Ninemile Shale, Antelope Valley (Ordovician of the United States)

Where: Nevada (39.0° N, 116.0° W)

• Paleocoordinates: 24.5° N, 118.0° W (Wright 2013)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Presbynileus ibexensis - Pseudocybele nasuta trilobite zone, Ninemile Formation (Pogonip Group), Blackhillsian (475.3 - 471.3 Ma)

• Listed as Lower Arenig; local series zone I / zone J

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: slope; poorly lithified, brown, green shale and poorly lithified, concretionary packstone

• "Slope-forming shale"; "Deeper water, outer shelf or uppermost slope"; zone 5
• Dark green to greenish-brown shale interbedded with thin, nodular, fossiliferous packstone or rare grainstone beds

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: trace, concretion

Primary reference: J. Sprinkle and T. E. Guensburg. 1995. Origin of echinoderms in the Paleozoic evolutionary fauna: the role of substrates. Palaios 10:437-453 [G. Webster/G. Webster]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 77185: authorized by Phil Novack-Gottshall, entered by Paul Hearn on 28.12.2007

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)

Taxonomic list

• Full fauna from entire formation, although fauna is homogenous throughout; spanning ages H-J, but primarily from J; fauna is largely indeterminate higher taxonomic levels
unclassified
  -
Polymeroid indet.
"Abundant"
Articulata
  -
Articulata indet.
"Abundant"
Inarticulata
  -
Gastropoda
  -
Gastropoda indet. Cuvier 1795 snail
"Abundant"
Cephalopoda
 Nautiloidea -
Nautiloidea indet. Agassiz 1847 nautiloid
"Uncommon"
Artiopoda
 Agnostida -
Agnostida indet. Salter 1864
"Rare"
Rhombifera
 Rhombifera -
Rhombifera indet. Zittel 1879
"Common"
Crinoidea
  -
Crinoidea indet. Miller 1821 Sea lily
"Uncommon"
Eocrinoidea
  -
Eocrinoidea indet. Jaekel 1918
"Uncommon"
Stylophora
  -
Stylophora indet. Gill and Caster 1960
"Uncommon"
Graptolithina
  -
Graptolithina indet. graptolite
"Rare"
unclassified
  -
Porifera indet. Grant 1836
"Rare"