFI 3NP, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A rich fauna dominated by trilobites and calcified chordates has been collected in Shropshire from the Arenaceous Beds, the highest member of the Tremadoc Shineton Shale Formation, and hitherto regarded as poorly fossiliferous. This fauna shows that shelf conditions persisted longer in Shropshire than has been supposed. It is likely that even younger Tremadoc is cut out at the unconformity below the Caradoc in the Shineton Inlier. The correlation of the later Tremadoc is reviewed, and the nomenclature of British Tremadoc biozones is revised. The trilobites described here are a mixture of previously known and new forms. The name Shumardia (Conophrys) salopiensis Callaway is revived for British material traditionally assigned to the Scandinavian species Shumardia pusilla (Sars), from which it is distinct. The new taxa Litagnostus meniscus sp.nov., Apatokephalus sarculum sp.nov. and Skljarella cracens sp.nov. are described. The type species of Asaphellus, A. homfrayi and Leptoplastides, L. salteri, are redescribed, and Geragnostus callavei, Pseudokainella impar, and Parapilekia sp. are recorded. New information on the ontogeny of S. (C.) salopiensis and A. homfrayi is given. Litagnostus and Skljarella are recorded from the British Isles for the first time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 128 , Issue 5 , September 1991 , pp. 437 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlberg, P. 1988. A revision of the Ordovician agnostid trilobite Leiagnostus Jaekel, 1909. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 110, 363–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balashova, E. A. 1960. Tremadoc trilobites of the Aktu-binsk region. In Ordovik Kazakhstana IV. Trudy Geologicheskogo Instituta SSSR 18, 102–44, 4 pls (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bassett, M. G. & Dean, W. T. (eds) 1982. The Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary: Sections, Fossil Distributions, and Correlations. 227 pp. National Museum of Wales, Geological Series No. 3, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Bassler, R. S. 1915. Bibliographic Index of American Ordovician and Silurian fossils vol.1, United States National Museum Bulletin 92, i–viii, 1–718.Google Scholar
Belt, T. 1868. On the ‘Lingula Flags’ or ‘Festiniog Group’ of the Dolgelly District. Part III. Geological Magazine 5, 5–11, pl. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berard, P. 1986. Trilobites de l'Ordovicien inferieur des Monts de Cabrières (Montagne Noire-France). Mémoires du centre d'études et de recherches géologiques et hydrologiques 24, 1–220, 15 pls.Google Scholar
Billings, E. 1862. Palaeozoic fossils. Vol. I (3), pp. 57–168. Geological Survey of Canada.Google Scholar
Boeck, C. P. B. 1838. Gaea Norvegica, 1, 138–45. Christiania (Oslo).Google Scholar
Brøgger, W. C. 1882. Die silurischen Etagen 2 and 3 im Kristianagebiet und auf Eker. Universitats-Programm 32. Semester 1882, I–VIII, 1–376, pls 1–12. Kristiania.Google Scholar
Brøgger, W. C. 1886. Ueber die Ausbildung des Hypostomes bei einigen skandinavischen Asaphiden. Bihang till Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar 11 (3), 1–78, 3 pls.Google Scholar
Brøgger, W. C. 1896. über die Verbreitung der Euloma-Niobe-Fauna (der Ceratopygenkalkfauna) in Europa. Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, Christiana, 35, 164–240.Google Scholar
Bulman, O. M. B. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1973. Tremadoc faunas from boreholes in central England. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, no. 43, 1–40, 7 pls.Google Scholar
Burmeister, H. 1843. Die Organisation der Trilobiten aus ihren lebenden Verwandten entwickelt; nebst einer systematischen Uebersicht aller zeither beschreibenen Arten. i-xii, 147 pp, 6 pls. Berlin.Google Scholar
Callaway, C. 1874. On the occurrence of a Tremadoc Area near the Wrekin in South Shropshire with Description of a new Fauna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 30, 196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callaway, C. 1877. On a new area of Upper Cambrian rocks in south Shropshire, with description of a new fauna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 33, 652–72, pl. 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowie, J. W., Rushton, A. W. A. & Stubblefield, C. J. 1972. A correlation of Cambrian rocks in the British Isles. Special Report of the Geological Society of London, no. 2, 42 pp.Google Scholar
Curtis, M. L. K. 1968. The Tremadoc rocks of the Tortworth Inlier, Gloucestershire. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 79, 349–62, pls 8, 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daley, P. E. J. 1991. Two new cornutes from the Lower Ordovician of Shropshire and Southern France. Palaeontology 34 (in press).Google Scholar
Dalman, J. W. 1827. Om Palaeaderna eller de så kallade Trilobiterna. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsacademiens Handlingar 1826 (2), pp. 113–52, 226–94, pls 1–6.Google Scholar
Dean, W. T. 1966. The Lower Ordovician stratigraphy and trilobites of the Landeyran valley and the neighbouring district of the Montagne Noire, southwestern France. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Geology 12, 247–353, pls 1–21.Google Scholar
