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Beeman Formation
The Beeman Formation is a geologic formation in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the Kasimovian Age of the Pennsylvanian Period. Description The Beeman Formation consists of cyclic shale and argillaceous limestone with some conglomerate. The thickness is . The formation overlies the Gobbler Formation and is overlain by the Holder Formation. The formation is interpreted as cyclic deposition on a continental shelf following rejuvenation of the Pedernal uplift of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Fossils The unit contains middle to upper Missourian (Kasimovian) fusulinids and conodonts, including several species of the fusulinid '' Triticites'' and the conodont ''Idiognathodus symmetricus'', related species, and species of ''Streptognathodus''. These species indicate that the Beeman Formation is entirely Kasimovian in age. The formation has a diverse coprofauna. The formation has also produced a lacustrine fauna from one of its shell beds, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formation (stratigraphy)
A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics (lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exposed in a geographical region (the stratigraphic column). It is the fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy, the study of strata or rock layers. A formation must be large enough that it can be mapped at the surface or traced in the subsurface. Formations are otherwise not defined by the thickness (geology), thickness of their rock strata, which can vary widely. They are usually, but not universally, tabular in form. They may consist of a single lithology (rock type), or of alternating beds of two or more lithologies, or even a heterogeneous mixture of lithologies, so long as this distinguishes them from adjacent bodies of rock. The concept of a geologic formation goes back to the beginnings of modern scientific geology. The term was used by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argillaceous
Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay minerals form in the presence of water and have been important to life, and many theories of abiogenesis involve them. They are important constituents of soils, and have been useful to humans since ancient times in agriculture and manufacturing. Properties Clay is a very fine-grained geologic material that develops plasticity when wet, but becomes hard, brittle and non–plastic upon drying or firing. It is a very common material, and is the oldest known ceramic. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay and used it for making pottery. The chemistry of clay, including its capacity to retain nutrient cations such as potassium and ammonium, is important to soil fertility. Because the individual particles in clay are less than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions. Horseshoe crabs live primarily in and around shallow coastal waters on soft, sandy or muddy bottoms. They are generally found in the intertidal zone at spring high tides. They are eaten in some parts of Asia, and used as fishing bait, in fertilizer and in science (especially ''Limulus'' amebocyte lysate). In recent years, population declines have occurred as a consequence of coastal habitat destruction and overharvesting. Tetrodotoxin may be present in one horseshoe crab species, '' Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda''. Fossil records for horseshoe crabs extend back as far as 480 million years ago, with extant forms being living fossils. A 2019 molecular analysis places them as the sister group of Ricinule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lacustrine
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger oceans, they do form part of the Earth's water cycle. Lakes are distinct from lagoons, which are generally coastal parts of the ocean. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which also lie on land, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which usually flow in a channel on land. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams. Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened into a basin. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coprolite
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος (''kopros'', meaning "dung") and λίθος (''lithos'', meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829. Before this, they were known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones". They serve a valuable purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation and diet of extinct organisms. Coprolites may range in size from a few millimetres to over 60 centimetres. Coprolites, distinct from ''paleofeces'', are fossilized animal dung. Like other fossils, coprolites have had much of their original composition replaced by mineral deposits such as silicates and calcium carbonates. Paleofeces, on the other hand, retain much of their original organic composition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Streptognathodus
''Streptognathodus'' is an extinct genus of conodonts from the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. Use in stratigraphy Late Carboniferous The top of the Kasimovian stage is close to the first appearance of ''Streptognathodus zethus''. The golden spike for the Kasimovian stage has not yet been assigned (in 2008). The Kasimovian is subdivided into three conodont biozones: *''Idiognathodus toretzianus'' Zone *''Idiognathodus sagittatus'' Zone *''Streptognathodus excelsus'' and ''Streptognathodus makhlinae'' Zone The base of the Gzhelian is at the first appearance of ''Streptognathodus zethus''. The top of the stage (also the top base of the Silesian and the base of the Permian system) is at the first appearance of ''Streptognathodus isolatus'' within the ''Streptognathus "wabaunsensis"'' chronocline. The Gzhelian stage is subdivided into five biozones, based on the conodont genus ''Streptognathodus'': * ''Streptognathodus wabaunsensis'' and ''Streptognathodus bellus'' Zone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiognathodus
