First record of the Eocene pteropod Heliconoides nitens (Gastropoda

Autor(en)

J.L. Goedert, J. Peckmann, S.R. Benham, A.W. Janssen

Abstrakt

Fossils of a single pteropod species were found in an isolated carbonate deposit within middle Eocene deep-water strata of the Humptulips Formation in western Washington State, U.S.A. The carbonate formed at a cold seep where fluids containing high concentrations of hydrocarbons, principally methane, emanated from the seafloor. Anaerobic oxidation of the methane by prokaryotes caused localized and rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate that encased biogenic detritus including wood fragments and mollusk shells; in this case even the minute and delicate aragonitic shells of the pteropod Heliconoides nitens (Lea, 1833), the first certain record of this taxon for the Pacific Basin. The presence of H. nitens in the Humptulips Formation allows us to recalibrate the age of the formation as late Lutetian or early Bartonian, up to 8 million years younger than previously thought. Heliconoides nitens has been found in temporally equivalent strata elsewhere in the world, and this is another example of some fossil pteropods having utility for long distance biostratigraphic correlations. Pteropod shells rapidly dissolve in deep-water environments, thus cold seep deposits may be a source of pteropod fossils in deep-water strata where they otherwise would not occur.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Geologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Pacific Lutheran University, University of Mary Washington, Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Journal

Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington

Band

126

Seiten

72-82

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

0006-324X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2988/0006-324X-126.1.72

Publikationsdatum

03-2013

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

105121 Sedimentologie, 105118 Paläontologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/3f6635ce-dde1-4b6b-ad7d-6a91bfed8776