Dean, W. T. 1970. A new Lower Ordovician trilobite faunule from Random Island, Eastern Newfoundland. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 70–79, vi+100 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdtmann, B. D. 1986. On the anisograptid affiliation of Dictyonema flabelliforme (Eichwald, 1840) and its nomenclatural consequences. In Palaeoecology and Biostratigraphy of Graptolites (eds Hughes, C. P. and Rickards, R. B.), pp. 21–26. Geological Society Special Publication 20. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1984. Global earlier Ordovician transgressions and regressions and their biological implications. In Aspects of the Ordovician System (ed. Bruton, D. L.), pp. 37–50. Palaeontological Contributions from the University of Oslo, no. 295. 228 pp. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1986. The type species of the Ordovician trilobite Symphysurus: systematics, functional morphology and terrace ridges. Palaontologische Zeitschrift 255–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Bassett, M. G., Harper, D. A. T., Hughes, R. A., Ingham, J. K., Molyneux, S. G., Owen, A. W., Owens, R. M., Rushton, A. W. A. & Sheldon, P. R. 1991. Progress and problems in the selection of stratotypes for the bases of series in the Ordovician System of the historical type area in the U.K. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 90–9, 5–25.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Chatterton, B. D. E. 1988. Classification of the trilobite suborder Asaphina. Palaeontology 31, 165–222.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., Landing, E. & Skevington, D. 1982. Cambrian–Ordovician boundary sections in the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland. In The Cambrian-Ordovician boundary: sections, fossil distributions and correlations (eds Bassett, M. G. and Dean, W. T.), pp. 95–129. National Museum of Wales, Geological Series No. 3, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Owens, R. M. 1987. The Arenig Series in South Wales. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 41, 69–305, 146 figs.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Owens, R. M. 1991. The early Ordovician trilobite Beltella . Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society 49, (in press).Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1980. Acanthopleurella Groom 1902: origins and life habits of a miniature trilobite. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 33, 79–89.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Shergold, J. H. 1984. Early Ordovician trilobites, Nora Formation, central Australia. Palaeontology 27, 315–66, pls 38–46.Google Scholar
Harrington, H. J. 1938. Sobre las faunas del Ordoviciano inferior del norte Argentino. Revista del Museo de La Plata, secc. paleontologia 4, 209–289.Google Scholar
Harrington, H. J. & Leanza, A. F. 1957. Ordovician trilobites of Argentina Special Publications, University of Kansas, Department of Geology, no. 1, 276 pp, 140 figs.Google Scholar
Hawle, I. & Corda, A. J.. 1847. Prodom einer Monographie der böhmischen Trilobiten. 176 pp., 7 pls. Prague.Google Scholar
Henningsmoen, G. 1959. Rare Tremadoc trilobites from Norway. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 39, 153–73, 2 pls.Google Scholar
Hoeck, H. 1912. In Steinmann, G. & Hoeck H., Das Silur und Cambrium des Hochlandes von Bolivia und ihre Fauna. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie. Stuttgart, Beilagebände, 34, 176–252, pls 7–14.Google Scholar
Holliday, S. 1942. Ordovician trilobites from Nevada. Journal of Paleontology 16, 471–8, pls 73, 74.Google Scholar
Howell, B. F. 1935. Cambrian and Ordovician trilobites from Herault, southern France. Journal of Paleontology 9, 222–38, pls 22, 23.Google Scholar
Hupé, P. 1955. Classification des Trilobites. Annates de Paléontologie 41, 111–345.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, R. D. 1952. The stratigraphy and trilobite faunas of the Cambrian sedimentary rocks of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir no. 263, v+124 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchison, R. & Ingham, J. K. 1967. New trilobites from the Tremadoc series of Shropshire. Palaeontology 10, 47–59, pl. 8.Google Scholar
Jaekel, O. 1909. Über die Agnostiden. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 63 (3), 380–400.Google Scholar
Jefferies, R. P. S. 1987. The Ancestry of the Vertebrates. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, T. R. 1883. Palaeozoic phyllopoda; as reported on to the British Association, Southport, 1883, section C. Geology. Geological Magazine decade 2, 10, 461–4.Google Scholar
Jones, T. R. & Woodward, H. 1889. Sixth report on the fossil Phyllopoda of the Palaeozoic rocks. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1888, 173–81.Google Scholar
Jones, T. R. & Woodward, H. 1892. A monograph of the British Palaeozoic Phyllopoda, Part 2. Palaeonto-graphical Society Monograph, 73–124, pls 13–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayser, E. 1897. Beiträge zur Kenntnis einiger paläbzoischer Faunen Sudamerikas. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 49, 274–317, pls 7–12.Google Scholar
