Search results for "Ordovician"
showing 10 items of 50 documents
ABNORMALITIES IN THE LOWER ORDOVICIAN CORNUTE PHYLLOCYSTIS THORAL, 1935 (ECHINODERMATA: STYLOPHORA) FROM MONTAGNE NOIRE (SOUTHERN FRANCE): IMPLICATIO…
2007
9 pages; International audience; Two specimens of the cornute Phyllocystis crassimarginata Thoral, 1935 from the Lower Ordovician of Southern Montagne Noire (Languedoc, France) showing abnormal numbers of marginal plates are described. The first one (UM 310) is characterized by the insertion of one extra plate between the fourth right marginal and the zygal plate Z. Comparison with a new, undescribed Tremadoc boot-shaped cornute suggests that 1) the extra plate of UM 310 is equivalent to M4, and 2) the three right marginals located between M1 and Z in ‘‘normal'' specimens of Phyllocystis can be identified as M2, Mc, and M3. Plate configurations of the right thecal margin are thus identical …
Ordovician echinoderms from the Tabas and Damghan regions, Iran: palaeobiogeographical implications
2005
Abstract Two echinoderm assemblages are described in the Middle Ordovician of Iran (Darriwilian). The Simeh Kuh section (Damghan area, eastern Alborz range) has yielded a rich and diverse blastozoan fauna consisting of fistuliporite (Echinosphaerites, Heliocrinites) and dichoporite rhombiferans (cheirocrinids indet., hemicosmitids indet.), as well as aristocystitid (Sinocystis) and sphaeronitid diploporites (Glyptosphaerites, Tholocystis). Heliocrinites, cheirocrinids, hemicosmitids, Glyptosphaerites, and Tholocystis are reported for the first time in the Ordovician of Iran. A less diverse assemblage was collected in the Shirgesht section (Tabas area, Derenjal Mountains), and represents the…
New Ordovician mitrates (Echinodermata, Stylophora) from the Ancenis Basin (South Armorican Domain, France): Palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental…
2006
8 pages; International audience; Fossil echinoderms are extremely rare in Ordovician deposits of the South Armorican Domain (SAD), a structurally complex area stacked to the Medio-North Armorican Domain during the Hercynian orogeny. Two new occurrences of mitrate stylophorans are documented in the eastern part of the SAD (Ancenis Basin). The youngest known specimen of Lagynocystis pyramidalis is described from the Schistes du Fresne Formation (Late Ordovician). Mitrocystites mitra is reported from the Pierre Meliere Formation (Middle Ordovician), and for the first time, outside of Bohemia. The presence of these two cool-adapted taxa (both abundant in the Prague Basin) in the Ancenis Basin d…
First report of the mitrate Peltocystis cornuta Thoral (Echinodermata, Stylophora) in the Lower Ordovician of central Anti-Atlas (Morocco)
2007
The mitrate Peltocystis cornuta is one the best known and most abundant stylophoran echinoderms in the Lower Ordovician (upper Tremadoc - lower Arenig) of Montagne Noire (southern France). It is here documented outside this region for the first time, in coeval deposits of central Anti-Atlas (Morocco). This report confirms the strong faunal affinities between Montagne Noire and Moroccan assemblages in the Ordovician. Twenty-eight individuals of P. cornuta are described from two distinct localities of the Zagora region. Their overall morphology is very comparable to that of Montagne Noire specimens. However, the Moroccan Peltocystis differ from the French ones in their smaller mean size, and …
The origin and glaciodynamic significance of sandstone ridge networks from the Hirnantian glaciation of the Djado Basin (Niger)
2007
The Djado Basin (Niger) was located beneath the inner part of the Late Ordovician ice sheet. The Felar-Felar Formation consists mainly of glaciomarine deposits, associated with the major ice sheet recession within the glaciation, and is bounded by two glacial unconformities. Structures corresponding to sandstone ridges are found within the Felar-Felar Formation. Sandstone ridges are several metres high, about 10 m wide and hundreds of metres long. These structures are organized in extensive anastomosed to subpolygonal networks. The association of sandstone ridge networks with the later glacial unconformity and with other glacial evidence suggests sub-glacial conditions for their origin. San…
