Abstract Carbonate deposition dominated the Franklinian miogeocline from Late Cambrian until earliest Middle Devonian. Following a transgression in early Eifelian (within the costatus-costatus conodont Zone), quartzose clastics replaced carbonates as the dominant sediment type and, from that time until Early Carboniferous, clastic sedimentation was widespread across the Franklinian miogeocline. During this interval an enormous clastic wedge prograded southwestward, heralding the advance of Ellesmerian deformation. Middle-Upper Devonian clastic sediments are widely preserved and are most widespread in the western Arctic, where they occur over much of Bathurst, Melville, Prince Patrick and Banks islands (Fig. 10.1). In the eastern Arctic the deposits occur mainly in a broad synclinorium which stretches from central Ellesmere Island to eastern Grinnell Peninsula. Isolated occurrences are present on northern Ellesmere Island in the Yelverton Pass region and in Tertiary grabens on Cornwallis Island (Fig. 10.1, Fig. 4 [in pocket]). Forty-two wells have penetrated the strata and numerous surface sections are described in the literature (Fig. 10.1, Fig. 1 [in pocket]). The maximum preserved thickness of the clastic wedge is about 4000 m, although thermal maturation levels of strata within and directly below the wedge suggest that original thicknesses may have been nearly twice this figure in some areas. Regional mapping studies carried out by the Geological Survey of Canada in the 1950s and 1960s established a general stratigraphic framework for these clastic sediments (McLaren, 1963; Thorsteinsson and Tozer, 1962; Tozer and Thorsteinsson, 1964; Kerr, 1974). Embry and Klovan (1976) reviewed all previous work up to 1975 and presented

A Lower Permian fusulinid fauna was found in rocks of Mankomen age within a fault block in the Upper Delta River area, east-central Alaska Range. Three members of the M ankomen Formation are recognized and described from this area. They are, in stratigraphic order: a lower Tuffaceous Sandstone Member, an Alternating Limestone-Shale Member, and a Limestone Member. Additional sedimentary rocks occur still higher in the section but are as yet unmapped. The section exposed in this area represents the youngest known Upper Paleozoic sediments in the Alaska Range. Eighteen species of fusulinids belonging to three genera are described from the Alternating Limestone-Shale Member and Limestone Member. They are: Pseudofusulinella valkenburghae n. sp.; P . cf. P. parvula Skinner and Wilde; P. sp. A; Eoparafusulina mendenhalli n. sp.; E. waddelli n. sp.; Schwagerina pseudokaragasensis n. sp.; S. cf. S. emaciata (Beede); S. sp. A; S. rowetti n. sp.; S. callosa (Rauser-Chernousova); S. whartoni n. sp.; S. heineri n. sp.; S. moffiti n. sp.; S. sp. B; S. sp. C; S. rainyensis n. sp.; S. mankomenensis n. sp.; and S. hyperborea (Salter). This fauna is divided into six assemblage zones on the basis of the fusulinid species. Collectively, the zones indicate a Lower Permian age, ranging from late Asselian to middle Artinskian when compared to the zonation of Permian sections in the western Urals, USSR. The fusulinids from the Lower Permian of the Alaska Range belong to the Boreal faunal realm that includes the geosynclinal seas of the Alaskan Cordilleran, Franklinian, and Uralian geosynclines. Faunal evidence indicates temporary marine connections between Alaska and the Pacific north-west, and between the Uralian and Tethyan regions. Correlations are suggested between the Alaska Range section and the following regions: southeastern Alaska; northeastern Alaska; northwestern Yukon Territory; Grinnell Peninsula, Arctic Archipelago; northwest Greenland; Spitsbergen; and the Ural region of the USSR.