Khalfina, L. L. (ed.) 1960. Biostratigrafia paleozoya Sayano-Altaiskoi Gornoy oblasti. (Palaeozoic bio-stratigraphy of the Sayan-Altai, Gorny District) Trudy Sibirskogo Nauchno-Issledovatef'skogo Instituta Geologii Geofiziki i Mineraralnogo Sir'ya 1, 1–443, 20 pls.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1934. The Cambro-Ordovician Formations and Faunas of South Chosen. Palaeontology. Part II. Lower Ordovician faunas. Journal of the Faculty of Science. Tokyo University (2) 3, 521–85, pls 1–8.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1937. The Cambro-Ordovician shelly faunas of South America, II. Journal of the Faculty of Science. Tokyo University (4), 4, 369–522, pls 1–8.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1953. On the Kainellidae. Japanese Journal of Geology and Geography 23, 37–61, pls 3, 4.Google Scholar
Lake, P. 1906. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (1), 1–28, pls 1, 2. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 287, part of vol. 60 for 1906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 1907. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (2), 29–48, pls 3, 4. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 246, part of vol. 61 for 1907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 1919. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (5), 89–120, pls 11–14. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 343, part of vol. 71 for 1917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 1932. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (7), 149–72, pls 19–22. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 385, part of vol. 84 for 1930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 1942. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (13), 307–32, pls 44–6. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 427, part of vol. 96 for 1942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 1946. A monograph of the British Cambrian trilobites. (14), 333–50, pl. 47. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 432, part of vol. 99 for 1945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linnarsson, J. G. O. 1869. Om Vestergötlands Cambriska och Siluriska aflagringar. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskap sakademiens Handlingar 8 (2), 1–89, pls 1, 2.Google Scholar
Lu, Y.-H. 1964. A Handbook of the Index Fossils from South China. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Lu, Y.-H. & Qian (Chien), Y.-Y. 1978. Trilobites. In Atlas of Fossils of Southwest China. Fasc. 1 (Guizhou). Geological Press (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Maletz, J. & Erdtmann, B. -D. 1987. Adelograptus tenellus (Linnarsson 1871): Its astogenetic development and its stratigraphical and palaeogeographical distribution. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 35, 179–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1901. New species of Cambrian fossils from Cape Breton. Bulletin of the Natural History Society, New Brunswick 4, no. 4.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1903. Report on the Cambrian rocks at Cape Breton. Geological Survey of Canada, Publication No. 797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mergl, M. 1984. Fauna of the Upper Tremadoc of central Bohemia. Sborník Geologický věd Paleontologie 26, 9–46, 8 pls.Google Scholar
Moberg, J. C. & Segerberg, C. O. 1906. Bidrag till Kannedomen om Ceratopygeregionen med sarskild namsyn till dess utveckling i Fågelsangtrakten. Acta Univ. Lund (N.F.) 2, 1–113, pls 1–7.Google Scholar
Moore, R. C. (ed.) 1959. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part 0. Arthropoda I. xix+560 pp., 415 figs. Lawrence, Kansas.Google Scholar
Morris, S. F. 1988. A review of British trilobites, including a synoptic revision of Salter's monograph. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 574, pp. 1–316, part of vol. 140 for 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, S. F. & Fortey, R. A. 1985. Catalogue of the type and figured specimens of Trilobites in the British Museum (Natural History). 183 pp., 8 pls. British Museum (Natural History), London.Google Scholar
Norford, B. S. 1988. Introduction to papers on the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary. Geological Magazine 125, 323–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, R. M., Fortey, R. A., Cope, J. C. W., Rushton, A. W. A. & Bassett, M. G. 1982. Tremadoc faunas from the Carmarthen district, South Wales. Geological Magazine 119, 1–38, pls 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1955. Upper Cambrian Agnostidae of the Eureka district, Nevada. Journal of Paleontology 29 86–101, pls 19, 20.Google Scholar
Paul, C. R. C. 1984. British Ordovician cystoids (2) Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 563 65–152, pls 12–26, part of vol. 136 for 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, S. 1990. Tremadoc stratigraphy and trilobite faunas of northwestern Hunan. Beringia 2, 1–171.Google Scholar
Petrunina, Z. E. 1973. Novye rody i vidy tremadokskikh trilobitov Zapadnoi Sibiri. In Novye dannye po geologii i poleznym iskopaemym Zapadnoi Sibiri pp. 59–71, 2 pls. Izd-vo Tomskogo Universiteta, 8. Tomsk.Google Scholar
Přibyl, A. & VaněK, J. 1980. Ordovician trilobites ol Bolivia. Rozpravy Československé Akademie Věd. Rada Matematických a přírodrích věd. 90 (2), 1–90, 26 pls.Google Scholar
Rasetti, F. 1943. New Lower Ordovician trilobites from Levis, Quebec. Journal of Paleontology 17, 101–4, pl. 19.Google Scholar
