Lower Level of Atafaitafa Fm. at Oued Timesnaguene (Devonian of Algeria)

Where: Algeria (23.8° N, 5.3° E: paleocoordinates 72.2° S, 52.2° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Atafaitafa Formation, Lochkovian (419.2 - 410.8 Ma)

• Ref. 7455 interprets age of formation as a whole as Gedinnian-Siegenian. According to illustrated section in Ref. 7515, the material in this collection is from the very base of the formation, near the Budnanian-Lochkovian boundary. I am therefore pegging the collection as Lochkovian.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; argillaceous sandstone and siltstone

• This collecting locality is on western edge of outcrop belt. Formation is thicker and more argillaceous toward the west. According to paleogeographic map in ref. 7455, the collecting localities for this formation would be some 500-700km to the present-day SE of the inferred Lower Devonian shoreline. The shoreline, according to this map, migrated some 1000km from the SE to the NW (present-day coordinates) during the Llandovery to Gedinnian timespan.

•SEP environmental call based on given lith. and basic geological data provided by source ref. (PBDB 7455)

• Formation as a whole [ref. 7455]: "siltstones, silty shale, argillaceous sandstones, and massive sandstones". This collection is from the "facies argilo-greseux" [ref. 7515].

Primary reference: P. Dubois and P. Mazelet. 1964. Stratigraphie du Silurien du Tassili N'Ajjer. Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France (Serie 7) 6(4):586-591 [M. Foote/M. Foote/M. Foote]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 27166: authorized by Michael Foote, entered by Michael Foote on 21.11.2002

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Rhynchonelloides sp.
Trilobita
 Phacopida - Acastidae
Acastella cf. jacquemonti, Acastella cf. heberti
Lophophorata
 Tentaculitida - Tentaculitidae
Tentaculites sp. n. sp.
Tentaculites sp. n. sp. von Schlotheim 1820
Rhynchonellata
 Athyridida - Athyrididae
Protathyris sp.
 Spiriferida - Delthyrididae
Delthyris sp.
Delthyris sp. Dalman 1828
 Orthida - Platyorthidae
Platyorthis cf. verneuilli
 Rhynchonellida - Camarotoechiidae
Camarotoechia cf. aequicostata
 Terebratulida - Meganterididae
Mutationella podolica
Strophomenata
 Orthotetida - Pulsiidae
Schellwienella sp.
 Strophomenida -
Strophochonetes cf. mediocostalis