Molluscan Zone 10 (Unit B), Little Cove Point Mbr, St. Marys Fm - Langleys Bluff (Miocene of the United States)

Where: St Marys County, Maryland (38.3° N, 76.4° W: paleocoordinates 38.4° N, 74.6° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Little Cove Point Member (St Marys Formation), Late/Upper Miocene (11.6 - 5.3 Ma)

• Unit B in Ward 1992 (Fig. 26), ~0.1 m of shell hash. Collection from Little Cove Point of St Marys Fm, overlying Unit A of the Little Cove Point, and underlies unit C of the Talbot Fm.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coastal; unlithified, shelly/skeletal sandstone

• Accumulated during a transgression. From open shelf marine conditions.
• Shell hash; sandy; contains a concentration of worn shell material; some contamination of Mulinia from bed above, probably through burrowing.

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the USNM

• Most material appears to be reposited in USNM and USGS collections

Primary reference: L. W. Ward. 1992. Molluscan biostratigraphy of the Miocene Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain of North America. Virginia Museum of Natural History 2 [A. Miller/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 59306: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 25.03.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Probably not exhaustive, but a summary of the common and abundant forms from unit. Modern nomenclature utilized with species level assignments.
unclassified
  -
Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
"Turritella plebeia" = Mariacolpus plebeia
"Turritella plebeia" = Mariacolpus plebeia Say 1824 turret shell
Subspecies: T. plebeia plebeia
Bivalvia
 Hiatellida - Hiatellidae
Panopea goldfussii Wagner 1839 clam
 Cardiida - Veneridae
Dosinia acetabulum Conrad 1832 venus clam
Subspecies: D. acetabulum thori
 Cardiida - Mactridae
"Spisula" subcuneata Conrad 1838 clam
 Cardiida - Cardiidae
Chesacardium sp. Ward 1992 cockle
 Pectinida - Pectinoidae
Chesapecten covepointensis Ward 1992 scallop
 Arcida - Arcidae
Dallarca idonea Conrad 1832 clam