ABu-4, east of Cedar Creek (Paleocene of the United States)

Where: Butler County, Alabama (31.9° N, 86.7° W: paleocoordinates 34.8° N, 66.7° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: McBryde Limestone Member (Clayton Formation), Danian (66.0 - 61.6 Ma)

• Mid-Danian age for McBryde Limestone, based on planktonic foraminifera of zone P1c (or P1b to P1c) and calcareous nannofossil zone NP3 (Mancini, 1984; Schulte & Speijer, 2009).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: deep subtidal ramp; lithified, white, sandy limestone

• Schulte & Speijer (2009): The lowered fossil content in the McBryde Limestone Member, as compared to the Turritella Rock (described as a shallow, inner neritic setting), as well as the significantly smaller grain-size of the components, and decreased amounts of coarse silicic detritus, suggest a more distal depositional environment. Open-marine conditions are also indicated by the presence of nautiloids, and more common planktic foraminifera in the marl intervals. In the sandy bioclastic limestones, fossils appear to be reworked from nearshore settings (e.g., algae) and the large grain size of the constituents suggests a high-energy environment, probably above storm wave or even wave base (i.e., <25 m).
• lithology is a white to very pale orange, very sandy, hard crystalline limestone

Size class: mesofossils

Primary reference: L. D. Toulmin. 1977. Stratigraphic Distribution of Paleocene and Eocene Fossils in the Eastern Gulf Coast Region. Geological Survey of Alabama, Monograph 13(1):1-602 [M. Patzkowsky/K. Layou/P. Mannion]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 2838: authorized by Mark Patzkowsky, entered by Karen Layou on 21.07.1999

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Echinoidea
 Echinoneoida - Echinoneidae
Rhopostoma sp.
Rhopostoma sp. Cooke 1959 sea urchin
 Spatangoida - Schizasteridae
Linthia alabamensis
Linthia alabamensis Clark and Twitchell 1915 heart urchin
 Cassiduloida -
Gitolampas georgiensis
 Irregularia - Nucleolitidae
"Rhopostoma cruciferum" = Plagiochasma cruciferum
"Rhopostoma cruciferum" = Plagiochasma cruciferum Morton 1830 sea urchin
Gastropoda
 Sorbeoconcha - Rostellariidae
Calyptraphorus sp.
Calyptraphorus sp. Conrad 1857 snail
originally entered as "Calyptraphorus spp."
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
Turritella sp.
Turritella sp. Lamarck 1799 turret shell
originally entered as "Turritella spp."
Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Hercoglossidae
Hercoglossa ulrichi
Bivalvia
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea sp., Ostrea pulaskensis, Ostrea crenulimarginata
Ostrea sp. Linnaeus 1758 oyster
originally entered as "Ostrea spp."
Ostrea pulaskensis Harris 1892 oyster
originally entered as "Cf. Ostrea pulaskensis"
Ostrea crenulimarginata Gabb 1860 oyster