Discovery of an Early Ordovician conodont fauna in the Salm Group of the Stavelot Inlier, Belgium
Vanguestaine, M.; Breuer, P.; Lehnert, O. (2004). Discovery of an Early Ordovician conodont fauna in the Salm Group of the Stavelot Inlier, Belgium. Bull. Kon. Belg. Inst. Natuurwet. Aardwet. = Bull. - Inst. r. sci. nat. Belg., Sci. Terre 74-suppl.: 39-48
In: Bulletin van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen. Aardwetenschappen = Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Sciences de la Terre. KBIN: Brussel. ISSN 0374-6291, more
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| Keywords |
Geological time > Phanerozoic > Paleozoic > Palaeozoic > Ordovician > Ordovician, Lower
Conodonta
Belgium, Stoumont [Marine Regions]
Marine/Coastal |
| Author keywords |
Conodont biostratigraphy, palaeogeography, peri-Gondwana |
| Authors | | Top |
- Vanguestaine, M., more
- Breuer, P.
- Lehnert, O.
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| Abstract |
Conodonts have been discovered in two locations in the Lienne Valley near Chevron from low grade metamorphic siliciclastic deposits of the Stavelot Inlier belonging to the Salm Group. The conodont fauna described and illustrated in this paper has been collected from a single fossiliferous horizon within the Ottre Formation, at the transition between the Meuville Member and the Les Plattes Member. This is the first record of a conodont fauna from the Stavelot Inlier in Belgium. It is also of interest for regional stratigraphy, international correlation, as well as for palaeobiogeographic interpretations, because the Salm Group forms an epimetamorphic, comprehensive series of nearly a thousand meters in thickness but is poorly dated.The biostratigraphical comparisons suggest an Early Ordovician, tentatively latest Tremadocian age for the conodont assemblage, but a basal Arenig age cannot be excluded. The fauna is clearly dominated by typical drepanodiform elements, but there is quite some morphological variation in this small simple cone assemblage from subrectiform (of Drepanoistodus?) to reclined and recurved elements. The most common elements belong to Drepanodus arcuatus PANDER 1856 ranging from the uppermost Tremadocian up into the lower Darriwilian (= uppermost Arenig). However, there are also a few elements in the fauna from the Salm Group, like some strongly recurved "Drepanodus" recurvatus SANNEMANN 1955, which are comparable to the latest Tremadocian 'franconicus' fauna, characteristic for the Frankenwald area. The species diversity is very low which is comparable to the situation in cold water areas of the Mediterranean Province of Gondwana and peri-Gondwana like the Frankenwald region, the Barrandian area and the Montague Noire.The discovery of this small conodont fauna enhances our knowledge not only of the chronostratigraphy of the Salm Group, but also of the palaeogeographical situation of the Belgian Ardenne in Early Ordovician times. |
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