ABu-12, Braggs Road (Paleocene of the United States)

Where: Butler County, Alabama (32.0° N, 86.7° W: paleocoordinates 34.8° N, 66.7° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• 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, gray, white 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 described as white to grey 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 2841: 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
 Irregularia - Nucleolitidae
"Rhopostoma cruciferum" = Plagiochasma cruciferum
"Rhopostoma cruciferum" = Plagiochasma cruciferum Morton 1830 sea urchin
Malacostraca
 Decapoda - Callianassidae
Callianassa sp.
Callianassa sp. Leach 1814 decapod
Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Hercoglossidae
Hercoglossa ulrichi
Bivalvia
 Pholadida - Teredinidae
Teredo sp.
Teredo sp. Linnaeus 1758 clam
originally entered as "Teredo spp."
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea pulaskensis, Ostrea crenulimarginata
Ostrea pulaskensis Harris 1892 oyster
originally entered as "Cf. Ostrea pulaskensis"
Ostrea crenulimarginata Gabb 1860 oyster
Sedentaria
 Sabellida - Serpulidae
Rotularia mcglameryae