AWi-5, west of J. Lee Long Bridge (Paleocene of the United States)

Where: Wilcox County, Alabama (32.0° N, 87.2° W: paleocoordinates 34.9° N, 67.2° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-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; poorly lithified, glauconitic, gray, white, argillaceous, sandy chalk

• 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). The condensed claystone intervals around the maximum flooding surfaces may have been deposited below storm wave base, probably in a water depth exceeding 30 m.

•This lithological description implies a transitional horizon in the shallowing-upward succession between the condensed claystone and the sandy limestones, suggesting probably deep subtidal conditions.

• lithology described as chalk, light gray to white, sandy, glauconitic, clayey

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 2849: 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
Anthozoa
 Scleractinia - Flabellidae
Flabellum conoideum
Flabellum conoideum Vaughan 1900 stony coral
Scaphopoda
 Dentaliida - Dentaliidae
Dentalium mediaviense
Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Hercoglossidae
Hercoglossa ulrichi
Bivalvia
 Pholadida - Teredinidae
Teredo sp.
Teredo sp. Linnaeus 1758 clam
originally entered as "Teredo spp."
 Carditida - Carditidae
"Venericardia wilcoxensis" = Venericardia (Baluchicardia) wilcoxensis
"Venericardia wilcoxensis" = Venericardia (Baluchicardia) wilcoxensis Dall 1903 clam
 Pectinida - Pectinoidae
Spondylus sp.
Spondylus sp. Linnaeus 1758 scallop
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea pulaskensis
Ostrea pulaskensis Harris 1892 oyster
originally entered as "Cf. Ostrea pulaskensis"
 Arcida - Cucullaeidae
Cucullaea macrodonta
Gastropoda
 Neogastropoda - Melongenidae
Levifusus sp.
Levifusus sp. Conrad 1865 snail
 Neogastropoda - Volutidae
Scaphella sp.
Scaphella sp. Swainson 1832 volute
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
"Turritella alabamiensis" = Mesalia alabamiensis, Turritella sp.
"Turritella alabamiensis" = Mesalia alabamiensis De Gregorio 1890 turret shell
Turritella sp. Lamarck 1799 turret shell
originally entered as "Turritella spp."
Sedentaria
 Sabellida - Serpulidae
Rotularia mcglameryae
Gymnolaemata
 Cheilostomata - Electridae
Conopeum sp.
Conopeum sp. Gray 1848
unclassified
  -
Vertebrata indet.
Vertebrata indet. Lamarck 1801
shark tooth