Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:46:01.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Furongian (Cambrian) agnostoids of Scandinavia and their implications for intercontinental correlation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2012

PER AHLBERG  and
FREDRIK TERFELT
PER AHLBERG*
Affiliation:
Division of Geology, Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
FREDRIK TERFELT
Affiliation:
Division of Geology, Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
*
*Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Out of the 14 agnostoid species/subspecies so far recorded from the Furongian of Scandinavia, seven are excellent biostratigraphical indices and important for correlation between Baltica and other palaeocontinents. Glyptagnostus reticulatus, Aspidagnostus lunulosus and Agnostus (Homagnostus) obesus first appear at the base of the G. reticulatus Zone, allowing a precise correlation of the base of the Paibian Stage into Scandinavia. Tomagnostella orientalis and Pseudagnostus cyclopyge appear near the base of the Parabolina brevispina Zone, suggesting a correlation with the uppermost Paibian through the lowermost Jiangshanian stages. Lotagnostus americanus and Pseudagnostus rugosus have an intercontinental distribution and their first appearance in Scandinavia allows for a correlation with one of the most favourable levels for defining the base of Cambrian provisional Stage 10. In the Furongian of Scandinavia, agnostoids are conspicuously assembled in three different intervals: the lower Glyptagnostus reticulatus Zone, the lower Pseudagnostus cyclopyge Zone and the Lotagnostus americanus through lower Trilobagnostus holmi zones. The agnostoid-barren and largely unfossiliferous succession separating the lower and middle agnostoid-bearing intervals can be explained by means of subsequent dissolution of the calcareous fauna and/or a hostile environment. The middle agnostoid-bearing interval is succeeded by an anomalous succession dominated by the orthide brachiopod Orusia lenticularis, reflecting a regressive event coupled with increasing levels of oxygen at the sediment/water interface. This shallowing evidently resulted in unfavourable conditions for agnostoids.

Keywords

agnostoidsbiostratigraphycorrelationFurongianScandinavia
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 149 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 1001 - 1012
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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. 2003. Trilobites and intercontinental tie points in the Upper Cambrian of Scandinavia. Geologica Acta 1, 127–34.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. & Ahlgren, J. 1996. Agnostids from the Upper Cambrian of Västergötland, Sweden. GFF 118, 129–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahlberg, P., Axheimer, N., Babcock, L. E., Eriksson, M. E., Schmitz, B. & Terfelt, F. 2009. Cambrian high-resolution biostratigraphy and carbon isotope chemostratigraphy in Scania, Sweden: first record of the SPICE and DICE excursions in Scandinavia. Lethaia 42, 2–16.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P., Månsson, K., Clarkson, E. N. K. & Taylor, C. M. 2006. Faunal turnovers and trilobite morphologies in the upper Cambrian Leptoplastus Zone at Andrarum, southern Sweden. Lethaia 39, 97–110.Google Scholar
Angelin, N. P. 1851. Palaeontologia Svecica. I: Iconographia crustaceorum formationis transitionis. Fasc. 1. Lund, 24 pp.Google Scholar
Axheimer, N. & Ahlberg, P. 2003. A core drilling through Cambrian strata at Almbacken, Skåne, S. Sweden: trilobites and stratigraphical assessment. GFF 125, 139–56.Google Scholar
Babcock, L. E. & Peng, S. C. 2007. Cambrian chronostratigraphy: current state and future plans. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 254, 62–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babcock, L. E., Peng, S. C., Geyer, G. & Shergold, J. H. 2005. Changing perspectives on Cambrian chronostratigraphy and progress toward subdivision of the Cambrian System. Geosciences Journal 9, 101–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babcock, L. E., Robison, R. A. & Peng, S. C. 2011. Cambrian stage and series nomenclature of Laurentia and the developing global chronostratigraphic scale. In Cambrian Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Northern Arizona and Southern Nevada, The 16th Field Conference of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group, International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Southern Nevada, United States (eds Hollingsworth, J. S., Sundberg, F. A. & Foster, J. R.), pp. 12–26. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 67. Flagstaff, Arizona: Museum of Northern Arizona.Google Scholar