Palaeogeographical and palaeoecological aspects of the Cambro–Ordovician radiation of echinoderms in Gondwanan Africa and peri-Gondwanan Europe
2003
Abstract Ecology and tempo of the Lower Palaeozoic radiation of echinoderms are discussed in this paper based on comparison of the diversity patterns observed in Cambro–Ordovician faunas from Laurentia and the northern Gondwana margin. The Cambrian ‘agronomic revolution’ triggered a global radiation of echinoderms, with the progressive disappearance of biomat-related lifestyles, and the colonisation of new environments. Both in Laurentia and on the northern Gondwana margin, soft-substrate echinoderm assemblages related to cold and/or deep environments were dominated by blastozoans and stylophorans. These assemblages show a pattern of continuous diversification from the Middle Cambrian to th…
Palaeozoic evolution of the North Tianshan based on palaeomagnetic data – transition from Gondwana towards Pangaea
2017
We present new palaeomagnetic data for Cambrian and Ordovician volcanic and sedimentary rocks from the Kyrgyz North Tianshan (NTS) and review available data from the southwestern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) to elucidate the tectonic history and evolution of this region during the early Palaeozoic. We observed a coherent evolution of the NTS and the Kazakhstan continent (or Kazakhstania) with a constant northwards movement between the Cambrian and Devonian at ∼5 cm/a. After the northwards movement ceased in the Devonian, the accreted terrane assemblage of Kazakhstania occupied a stable latitudinal position at ∼30°N until the final amalgamation of Eurasia occurred in the late Carbonife…
Discussion on Palaeozoic discontinuities in the Kuh-e Surmeh area (Zagros, Iran).
2015
20 pages; International audience; Evidence of several major unconformities in the Lower Palaeozoic succession in Iran lead to question the role of tectonic/eustatism/climate in terms of their formation. The studied Palaeozoic succession in the Kuh-e Surmeh Anticline is characterized by the preservation of two thin Ordovician and Lower Permian Formations separated by a large hiatus encompassing the Upper Ordovician up to the lowermost Permian. The Ordovician sequences were deposited in shallow shoreface to lower offshore environments and the Lower Permian corresponds to a wave-dominated estuarine system evolving to a delta system. These mainly clastic successions represent good reservoirs in…
Zircon Ages from the Baydrag Block and the Bayankhongor Ophiolite Zone: Time Constraints on Late Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Subduction‐ and Accretion…
2009
Central Mongolia represents a heterogeneous crustal domain of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and is composed of contrasting lithotectonic units with distinct preorogenic histories. We report single-zircon evaporation and SHRIMP ages for high-grade rocks of the Neoarchean-Paleoproterozoic Baydrag block and for metaigneous rocks of the junction between the late Neoproterozoic Bayankhongor ophiolite zone (BOZ) and the Baydrag block. Zircon ages for metamorphic rocks of the Baydrag block indicate a major tectonothermal event between 1840 and 1826 Ma, coeval with the emplacement of granitic rocks at middle-crustal level dated at 1839 Ma. A granite-gneiss yielded a much younger crystallization a…
Zircon ages and Hf isotopic compositions of plutonic rocks from the Central Tianshan (Xinjiang, northwest China) and their significance for early to …
2014
We present new zircon ages and Hf-in-zircon isotopic data for plutonic rocks and review the crustal evolution of the Chinese Central Tianshan (Xinjiang, northwest China) in the early to mid-Palaeozoic. The Early Ordovician (ca. 475–473 Ma) granitoid rocks have zircon eHf(t) values either positive (+0.3 to +9.5) or negative (−6.0 to −12.9). This suggests significant addition of juvenile material to, and coeval crustal reworking of, the pre-existing continental crust that is fingerprinted by numerous Precambrian zircon xenocrysts. The Late Ordovician–Silurian (ca. 458–425 Ma) rocks can be assigned to two sub-episodes of magmatism: zircon from rocks of an earlier event (ca. 458–442 Ma) has neg…