Oxenhope Moor, Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band, shale Unit 3 (Carboniferous to of the United Kingdom)

Also known as Oxenhope Moor, Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band, shale Unit 3, the acme shale

Where: England, United Kingdom (53.7° N, 2.1° W: paleocoordinates 1.1° S, 6.4° E)

• coordinate based on political unit

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Namurian Series Formation, Pendleian to Pendleian (326.4 - 314.6 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 shale

• 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 [does not include Oxenhope Moor], wherethe thin-shelled Anthracoceratites and Posidonia predomminate over Gastrioceras. At Oxenhope and Dearden Moors the black shale is divided into two by a wavy-stratified grey shale with a much sparser fauna. The reduction in fossil abundance suggests that the grey shale represents a brief interruption of deposition from suspension by sediment-laden currents.

Size class: macrofossils

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

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 41259: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Carl Simpson on 09.07.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Polypodiopsida
 Equisetales - Equisetidae
Cephalopoda
 Nautiloidea -
Nautiloidea indet. Agassiz 1847 nautiloid
Narrow angle orthocone
 Goniatitida - Dimorphoceratidae
Anthracoceratites sp. Ramsbottom 1970 ammonite
 Goniatitida - Gastrioceratidae
Gastrioceras spp. Hyatt 1884 ammonite
Juvenile
 Goniatitida - Reticuloceratidae
cf. Reticuloceras sp. Bisat 1924 ammonite
Gastropoda
  -
Gastropoda indet. Cuvier 1795 snail
Small
 Murchisoniina - Gosseletinidae
Angyomphalus sp. Cossmann 1915 snail
 Ptychomphaloidea - Ptychomphalidae
Ptychomphalus sp. Agassiz 1839 snail
Bivalvia
  -
Bivalvia indet. Linnaeus 1758 clam
Small
 Arcida - Parallelodontidae
Grammatodon sp. Meek and Hayden 1860 clam
 Pectinida - Aviculopectinidae
Aviculopecten sp. M'Coy 1851 scallop
 Pectinida - Streblochondriidae
cf. Streblochondria sp. Newell 1938 scallop
 Pectinida - Pterinopectinidae
 Ostreida - Posidoniidae
 Ostreida - Pterineidae
 Cardiidia - Sanguinolitidae
Sanguinolites sp. M'Coy 1844 clam
Brachiopoda
  -
Brachiopoda indet. Cuvier 1805
Calcareous
Chondrichthyes
  - Listracanthidae
Listracanthus sp. Newberry and Worthen 1870 elasmobranch
Spine
Gnathostomata
  -
Osteichthyes indet. bony fish
Palaeoniscid scales
Osteichthyes
 Elonichthyiformes - Acrolepididae
Acrolepis sp. Agassiz 1833 ray-finned fish
Scales