Belt, T. 1867. On some new trilobites from the Upper Cambrian rocks of North Wales. Geological Magazine 4, 294–5.Google Scholar
Billings, E. 1860. On some new species of fossils from the limestone near Point Levi, opposite Quebec. Canadian Naturalist and Geologist 5, 301–24.Google Scholar
Borovikov, L. I. & Kryskov, L. N. 1963. Cambrian deposits of the Kendyktas Mountains (southern Kazakhstan). National Geological Committee of the U.S.S.R., Transactions of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Geology (VSEGEI), New Series 94, 266–80. (In Russian).Google Scholar
Buchardt, B., Nielsen, A. T. & Schovsbo, N. H. 1997. Alun Skiferen i Skandinavien. Geologisk Tidsskrift 1997 (3), 1–30.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E., Collins, D. H. & Ludvigsen, R. 2003. Cryptic behaviour in trilobites: Cambrian and Silurian examples from Canada, and other related occurrences. Special Papers in Palaeontology 70, 157–73.Google Scholar
Choi, D. K., Lee, J. G. & Sheen, B. C. 2004. Upper Cambrian agnostoid trilobites from the Machari Formation, Yongwol, Korea. Geobios 37, 159–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarkson, E. N. K., Ahlberg, P. & Taylor, C. M. 1998. Faunal dynamics and microevolutionary investigations in the Upper Cambrian Olenus Zone at Andrarum, Skåne, Sweden. GFF 120, 257–67.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Torsvik, T. H. 2002. Earth geography from 500 to 400 million years ago: a faunal and palaeomagnetic review. Journal of the Geological Society, London 159, 631–44.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Torsvik, T. H. 2005. Baltica from the late Precambrian to mid-Palaeozoic times: the gain and loss of a terrane's identity. Earth-Science Reviews 72, 39–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworatzek, M. 1987. Sedimentology and petrology of carbonate intercalations in the Upper Cambrian Olenid shale facies of southern Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C819, 1–73.Google Scholar
Ergaliev, G. K. 1980. Middle and Upper Cambrian Trilobites of the Lesser Karatau. Alma-Ata: Academy of Sciences, Kazakhstan SSR, Kazakhstan SSR Publishing House, 211 pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar
Ergaliev, G. K. & Ergaliev, F. G. 2008. Middle and Upper Cambrian Agnostida of the Aksai National Geological Reserve South Kazakhstan (Kyrshabakty River, Malyi Karatau Range). Almaty: Gylum, 376 pp. (in Russian with English abstract, introduction and figure captions).Google Scholar
Eriksson, M. E. & Terfelt, F. 2007. Anomalous facies and ancient faeces in the latest middle Cambrian of Sweden. Lethaia 40, 69–84.Google Scholar
Erlström, M., Thomas, S. A., Deeks, N. & Sivhed, U. 1997: Structure and tectonic evolution of the Tornquist Zone and adjacent sedimentary basins in Scania and the southern Baltic Sea. Tectonophysics 271, 191–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatka, O. & Szabad, M. 2011. Agnostids entombed under exoskeletons of paradoxidid trilobites. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie – Abhandlungen 259, 207–15.Google Scholar
Fatka, O., Vokáč, V., Moravec, J., Šinágl, M. & Valent, M. 2009. Agnostids entombed in hyolith conchs. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 481–9.Google Scholar
Gee, D. G. 1972. The regional geological context of the Tåsjö Uranium Project, Caledonian Front, central Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C671, 1–36.Google Scholar
Geyer, G. & Shergold, J. 2000: The quest for internationally recognized divisions of Cambrian time. Episodes 23, 188–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, B. C., Lyons, T. W., Young, S. A., Kump, L. R., Knoll, A. H. & Saltzman, M. R. 2011. Geochemical evidence for widespread euxinia in the Later Cambrian ocean. Nature 469, 80–3.Google Scholar
