The Terrane Puzzle: New Perspectives on Paleontology and Stratigraphy from the North American Cordillera
Late Triassic silicified shallow-water corals and other marine fossils from Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane, Alaska, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia
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Published:July 01, 2008
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CiteCitation
Andrew H. Caruthers, George D. Stanley, Jr., 2008. "Late Triassic silicified shallow-water corals and other marine fossils from Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane, Alaska, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia", The Terrane Puzzle: New Perspectives on Paleontology and Stratigraphy from the North American Cordillera, Robert B. Blodgett, George D. Stanley, Jr.
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Study of Late Triassic biofacies and associated paleoecology reveals new silicified shallow-water corals and other fossils from new and previously known localities within the Alexander terrane (Keku Strait and Gravina Island, southeast Alaska) and Wrangellia (Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia). Twenty-five species of coral are identified from eight localities within the Alexander terrane and 34 species are identified from four localities in Wrangellia. Distributions of silicified shallow-water marine fossils contribute to Late Triassic (Norian–Rhaetian) paleoecology, biotic diversity, and terrane paleogeography. Depositional environments establish the conditions in which these organisms lived as well as provide evidence for lithological correlation between tectonically separate fragments. This study also confirms the presence of biostrome reef buildups in the southern Alexander terrane (Gravina Island), indicating warm, clear, and nutrient-free water with lots of sunlight; this differs from the central Alexander terrane (Keku Strait) and northern Wrangellia (Wrangell Mountains), where corals grow as individual colonies, not in a structured, reef-like buildup, and are accompanied by filter- and detritus-feeding organisms indicating warm, cloudy and nutrient-rich water in a back-reef environment.
Paleobiogeographic results from silicified Upper Triassic corals show faunal similarity between Gravina Island and Keku Strait (Alexander terrane) and no similarity between northern and southern Wrangellia. Likewise, no similarity was found between the Alexander terrane and either northern or southern Wrangellia.
- Alaska
- Alexander Archipelago
- Alexander Terrane
- Anthozoa
- biodiversity
- biofacies
- biogeography
- biostromes
- British Columbia
- Canada
- Cnidaria
- Coelenterata
- correlation
- fossilization
- Invertebrata
- marine environment
- Mesozoic
- paleoecology
- paleogeography
- reef environment
- Scleractinia
- shallow-water environment
- silicification
- Southeastern Alaska
- Southern Alaska
- Triassic
- United States
- Upper Triassic
- Vancouver Island
- Western Canada
- Wrangell Mountains
- Wrangellia
- Zoantharia
- Gravina Island
- Keku Strait