Formation ID - -SOLVED!

[Kane]

I am in the process of writing up a small piece for the university paper with a focus on some of the fossils that are part of the landscaping and architecture. Whereas the landscaping features are all identifiable as local Dundee Fm, I lack the knowledge to pinpoint the formation from which these rocks were quarried, and my investigation has yielded nothing to determine these details. The building was erected in 1993. The limestone used contains several corals (rugose and colonial), some substantially sized gastropods, and nautiloids. It is a light beige, very much mottled by the presence of numerous corals and Thalassinoides. I have my doubts that they would have trucked in the materials from out of province (it is a fairly large building). I am providing a few pictures here and can provide more if needed to ID this formation. The building itself has alternating bands of roughly hewn and saw-cut finished limestone. Some of the specimens in it can be quite large, and a few of the nautiloids present clearly show the siphuncle. I'm not sure if this will be enough to get a more precise ID on the formation, but I appreciate any help!

 

EDIT: Selkirk Member of the Red River Formation, Orodovician. Quarried in Manitoba.

 

 

 

 

 

[Raggedy Man]

Do you know which construction company did the work? You could contact them and see where they obtained the  materials for the building.

[Kane]

It took some digging around just now with some esoteric search terms, but I FINALLY answered my own question! It is Tyndall Stone, which is the trade name for Gillis Quarries. It is from Manitoba (just like the Parliament buildings), Ordovician in age, from the Selkirk Member of the Red River Formation. 

[ynot]

Hey hi Kane,

After much research and angst I think I have narrowed it down to....

Ordovician in age, from the Selkirk Member of the Red River Formation near Manitoba, Canada.

 It may have come from the Gillis quarry.

 

Tony

 

PS 

[Kane]

Lol! I knew I could count on you, Tony! 

 

Well, I may as well share just one more pic from this formation, A Receptaculites ?occidentalis, Blainville 1830. Although I read that the genus name was changed to Fisherites in 1979 by Finney & Nitecki. You got to love these sunflower whorls! I was going to post it in collections, but the specimen is saw-cut finish rather than "raw," and the provenance is neither field collection nor trade/purchase - although I know exactly where it is: right in the wall of the building

[Goatcabin15]

looks like top fossil is a sponge.......the bottom one looks like orthocerus skeleton

[Raggedy Man]

You have to love the Fibonacci pattern from the Receptaculites. I have several from Minnesota I have displayed that when people see can't believe it's over 400 myo.

Great detective work Kane! 

 

[doushantuo]

http://www.clfs.umd.edu/cbmg/faculty/cooke/BJLS2006.pdf

See alot of sponges,btw

[doushantuo]

more on phyllotaxis:

http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/abop/abop-ch4.pdf

[doushantuo]

posting a slightly lesser know Receptaculid paper:

http://repository.naturalis.nl/document/148785

[Kane]

And here's a tall-spire gastro, Hormotoma sp. 

 

I was also reading up on the mottling that occurs throughout this dolomitic limestone, and it appears to be an ichnologist's dream. I located these papers on the subject (I am sure there are plenty more):

 

Kendall, A.C., 1977. Origin of dolomite mottling in Ordovician limestones from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, v. 25, p. 480-504.

Myrow, P.M., 1995. Thalassinoides and the enigma of early Paleozoic open-framework burrow systems. Palaios, v. 10, p. 58-74. (PDF)

Sheehan, P.M. and Schiefelbein, D.R.J., 1984. The trace fossil Thalassinoides from the Upper Ordovician of the eastern Great Basin: deep burrowing in the early Paleozoic. Journal of Paleontology, v. 58, p. 440-447.

[Raggedy Man]

4 hours ago, ynot said:

Hey hi Kane,

After much research and angst I think I have narrowed it down to....

Ordovician in age, from the Selkirk Member of the Red River Formation near Manitoba, Canada.

 It may have come from the Gillis quarry.

 

Tony

 

PS 

[JohnBrewer]

Really really cool Kane. 

 

In The UK there is the London Pavement Geology website which has a smartphone app/map and you can wonder around the city and see various geological and paleontological artefacts.  This is one of the richest and my favourite

[DNF]

2 hours ago, JohnBrewer said:

Really really cool Kane. 

 

In The UK there is the London Pavement Geology website which has a smartphone app/map and you can wonder around the city and see various geological and paleontological artefacts.  This is one of the richest and my favourite

That's really neat. There are some fossils in a wall in Lewisburg, WV that I noticed while sitting at a stoplight. I've been meaning to park and take a look at them.

 

Architectural fossils would make for an interesting category here on the forum.