Hall, J. & Whitfield, R. P. 1877. Paleontology, Pt. II, Fossils of the Potsdam Group. In Report of the United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, Vol. 4 (ed. King, C.), pp. 198–302. United States Army Engineer Department Professional Papers 18.Google Scholar
Havlíček, V., Vaněk, J. & Fatka, O. 1993. Floating algae of the genus Krejciella as probable hosts of epiplanktic organisms (Dobrotivá Series, Ordovician; Prague Basin). Journal of the Czech Geological Society 38, 79–88.Google Scholar
Henningsmoen, G. 1957. The trilobite family Olenidae with description of Norwegian material and remarks on the Olenid and Tremadocian Series. Skrifter utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps–Akademi i Oslo, I. Matematisk–Naturvidenskapelig Klasse 1957 (1), 1–303.Google Scholar
Henningsmoen, G. 1958. The Upper Cambrian faunas of Norway with descriptions of non-olenid invertebrate fossils. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 38, 179–96.Google Scholar
Ivshin, N. K. 1962. Upper Cambrian Trilobites of Kazakhstan, Part 2. Alma-Ata: Institute of Geological Sciences, Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, 412 pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar
Jaekel, O. 1909. Über die Agnostiden. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 61, 380–401.Google Scholar
Jago, J. B. 1973. Cambrian agnostid communities in Tasmania. Lethaia 6, 405–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobayashi, T. 1935. The Cambro-Ordovician formations and faunas of South Chosen, Palaeontology, Pt. III, Cambrian faunas of South Chosen with a special study on the Cambrian trilobite genera and families. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, Section II 4 (2), 49–344.Google Scholar
Lauridsen, B. W. & Nielsen, A. T. 2005. The Upper Cambrian trilobite Olenus at Andrarum, Sweden: a case study of iterative evolution? Palaeontology 48, 1041–56.Google Scholar
Lazarenko, N. P. 1966. Biostratigraphy and some new Upper Cambrian trilobites from the Olenek Uplift and Kharaulakh Mountains. Ucheniye zapiski. Paleontologiya i biostratigrafiya. Nauchno-Issledovateliskii Institut geologii Arktiki 11, 33–78 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Lazarenko, N. P., Gogin, I. Ya., Pegel, T. V., Sukhov, S. S., Abaimova, G. P., Egorova, L. I., Fedorov, A. B., Raevskaya, E. G. & Ushatinskaya, G. T. 2008. Excursion 1b. Cambrian stratigraphy of the northeastern Siberian Platform and potential stratotypes of lower boundaries of the proposed Upper Cambrian Chekurovkian and Nelegerian stages in the Ogon'or Formation section at the Khos-Nelege River; the boundaries are defined by the FAD of Agnostotes orientalis and Lotagnostus americanus . In The Cambrian System of the Siberian Platform. Part 2: North-east of the Siberian Platform (eds Rozanov, A. Yu. & Varlamov, A. I.), pp. 61–139. Moscow and Novosibirsk: PIN RAS, 139 pp.Google Scholar
Lermontova, E. V. 1940. Trilobita. In Atlas of the Leading Forms of the Fossil Faunas of the USSR. 1. Cambrian (ed. Vologdin, A. G.), pp. 112–57. Moscow and Leningrad: All-Union Scientific Research Institute (VSEGEI), State Publishing House of Geological Literature (in Russian).Google Scholar
Linnarsson, J. G. O. 1869. Om Vestergötlands cambriska och siluriska aflagringar. Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar 8 (2), 1–89.Google Scholar
Maas, A., Waloszek, D. & Müller, K. J. 2003. Morphology, ontogeny and phylogeny of the Phosphatocopina (Crustacea) from the Upper Cambrian ‘Orsten’ of Sweden. Fossils and Strata 49, 1–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, F. & Dean, W. T. 1988. Middle and Upper Cambrian acritarchs and trilobite zonation at Manuels River and Random Island, eastern Newfoundland. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 381, 1–91.Google Scholar
Morris, S. F. 1988. A review of British trilobites, including a synoptic revision of Salter's monograph. Monographs of the Palaeontographical Society 140, 1–316.Google Scholar
Müller, K. J. & Hintz, I. 1991. Upper Cambrian conodonts from Sweden. Fossils and Strata 28, 1–153.Google Scholar
Müller, K. J. & Walossek, D. 1985. A remarkable arthropod fauna from the Upper Cambrian ‘Orsten’ of Sweden. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 76, 161–72.Google Scholar