''Idiognathodus'' is an extinct conodont genus in the family Idiognathodontidae. Use in stratigraphy The species ''Idiognathodus simulator'' made its first appearance during the Gzhelian, the youngest age of the Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous). Two species (''Idiognathodus toretzianus'' and ''Idiognathodus sagittatus'') are amongst the three conodonts forming the biozones of the Kasimovian, the third stage in the Pennsylvanian. One species (''Idiognathodus sinuosus'') is an index fossil of a biozone of the Bashkirian, the oldest age of the Pennsylvanian, amongst six biozones based on conodonts. See also * List of Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points References External links ''Idiognathodus''at fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triticites
The Schwagerinidae comprise a family of large, generally fusiform, foraminiferans included in the Fusulinacea, a superfamily of fusulinids, locally abundant during the later Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and most of the Permian. M.L. Thompson (1964) gives the following diagnosis: Shell large, fusiform to irregularly cylindrical, planispiral, involute in most, irregularly uncoiled in some; spirotheca thick, composed of tectum and alveolar kariotheca; septa fluted in end zones of primitive genera, fluted completely across shell and to tops of chambers of more advanced genera; tummel singular in most forms, multiple in one genus; axial fillings absent to massive; chomata massive to slight. As with all fusulinaceans, the Schagerinidae are a shallow water form which in places make up a significant portion of the sediment, now limestone. More familiar genera include '' Schwagerina'', ''Triticites'', and ''Parafusulina ''Parafusulina'' is a genus of foraminifera included in the fusu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conodont
Conodonts (Greek ''kōnos'', "cone", + ''odont'', "tooth") are an extinct group of agnathan (jawless) vertebrates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from their tooth-like oral elements, which are usually found in isolation and are now called conodont elements. Knowledge about soft tissues remains limited. They existed in the world's oceans for over 300 million years, from the Cambrian to the beginning of the Jurassic. Conodont elements are widely used as index fossils, fossils used to define and identify geological periods. The animals are also called Conodontophora (conodont bearers) to avoid ambiguity. Discovery and understanding of conodonts The teeth-like fossils of the conodont were first discovered by Heinz Christian Pander and the results published in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1856. The name ''pander'' is commonly used in scientific names of conodonts. It was only in the early 1980s that the first fossil evidence of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fusulinid
The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are traditionally considered to have been composed of microgranular calcite. Like all forams, they were single-celled organisms. In advanced forms the test wall was differentiated into two or more layers. Loeblich and Tappan, 1988, gives a range from the Lower Silurian to the Upper Permian, with the fusulinid foraminifera going extinct with the Permian–Triassic extinction event. While the latter is true, a more supported projected timespan is from the Mid-Carboniferous period. Taxonomy Thirteen superfamilies are presently recognised, based on taxa (families) included in the three superfamilies given in the Treatise. Three are based on families in the Parathuramminacea, 1964, and 2.9 million families in the Endothyracea, 1964. The Fusulinacea remains the same in both sources (Treatise 1964 and Loeblich and Tappan, 1988). The term fusulinata has traditionally been used to refer to all palaeozoic for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancestral Rocky Mountains
The geology of the Rocky Mountains is that of a discontinuous series of mountain ranges with distinct geological origins. Collectively these make up the Rocky Mountains, a mountain system that stretches from Northern British Columbia through central New Mexico and which is part of the great mountain system known as the North American Cordillera. The rocky cores of the mountain ranges are, in most places, formed of pieces of continental crust that are over one billion years old. In the south, an older mountain range was formed 300 million years ago, then eroded away. The rocks of that older range were reformed into the Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountains took shape during an intense period of plate tectonic activity that resulted in much of the rugged landscape of the western North America. The Laramide orogeny, about 80–55 million years ago, was the last of the three episodes and was responsible for raising the Rocky Mountains. Subsequent erosion by glaciers has created the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an ''insular shelf''. The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
