Capay Eocene Corals, CA, III (Eocene of the United States)

Where: Solano County, California (38.4° N, 122.0° W: paleocoordinates 42.3° N, 103.5° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Ypresian (56.0 - 47.8 Ma)

• The invertebrate faunas from these localities have been assigned to the Capay stage of the Californian marine Eocene by Merriam and Turner (1937) and are correlative with one another and with faunas from the Cerros shale member of the Lodo formation, north of Coalinga, and from glauconitic shales and sandstones at Marysville Buttes.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; gray, yellow sandstone and conglomerate

• Megafossils are rare in the Vacaville shales. Turbinolia, Stephanophyllia, and Trochocyathus indicate tropical/subtropical waters, and a depth of around 366 meters, the maximum for Stephanophyllia, the minimum for Trochocyathus in the Hawaiian Islands. Ecological conditions compare with those which obtained at Winters, but other factors must have contributed to account for the sparsity of fossils.
• yellowish-gray sandstones and conglomerates

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the UCMP

Primary reference: H. Bentson. 1943. Eocene (Capay) corals from California. Journal of Paleontology 17(3):289-297 [W. Kiessling/A. Girndt]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 78723: authorized by Wolfgang Kiessling, entered by Antje Girndt on 15.02.2008

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Anthozoa
 Scleractinia - Micrabaciidae
? Stephanophyllia vacavillensis, Stephanophyllia californica
? Stephanophyllia vacavillensis Palmer 1923 stony coral
Stephanophyllia californica Nomland 1916 stony coral
 Scleractinia - Turbinoliidae
Turbinolia sp. n. sp.
Turbinolia sp. n. sp. Lamarck 1816 stony coral
 Scleractinia - Caryophylliidae
Trochocyathus crooki, Platytrochus merriami
Trochocyathus crooki Merriam and Turner 1937 stony coral
Platytrochus merriami Nomland 1916 stony coral