W 86-03, Seymour Island (Eocene of Antarctica)

Where: Antarctica (64.2° S, 56.7° W: paleocoordinates 63.7° S, 61.5° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: La Meseta Formation, Lutetian (47.8 - 41.3 Ma)

• Two ophiuroid assemblages 1-3 cm thick separated by 0.1 m band of indurated gray sandstone with scattered, allochthonous brachiopods and ophiuroids. Float blocks of ophiuroid assemblages occur from several points on slope but it is unclear whether these represent a single horizon. Ctenophoraster in the debris. Location places it near the Telm5/Telm6 boundary.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal; poorly lithified sandstone

• From Stillwell & Zinsmeister (1992): For Telm6 and 7, "the sum of evidence is in support of a shallow, protected lagoonal setting with open bays behind barrier islands with tidal channels and depressions in which shell material and coarse sediment were occasionally concentrated during catastrophic events, such as storms rearranging the channels and covering regions of the lagoon bottom with new layers of silty sediments."

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: D. B. Blake and R. B. Aronson. 1998. Eocene stelleroids (Echinodermata) at Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Paleontology 72(2):339-353 [L. Ivany/E. Kowalski/L. Villier]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 98514: authorized by Jocelyn Sessa, entered by Ursula Smith on 07.10.2010, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Asteroidea
 Paxillosida - Astropectinidae
Ctenophoraster downeyae
Ctenophoraster downeyae Blake and Zinsmeister 1979 sea star
Ophiuroidea
 Ophiurida - Ophiuridae
Ophiura hendleri n. sp.
Ophiura hendleri n. sp. Blake and Aronson 1998 brittle star