K9797 - Melajo Clay, Melago River area (Miocene of Trinidad and Tobago)

Where: Trinidad and Tobago (10.6° N, 61.1° W: paleocoordinates 10.5° N, 59.6° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Melajo Clay Member (Springvale Formation), Late/Upper Miocene (11.6 - 5.3 Ma)

• The Melajo Clay Member of the Springvale Formation is correlated with the Savaneta Glaconitic Sandstone Member of the Springvale Formation, although part of it may be younger. The Melajo fauna is late Miocene in age. The Melajo Clay rests transgressively on the phyllites of the Northern Range with a basal conglomerate of about 1 m thickness. The conglomerate graes into a 1.5 m thick limestone, which is overlain by a bed of sand of about 1 m thickness. Above the sand is the Melajo Clay. The total thickness of the Melajo Clay is about 200 ft. It is unconformably overlain by Pleistocene sand and gravel deposits.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; unlithified, yellow, blue, silty claystone and unlithified, coarse-grained sandstone

• The Melajo fauna can be divided into two assemblages: one occurring the limestone and coarse sand near the base of the Melajo Clay, the other on in the overlying clay and silty clay. The difference of the two assemblages is facies controlled. The basal assemblage represents a typical, tropical, near-shore fauna, whereas the overlying assemblage points to a deeper environment. This collection is derived from the clay assemblage, a siliciclastic and deeper water environment and is hence assigned to a siliciclastic - offshore environment.
• Blue, yellowish weatheirng clay and silty clay with occasional sandy layers. Sand is probably coarse.

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the PRI, USNM

Collection methods: quarrying,

• All material descibed in this report is reposited in the Naturhistorisches Mueum, Basel, or the USNM. Additional material collection from this unit is found at PRI.

Primary reference: P. Jung. 1969. Miocene and Pliocene mollusks from Trinidad. Bulletins of American Paleontology 55(247):293-697 [A. Miller/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 60401: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 14.05.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Exhaustive for Mollusca, although author suggests that further collection would reveal additional forms. Corals, bryozoa and spines of echinoderms also exists in the unit, though are not listed. Van de Bold (1963) also lists ostracords from several localities. Foraminiferal assemblages are also listed in unpublished reports by Saunders.
Gastropoda
 Vanikoroidea - Eulimidae
 Neogastropoda - Olividae
"Olivella (Dactylidia) aff. mutica" = Olivella mutica
"Olivella (Dactylidia) aff. mutica" = Olivella mutica Say 1822 olive snail
 Neogastropoda - Nassariidae
Gordanops baranoanus Anderson 1929 snail
 Neogastropoda - Muricidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Polinices stanislasmeunieri, "Natica (Naticarius) aff. canrena" = Naticarius canrena
Polinices stanislasmeunieri Maury 1917 moon snail
"Natica (Naticarius) aff. canrena" = Naticarius canrena Linnaeus 1758 moon snail
Bivalvia
 Arcida - Arcidae
"Anadara (Scapharca) placata" = Scapharca, Anadara (Cunearca) filicata
"Anadara (Scapharca) placata" = Scapharca clam
 Lucinida - Lucinidae
 Pholadida - Corbulidae
 Cardiida - Veneridae
Pitar (Lamelliconcha) circinatus, "Chione (Lirophora) caroniana" = Lirophora
"Chione (Lirophora) caroniana" = Lirophora venus clam
 Cardiida - Cardiidae
Scaphopoda
 Dentaliida - Dentaliidae