First Carboniferous and ?Permian marine macrofaunas from Antarctica and their tectonic implications

Abstract

The first Carboniferous and ?Permian marine macrofaunas from the Antarctic continent are described from three sites near Mount King, Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. They include bivalves, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, gastropods, a possible monoplacophoran, nautiloids and a possible serpulid or microconchid. Overall the faunas of two localities are Carboniferous in age and compare well with the Levipustula levis Zone of Argentina and eastern Australia, and are of Namurian (Serpukhovian–Bashkirian) age, based mainly on the brachiopod and bryozoan faunas. Less positive brachiopod evidence from a third locality indicates the presence of a linoproductid fauna of possible Carboniferous or Permian (Gzhelian–Artinskian) age, having affinities with the Argentinian Cancrinella fauna. The lithological and structural characteristics of the Mount King beds are comparable to the accretionary complex of the LeMay Group (hitherto of only proven Jurassic–Cretaceous age) of Alexander Island, in which they are provisionally placed. However, the beds may also correlate with the Trinity Peninsula Group (Carboniferous–Triassic) of the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The features of the Mount King beds are consistent with the presence of an accretionery complex related to an island arc in the Late Palaeozoic, but are not necessarily conclusive proof of the presence of such a terrane at that time in what is now Alexander Island.

A new Pennsylvanian Oriocrassatellinae from Brazil and the distribution of the genusOriocrassatellain space and time

“…1A). It is noteworthy that Oriocrassatella is also apparently absent in the same interval in Carboniferous deposits of the Alexander Island, Antarctica (Kelly et al 2001).…”

“…Ages for glacial periods: in Argentina, according to González (1981González ( , 1990González ( , 2002 and González & Díaz-Saravia (2007); in Australia, to Roberts et al (1995), Dickins (1996) and Fielding et al (2008a, b); in Brazil, to Holz et al (2008); in India, to Veevers & Tewari (1995) and Maejima et al (2001). Ages for Biozones in Argentina and Australia from Kelly et al (2001); for Marginirugus barringtonensis, Roberts et al (1976 Oriocrassatella sp. (González 1997) from the Río del Peñón Formation belongs to the KochiproductusHeteralosia assemblage, the youngest faunal assemblage of the informal Aguanegran faunal stage.…”

Afloramientos carboníferos en la quebrada La Herradura, Provincia de San Juan (oeste de Argentina), revisados: edad de las transgresiones.

“…Indeeed, Sabattini et al (1990) proposed the La Herradura Creek outcrops as the stratotype of the Tivertonia jachalensis-Streptorhynchus inaequiornatus (TS) Biozone. A Late Pennsylvanian age was suggested for this biozone by Sabattini et al (1990); González (1997); Taboada (1997); Kelly et al (2001) and Dineen et al (2012). However, Archbold et al (2004) and Cisterna et al (2002Cisterna et al ( , 2006Cisterna et al ( , 2011 …”

Age and composition of Antarctic sub-glacial bedrock reflected by detrital zircons, erratics, and recycled microfossils in the Ellsworth Land–Antarctic Peninsula–Weddell Sea–Dronning Maud Land sector (240°E–0°–015°E)

“…Selected macrofossil localities: mid-Carbonifeous and Permian from Mt. King (Kelly et al, 2001), Permian from the Erehwon Nunataks (Gee, 1989), and Jurassic marine fossils (coil symbol) from Thomson (1993), including the Jurassic fossils on James Ross Island (JRI) (boxed symbol) contained in blocks displaced from Graham Land (Whitham and Doyle, 1989). Jurassic Larsen and Latady Basins are from Hunter and Cantrill (2006).…”