Winter Hill, Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band, shale Unit 3 (Carboniferous of the United Kingdom)

Also known as Winter Hill, Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band, shale Unit 3, the acme shale

Where: England, United Kingdom (53.6° N, 2.4° W)

• Paleocoordinates: 10.7° S, 1.6° E (Wright 2013)

• coordinate based on political unit

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Gastrioceras cumbriense ammonoid zone, shale Unit 3 Member (Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band Formation), Yeadonian (320.0 - 318.7 Ma)

• The Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band generally does not exceed 60cm in thickness. The band is split into five units, the lower barren shales (Unit 1), the advance shales (Unit 2), the acme shales (Unit 3), the retreat shales (Unit 4), and the upper barren shales (Unit 5).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified, pyritic, black, gray shale

• The continuing transition and deepening of the sea caused a rapid transition to conditions of black paper shale deposition.
• Unit 3: The continuing transition and deepening of the sea caused a rapid transition to conditions of black paper shale deposition. The development of the shale appears to be synchronous as it contains a consistant pelagic fauna and has a widespread spatial distripbution throughout the north of England. The shales display planar stratified bedding planes with a spacing of 0.5 to 0.75 mm. There is little evidence for wave or current activity or bioturbation. At all localities the presence of pyrite blebs around which stratification is deflected is believed to indicate primary pore filling as a shallow depth of burial in tyhe sulphate reduction zone. ... The fauna of the balck shale is dominated by the thickshelled goniatite phase at the four easterly localities, whereas a more diverse benthic assemblge occurs as the two westerly localities [includes Winter Hill], wherethe thin-shelled Anthracoceratites and Posidonia predomminate over Gastrioceras. An increase in the thickness of the paper shales to 0.25m at Winter Hill and thei lighter color is presumably attributable to a higher proportion of land-derived clay minerals.

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: P. B. Wignall. 1987. A biofacies analysis of the Gastrioceras cumbriense marine band (Namurian) of the central Pennines. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 46(2):111-121 [J. Alroy/C. Simpson/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 41221: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Carl Simpson on 09.07.2004

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Polypodiopsida
 Equisetales - Equisetidae
cf. Calamites sp.
cf. Calamites sp. Suckow 1784
Lingulata
 Lingulida - Discinidae
Orbiculoidea sp.
Orbiculoidea sp. d'Orbigny 1847
Cephalopoda
 Goniatitida - Dimorphoceratidae
Anthracoceratites sp.
Anthracoceratites sp. Ramsbottom 1970 ammonite
 Goniatitida - Bisatoceratidae
Homoceratoides aff. divaricatus
 Goniatitida - Gastrioceratidae
Gastrioceras cumbriense, Gastrioceras aff. coronatum, Gastrioceras aff. subcrenatum, Gastrioceras spp.
Gastrioceras spp. Hyatt 1884 ammonite
Juvenile
 Nautiloidea -
Nautiloidea indet.
Nautiloidea indet. Agassiz 1847 nautiloid
coiled
Gastropoda
 Ptychomphaloidea - Ptychomphalidae
Ptychomphalus sp.
Ptychomphalus sp. Agassiz 1839 snail
Bivalvia
 Pectinida - Pterinopectinidae
Dunbarella elegans
 Ostreida - Posidoniidae
Posidonia insignis, Posidonia cf. gibsoni, Posidonia sp.
Posidonia sp. Bronn 1828 oyster
 Ostreida - Pterineidae
Caneyella aff. semisulcata
Crinoidea
  -
Crinoidea indet.
Crinoidea indet. Miller 1821 Sea lily
[entered as Crinodea indet.]
Gnathostomata
  -
Chondrichthyes indet., Osteichthyes indet.
Chondrichthyes indet. Huxley 1880 cartilaginous fish
Teeth
Osteichthyes indet. Huxley 1880 bony fish
Palaeoniscid scales
Osteichthyes
 Elonichthyiformes - Acrolepididae
Acrolepis sp.
Acrolepis sp. Agassiz 1833 ray-finned fish
Scales
Cyclostomata
  -
Conodonta indet.
Conodonta indet. Pander 1856 conodont