USGS f21923, Diamond Peak Fm, Nevada (Carboniferous of the United States)

Where: White Pine County, Nevada (39.5° N, 115.6° W: paleocoordinates 1.2° S, 49.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: D Member (Diamond Peak Formation), Meramecian (343.0 - 335.5 Ma)

• "Diamond Peak Formation, member D; 2,036 ft above base of formation and 1,490 ft below base of Ely Limestone." Within unit 42 of the Type Section of the Diamond Peak Formation.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shallow subtidal; lithified, gray limestone and lithified shale

• Unit 42: "Limestone (ES-59-58: foraminiferal biosparite, = USGS loc. f21923), gray, fossiliferous, contact with unit 41 is irregular and could be a diastem; very minor shale interbeds; forms prominent cliff."

•"Member D is a resistant cliff- and ledge-forming sequence of thick and very thick bedded limestones interstratified with sandstone and minor amounts of clay shale, conglomerate, and siltstone. The limestone is typically gray or blue gray, weathers brownish gray in some place, and is locally very hard and dense. A few of the limestone beds have sets of planar cross-strata, and others are noticeably pyritic. Almost all are fossiliferous, containing crinoid columnals, colonial and solitary corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, and, locally, formainifers. Many of the limestone strata have 'stringers' and thin beds of dark chert granules and pebbles; others contain abundant silt-size quartz and chert grains and grade into limy siltstone. The nonlimy siltstone present is olive gray, thin bedded and occurs also as the matrix of the limestone-phenoplast conglomerate of theis member. The clay shale interclated with the limestone is gray and fissile, weathers olive gray, and is locally either pyritic or limy. Small brachiopod casts occur in some of the beds. Light-gray, brown, and light-brown, fairly well sorted, fine-grained sandstone in beds 7.5-75 cm thick occurs between the limestone beds. Most of the sandstone is hard, dense and moderately well sorted. Some is pyritic and some is conglomeratic. The conglomerates in the sequence are gray or brownish white and weather to brownish gray and darker brown. Chert and quartzite form the rounded pebbles and cobbles, which are a maximum of 10 cm in diameter. The chert fragments tend to be more angular and are red, white, gray, and black. Some of the conglomerates grade to sandstone; others contain relatively little sandstone matrix and are cemented with calcite."

Reposited in the USGS

• Collected by D. A. Brew 1959.

Primary reference: D. A. Brew and M. Gordon. 1971. Mississippian stratigraphy of the Diamond Peak Area, Eureka County, Nevada. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 661:1-84 [N. Heim/N. Heim]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 62845: authorized by Noel Heim, entered by Noel Heim on 28.07.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Brew and Gordon list new species (without naming them) in their taxonomic lists but do not provide any formal taxonomic descriptions. Because of this, new species were indicated in the comment field but not in the species resolution field.
Foraminifera
 Ammodiscoidea - Ammodiscidae
Glomospira sp. Rzehak 1895
Tubothalamea
 Miliolida - Cornuspiridae
Cornuspira sp. Schultze 1854
Foraminifera
 Endothyroidea - Endothyridae
 Palaeotextularoidea - Palaeotextulariidae
 Archaediscacea - Archaediscidae
Neoarchaediscus sp.
This taxon's occurrence is questionable, as indicated by "?" in the occurence check box in faunal list
 Fusulinina - Pseudoammodiscidae
 Fusulinina - Tuberitinidae
 Fusulinina - Earlandiidae