Müller, K. J. & Walossek, D. 1987. Morphology, ontogeny, and life habit of Agnostus pisiformis from the Upper Cambrian of Sweden. Fossils and Strata 19, 1–124.Google Scholar
Nielsen, A. T. & Schovsbo, N. H. 2007. Cambrian to basal Ordovician lithostratigraphy in southern Scandinavia. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 53, 47–92.Google Scholar
Nikolaisen, F. & Henningsmoen, G. 1985. Upper Cambrian and lower Tremadoc olenid trilobites from the Digermul peninsula, Finnmark, northern Norway. Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse, Bulletin 400, 1–49.Google Scholar
Norling, E. & Bergström, J. 1987. Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Scania, southern Sweden. Tectonophysics 137, 7–19.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1961. The geology and palaeontology of the headwaters of the Burke River, Queensland. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin 53, 1–249.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1967. The Mindyallan fauna of north-western Queensland. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin 74, 1–404.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1979. Middle Cambrian agnostids: systematics and biostratigraphy. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin 172, 1–188.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1962. Glyptagnostus and associated trilobites in the United States. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 374-F, 1–49.Google Scholar
Pek, I. 1977. Agnostid trilobites of the Central Bohemian Ordovician. Sborník geologických věd, Paleontologie 19, 7–44.Google Scholar
Peng, S. C. & Babcock, L. E. 2005. Two Cambrian agnostoid trilobites, Agnostotes orientalis (Kobayashi, 1935) and Lotagnostus americanus (Billings, 1860): Key species for defining global stages of the Cambrian System. Geosciences Journal 9, 107–15.Google Scholar
Peng, S. C., Babcock, L. E., Robison, R. A., Lin, H. L., Rees, M. N. & Saltzman, M. R. 2004. Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) of the Furongian Series and Paibian Stage (Cambrian). Lethaia 37, 365–79.Google Scholar
Peng, S. C., Babcock, L. E., Zuo, J. X., Lin, H. L., Zhu, X. J., Yang, X. F., Qi, Y. P., Bagnoli, G. & Wang, L. W. 2009 a. Proposed GSSP for the base of Cambrian Stage 9, coinciding with the first appearance of Agnostotes orientalis, at Duibian, Zhejiang, China. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences 52, 434–51.Google Scholar
Peng, S. C., Hughes, N. C., Heim, N. A., Sell, B. K., Zhu, X. J., Myrow, P. M. & Parcha, S. K. 2009 b. Cambrian trilobites from the Parahio and Zanskar valleys, Indian Himalaya. Paleontological Society Memoir 71, 1–95.Google Scholar
Peng, S. C. & Robison, R. A. 2000. Agnostoid biostratigraphy across the Middle–Upper Cambrian boundary in Hunan, China. Paleontological Society Memoir 53, 1–104.Google Scholar
Pratt, B. R. 1992. Trilobites of the Marjuman and Steptoean stages (Upper Cambrian), Rabbitkettle Formation, southern Mackenzie Mountains, northwest Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana 9, 1–179.Google Scholar
Reading, H. G. 1965. Eocambrian and Lower Palaeozoic geology of the Digermul Peninsula, Tanafjord, Finnmark. Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse 234, 167–91.Google Scholar
Robison, R. A. 1972. Mode of life of agnostid trilobites. International Geological Congress 24, Montreal, Canada, Section 7, 33–40.Google Scholar
Robison, R. A. 1976. Middle Cambrian trilobite biostratigraphy of the Great Basin. Brigham Young University Geology Studies 23, 93–109.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1982. The biostratigraphy and correlation of the Merioneth-Tremadoc Series boundary in North Wales. In The Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary: Sections, Fossil Distributions, and Correlations (eds Bassett, M. G. & Dean, W. T.), pp. 41–59. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, Geological Series 3.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1983. Trilobites from the Upper Cambrian Olenus Zone in central England. Special Papers in Palaeontology 30, 107–39.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 2009. Revision of the Furongian agnostoid Lotagnostus trisectus (Salter). Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 273–9.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. & Weidner, T. 2010. The Furongian trilobite Irvingella from Jämtland and Ångermanland, Sweden. GFF 132, 193–200.Google Scholar