Rasetti, F. 1944. Upper Cambrian trilobites from the Levis Conglomerate. Journal of Paleontology 18, 229–58, pls 36–9.Google Scholar
Raw, F. 1908. The trilobite fauna of the Shineton Shales. Report of the British Association for the Advancement Of Science, for 1907, 511–13.Google Scholar
Raw, F. 1925. The development of Leptoplastus salteri and other trilobites. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 81, 223–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robison, R. A. & Pantoja-Alor, J. 1968. Tremadocian trilobites from the Nochixtlán Region, Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Paleontology 42, 767–800, pls 97–104.Google Scholar
Rosova, A. V. 1968. Biostratigraphical zoning and trilobites of the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician of the Northwestern Siberian Platform. Transactions of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Academy of Sciences USSR 36, 1–191, pls 1–17. (in Russian; translated into English 1984 as Russian translation Series 19, A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam).Google Scholar
Rosova, A. V., Rosov, S. N. & Dubatolova, Yu A. 1985. Stratigrafia i fauna Ordovika Severo-Zapadnogo Salaira (Stratigraphy and faunas of the Ordovican ol North-western Salair). Transactions of the Siberian Branch, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Academy of Sciences USSR, 637, 176pp.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1988. Tremadoc trilobites from the Skiddaw Group in the English Lake District. Palaeontology 31, 677–98, pls 66–8.Google Scholar
Salter, J. W. 1866. A monograph of the British trilobites ol the Cambrian, Silurian and Devonian formations (3). Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, no. 77, 129–76, pls 15–25, part of vol. 18 for 1864.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sars, M. 1835. Ueber einige neue oder unvollständig bekannte Trilobiten. Isis, Jena, for 1835, 334–43, pls 8, 9.Google Scholar
Sdzuy, , 1955. Die Fauna der Leimitz-Schiefer (Tremadoc). Abhandlungen von der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 492, 1–74, pls 1–8.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, A. 1847. On the classification of the fossiliferous slates of North Wales, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 3, 133–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shergold, J. H., Laurie, J. R. & Sun, X. 1990. Classification and review of the trilobite order Agnostida Salter, 1864: an Australian perspective. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Report no. 296, iv+93 pp., 19 pls.Google Scholar
Størmer, L. 1940. Early descriptions of Norwegian trilobites. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 20, 113–151, pls 1–3.Google Scholar
Stubblefield, C. J. 1926. Notes on the development of a trilobite, Shumardia pusilla (Sars). Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 36, 345–72.Google Scholar
Stubblefield, C. J. & Bulman, O. M. B. 1927. The Shineton Shales of the Wrekin district. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 83, 96–146, pls 3–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suáres-Soruco, R. 1975. Nuevos trilobites del Tremadociano inferior (Ordovicica) del sur de Bolivia. Revista Technico Y.P.F.B. 4, 129–46.Google Scholar
Thomas, A. T., Owens, R. M. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1984. Trilobites in British stratigraphy. Special Report of the Geological Society of London, no. 16, 78 pp.Google Scholar
Thoral, M. 1935. Contribution à l' éetude paléontologique de l'Ordovicien de la Montagne Noire et revision sommaire de la faune cambrienne. 362 pp. Montpellier.Google Scholar
Tjernvik, T. E. 1956. On the early Ordovician of Sweden: stratigraphy and fauna. Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University of Uppsala 36, 107–284, pls 1–11.Google Scholar
Ziaofeng, Wang & Yuqin, Jin (eds). 1977. Palaeontological Handbook of central and southern China, 470 pp. 116 pls. Beijing.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, F. W. 1936. Cambrian faunas of north-eastern Australia. Part 2: Trilobita (Miomera). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 11, 79–112, pls 8–10.Google Scholar
Whittard, W. F. 1967. The trilobite Anacheirurus frederici (Salter) from the Tremadoc Series of North Wales. Geological Magazine 104, 284–8, pl. 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1985. Trilobites from the Ordovician Table Head Formation, western Newfoundland. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 132, 275–442, pls 1–68.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1990. Articulation and exuviation in Cambrian trilobites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 329, 27–46.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. & Evitt, W. R. 1954. Silicified Middle Ordovician trilobites. Memoirs of the Geological Society of America 59, 1–137, pls 1–33.Google Scholar
Whitworth, P. H. 1969. The Tremadoc trilobite Pseudokainella impar (Salter). Palaeontology 12, 406–13, pl. 75.Google Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J. 1984. A re-examination of the type Arenig Series. Geological Journal 19, 105–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Z.-Y. & Fortey, R. A. 1986. Ordovician trilobites from North and Northeast China. Palaeontographica, Abt. A 192, 157–210.Google Scholar