UCMP A3696, Marrowstone Island (Oligocene of the United States)

Where: Jefferson County, Washington (48.1° N, 122.7° W: paleocoordinates 47.7° N, 111.9° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Marrowstone Formation, Rupelian (33.9 - 28.1 Ma)

• "Turritella porterensis zone of Lincoln "formation" (middle Oligocene), 100 feet stratigraphically below sandy shales of Marrowstone shale." Map in Armentrout & Berta (1977) places this site near the base of the Marrowstone Formation. On the basis of magnetostratigraphy, Prothero et al. (2009) assigned the Marrowstone to the earliest Oligocene (Chron C13n) and placed the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the underlying Quimper Formation. Armentrout & Berta (1977) assigned an upper Refugian age on the basis of benthic foraminifera and correlated it with the early Oligocene.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: deep-water; lithified, silty shale

• Rauch (1985) found hummocky cross-stratification in the lower part of the underlying Quimper Formation and placed the lower Marrowstone Formation in his silty shale facies, representing outer shelf/offshore environments. However, Armentrout (1980) argued that the succession was characteristic of submarine fan deposition and that the paleoecology of foraminiferal assemblages from interbedded shales suggests upper bathyal (200 to 1,200 m) water depths or "sublittoral to upper bathyal deposition" in Armentrout & Berta (1977). Hickman (1984) mentions the Marrowstone as having a "deep-water" molluscan fauna. The lower Quimper is definitely offshore transition, but the extent of transgression above is uncertain. Rauch (1985) infers high sedimentation rates from the rarity of bioturbation and the presence of sandstone dikes in the Marrowstone, which sounds more consistent with a slope environment, in agreement with the faunal evidence.
• Lithified on the basis of field photos in Rauch (1985). Silty shale facies, containing some sandy beds.

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by J. Wyatt Durham; reposited in the UCMP

Primary reference: A. K. Miller and H. R. Downs. 1950. Tertiary nautiloids of the Americas: supplement. Journal of Paleontology 24:1-18 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 180418: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 16.07.2016, edited by Mark Uhen

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Aturiidae
Aturia angustata Conrad 1849
subspecies grandior
Aturia cf. grandior Schenck 1931
Gastropoda
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Polinices washingtonensis Weaver 1916 moon snail
Polinices lincolnensis Weaver 1916 moon snail
 Neogastropoda - Volutidae
"Miopleiona scowensis n. sp." = Psephaea (Miopleiona) weaveri
"Miopleiona scowensis n. sp." = Psephaea (Miopleiona) weaveri Tegland 1933 volute
 Neogastropoda - Buccinidae
Ancistrolepis packardi n. sp. Durham 1944 true whelk
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
Turritella porterensis Weaver 1912 turret shell
Scaphopoda
 Dentaliida - Dentaliidae
Dentalium porterensis Weaver 1912 tusk shell
Bivalvia
 Solemyida - Solemyidae
Solemya dalli Clark 1925 Awning Clam
 Carditida - Carditidae
"Venericardia hannibali" = Cyclocardia (Cyclocardia) hannibali
"Venericardia hannibali" = Cyclocardia (Cyclocardia) hannibali Clark 1925 clam
 Lucinida - Thyasiridae
"Thyasira cf. bisecta" = Conchocele bisecta
"Thyasira cf. bisecta" = Conchocele bisecta Conrad 1849 clam
 Lucinida - Lucinidae
"Corbis washingtoniana" = Epilucina washingtoniana, "? Lucina acutilineata" = Lucinoma acutilineata
"Corbis washingtoniana" = Epilucina washingtoniana Clark 1925 clam
"? Lucina acutilineata" = Lucinoma acutilineata Conrad 1849 clam
 Cardiida - Veneridae
"? Pitar dalli" = Pitar (Pitar) dalli
"? Pitar dalli" = Pitar (Pitar) dalli Weaver 1916 venus clam
Thecostraca
 Balanomorpha - Balanidae
Balanus sp. Da Costa 1778 barnacle