Ordovician sponges from west-central and east-central Alaska and western Yukon Territory, Canada

 

Authors: Rigby JK, Blodgett RB, Britt BB

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 83, issue 2; pages: 153 - 168; Received 7 March 2008; Accepted in revised form 20 May 2008;

Keywords: Porifera, sponge, Ordovician, Alaska, Yukon Territory, Jones Ridge Limestone,

full text (PDF, 0.87 MB)

Export to RIS

 

Abstract

Moderate collections of fossil sponges have been recovered over a several-year period from a few scattered localities in west-central and east-central Alaska, and from westernmost Yukon Territory of Canada. Two fragments of the demosponge agelasiid cliefdenellid, Cliefdenella alaskaensis Stock, 1981, and mostly small unidentifiable additional fragments were recovered from a limestone debris flow bed in the White Mountain area, McGrath A-4 Quadrangle in west-central Alaska. Fragments of the agelasiid actinomorph girtyocoeliids Girtyocoeliana epiporata (Rigby & Potter, 1986) and Girtyocoelia minima n. sp., plus a specimen of the vaceletid colospongiid Corymbospongia amplia Rigby, Karl, Blodgett & Baichtal, 2005, were collected from probable Ashgillian age beds in the Livengood B-5 Quadrangle in east-central Alaska. A more extensive suite of corymbospongiids, including Corymbospongia betella Rigby, Potter & Blodgett, 1988, C. mica Rigby & Potter, 1986, and C.(?) perforata Rigby & Potter, 1986, along with the vaceletiid colospongiids Pseudo-imperatoria minima? (Rigby & Potter, 1986), and Pseudoimperatoria media (Rigby & Potter, 1986), and with the heteractinid Nucha naucum? Pickett & Jell, 1983, were recovered from uppermost part of the Jones Ridge Limestone (Ashgillian), on the south flank of Jones Ridge, in the Sheep Mountain Quadrangle, in westernmost Yukon Territory, Canada. The fossil sponges from the McGrath A-4 and Livengood B-5 quadrangles were recovered from attached Siberian terranes, and those from the Sheep Mountain Quadrangle were recovered from an allochthonous Laurentian terrane in the Yukon Territory.

References

Blodgett, R.B & Boucot, A.J. 1999. Late Early Devonian (late Emsian) eospiriferinid brachiopods from Shellabarger Pass, Talkeetna C-6 Quadrangle, south-central Alaska and their biogeographic importance; further evidence for a Siberian origin of the Farewell and allied Alaskan accreted terranes. Senckenbergiana Lethaea 72(1), 209–221.View article

Blodgett, R.B., Rohr, D.M. & Boucot, A.J. 2002. Paleozoic links among some Alaskan accreted terranes and Siberia based on megafossils, 273–291. In Miller, E.L., Grantz, A. & Klemperer, S.L. (eds) Tectonic evolution of the Bering Shelf-Chucki Sea-Arctic Margin and adjacent landmasses. Geological Society of America Special Paper 360.View article

Churkin, M., Jr., Foster, H.L., Chapman, R.M. & Weber, F.R. 1982. Terranes and suture zones in east central Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research 87(5), 3718–3730.View article

Cossman, M. 1909. Rectifications de nomenclature. Revue Critique Paléozoologie 13, 67.

Decker, J., Bergman, S.C., Blodgett, R.B., Box, S.E., Bundtzen, T.K., Clough, J.G., Coonrad, W.L., Gilbert, W., Miller, M.L., Murphy, J.M., Robinson, M.S. & Wallace, W.K. 1944. Chapter 9, Geology of southwestern Alaska, 285–310. In Plafker, G. & Berg, H.C. (eds) The Geology of Alaska. The Geology of North America (DNAG), Volume G-1.

Dumoulin, J.A., Harris, A.G., Gagiev, M., Bradley, D.C.& Repetski, J.E. 2002. Lithostratigraphic, conodont and other faunal links between lower Paleozoic strata in northern and central Alaska and northeastern Russia, 291–312. In Miller, E.L., Grantz, A. & Klemperer, S.L. (eds) Tectonic evolution of the Bering Shelf-Chukshi Sea-Arctic Margin and adjacent landmasses. Geological Society of America Special Paper 360. View article

Finks, R.M. & Rigby, J.K. 2004a. Heteractinida, E557–E583. In Kaesler, R.L. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part E, Porifera (revised). Volume 3. Geological Society of America, Denver & The University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.

Finks, R.M. & Rigby, J.K. 2004b. Hypercalcified sponges, 585–758. In Kaesler, R.L. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part E, Porifera (revised). Volume 3. Geological Society of America, Denver & The University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.

Gilbert, W.G. 1981. Preliminary geologic map and geochemical data, Cheeneetnuk River area, Alaska. Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Open-file report 153, 10 pp.View article

Girty, G.H. 1908. On some new and old species of Carboniferous fossils. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 34, 281–303.View article

Hinde, G.J. 1887.Amonograph of the British fossil sponges, part 1. Palaeontological Society Memoir, London, 1–92.