Salter, J. W. 1864. Trilobites (chiefly Silurian). Figures and descriptions illustrative of British organic remains. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, London, Decade 11, 64 pp.Google Scholar
Saltzman, M. R., Young, S. A., Kump, L. R., Gill, B. C., Lyons, T. W. & Runnegar, B. 2011. Pulse of atmospheric oxygen during the late Cambrian. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, 3876–81.Google Scholar
Schovsbo, N. H. 2001. Why barren intervals? A taphonomic case study of the Scandinavian alum shale and its faunas. Lethaia 34, 271–85.Google Scholar
Shergold, J. H. & Webers, G. F. 1992. Late Dresbachian (Idamean) and other trilobite faunas from the Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica. In Geology and Paleontology of the Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica, (eds Webers, G. F., Craddock, C. & Splettstoesser, J. F.), pp. 125–68. Geological Society of America Memoir 170.Google Scholar
Stitt, J. H. & Perfetta, P. J. 2000. Trilobites, biostratigraphy, and lithostratigraphy of the Crepicephalus and Aphelaspis zones, lower Deadwood Formation (Marjuman and Steptoean stages, Upper Cambrian), Black Hills, South Dakota. Journal of Paleontology 74, 199–223.Google Scholar
Szaniawski, H. & Bengtson, S. 1998. Late Cambrian euconodonts from Sweden. Palaeontologica Polonica 58, 7–29.Google Scholar
Terfelt, F. & Ahlberg, P. 2010. Pseudagnostus rugosus Ergaliev, 1980: a key agnostoid species for intercontinental correlation of upper Furongian (Cambrian) strata. Geological Magazine 147, 789–96.Google Scholar
Terfelt, F., Ahlberg, P. & Eriksson, M. E. 2011. Complete record of Furongian polymerid trilobites and agnostoids of Scandinavia – a biostratigraphical scheme. Lethaia 44, 8–14.Google Scholar
Terfelt, F., Ahlberg, P., Eriksson, M. E. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 2005. Furongian (upper Cambrian) biostratigraphy and trilobites of the Håslöv-1 drill core, Scania, S. Sweden. GFF 127, 195–203.Google Scholar
Terfelt, F. & Ahlgren, J. 2007. Macropyge (Promacropyge) scandinavica new species; the first macropyginid trilobite recorded from the Fuongian of Baltica. Journal of Paleontology 81, 1516–22.Google Scholar
Terfelt, F., Eriksson, M. E., Ahlberg, P. & Babcock, L. E. 2008. Furongian Series (Cambrian) biostratigraphy of Scandinavia – a revision. Norwegian Journal of Geology 88, 73–87.Google Scholar
Torsvik, T. H. & Rehnström, E. F. 2001. Cambrian palaeomagnetic data from Baltica: implications for true polar wander and Cambrian palaeogeography. Journal of the Geological Society, London 158, 321–29.Google Scholar
Tullberg, S. A. 1880. Om Agnostus-arterna i de kambriska aflagringarne vid Andrarum. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C42, 1–38.Google Scholar
Weidner, T. 1997. Fund des Trilobiten Aspidagnostus cf. stictus Öpik 1967 in einem oberkambrischen Stinkkalk-Geschiebe. Der Geschiebesammler 30, 119–20.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1909. Studier öfver Dictyograptusskiffern och dess gränslager med särskild hänsyn till i Skåne förekommande bildningar. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, N.F. 2 (5), 1–79.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1922. Sveriges olenidskiffer. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning Ca18, 1–205.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1944. Borrningar genom Skånes alunskiffer 1941–42. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C459, 1–45.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1946. Agnostidea of the Middle Cambrian of Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C477, 1–140.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1947. Supplementary notes on the Upper Cambrian trilobites of Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning C489, 1–34.Google Scholar
Żylińska, A. 2001. Late Cambrian trilobites from the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland. Acta Geologica Polonica 51, 333–83.Google Scholar