Hooper, J.N.A. & Van Soest, R.V.M. 2002. Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges. Volume 1, Introductions and Demospongiae, 1–1099; Volume 2, 1103–1707. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.View article

Kruse, P.D. 1987. Further Australian Cambrian sphinctozoans. Geological Magazine 124, 543–553.View article

Laubenfels, M.W. De 1955. Porifera, E21–E112. In Moore, R.C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part E, Archaeocyatha and Porifera. Geological Society of America & University of Kansas Press, New York & Lawrence, Kansas.

Lévi, C.L. 1953. Sur un nouvelle classification des Démosponges. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences, Série D 236, 835–855.

Patton, W.W. 1978. Juxtaposed continental and oceanic-island arc terranes of the Medfra quadrangle, west-central Alaska, B38–B39. In Johnson, K.M. (ed.) The United States Geological Survey in Alaska – Accomplishments during 1977. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 772-B.

Pickett, J. 2002. Order Heteractinida Hinde, 1877, 1121–1139. In Hooper, J.N.A. & Van Soest, R.W.M. (eds) Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.

Pickett, J. & Jell, P.A. 1983. Middle Cambrian Sphinctozoa (Porifera) from New South Wales. Memoir Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 1, 85–92.

Potter, A.W., Blodgett, R.B. & Rohr, D.M. 1988. Paleobiogeographic relations and paleogeographic significance of Late Ordovician brachiopods of Alaska. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 20(7), 339.

Potter, A.W., Gilbert, W.G., Ormiston, A.R. & Blodgett, R.B. 1980. Middle and Upper Ordovician brachiopods from Alaska and northern California and their paleobiogeographic implications. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 12(3), 147.

Reitner, J. & Keupp, H. Eds. 1991. Fossils and recent sponges. 595 pp. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.View article

Rigby, J.K. & Blodgett, R.B. 1983. Early Middle Devonian sponges from the McGrath quadrangle of west-central Alaska. Journal of Paleontology 57(4), 773–786.

Rigby, J.K. & Potter, A.W. 1986. Ordovician sphinctozoan sponges from the eastern Klamath Mountains, northern California. Paleontological Society Memoir 20, Journal of Paleontology 60, supplement, 1–47.View article

Rigby, J.K., Potter, A.W. & Blodgett, R.B. 1988. Ordovician sphinctozoan sponges of Alaska and Yukon Territory. Journal of Paleontology 62, 731–746.View article

Rigby, J.K., Karl, S.M., Blodgett, R.B. & Baichtal, J.E. 2005. Ordovician “sphinctozoan” sponges from Prince of Wales Island, southeastern Alaska. Journal of Paleontology 79(5), 862–870.View article

Rigby, J.K., Nitecki, M.H., Soja, C.M. & Blodgett, R.B. 1994. Silurian aphrosalpingid sphinctozoans from Alaska and Russia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 39, 341–391.

Rigby, J.K., Rohr, D.M., Blodgett, R.B. & Brooks, B.B. 2008. Silurian sponges and some associated fossils from the Heceta Limestone, Prince of Wales Island, southeastern Alaska. Journal of Paleontology 80(1), 91–101.View article

Rigby, J.K. & Senowbari-Daryan, B. 1999. Upper Permian inozoid, demospongid, and hexactinellid sponges from Djebel Tebaga, Tunisia. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions (new series) 7, 1–130.

Ross, R.J. Jr. & Dutro, J.T. Jr. 1966. Silicified Ordovician brachiopods from east-central Alaska. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 149(7), 1–22.

Senowbari-Daryan, B. 1990. Die systematische Stellung der thalamiden Schwämme und ihrer Bedeutung in der Erdgeschichte. Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (Reihe A, Geologie und Paläontologie) 21, 1–325.

Senowbari-Daryan, B. & Rigby, J.K. 1988. Upper Permian segmented sponges from Djebel Tebaga, Tunisia. Facies 19, 171–250.View article

Sollas, W.J. 1875. Sponges. Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edition), p. 427–446. Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh.

Stock, C.W. 1981. Cliefdenella alaskaensis n. sp. (Stromatoporoidea) from the Middle/Upper Ordovician of central Alaska. Journal of Paleontology 55(5), 998–1005.

Verrill, A.E. 1907. Porifera of the Bermuda Islands. Transactions of the Academy of Arts and Sciences 12, 330–344.

Webby, B.D. 1969. Ordovician stromatoporoids from New South Wales. Palaeontology 12, 637–662.

Webby, B.D. & Lin Bayou 1988. Upper Ordovician cliefdenellids (Porifera: Sphinctozoa) from China. Geological Magazine 125(2), 149–159.View article

Weber, F.R., Blodgett, R.B.,Harris, A.G.&Dutro, J.T. Jr. 1994. Paleontology of the Livengood quadrangle, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 94-215, 24 pp., 1 sheet, scale 1 : 250,000.

Weber, F.R., Wheeler, K.L., Rinehart, C.D., Chapman, R.M. & Blodgett, R.B. 1992. Geologic map of the Livengood quadrangle, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey, Open-file Report 92-562, 20 pp., 1 sheet, scale 1 : 250,000.