1. THE EARLY PALEOZOIC THE CAMBRIAN 544-505 MY CAMBRIA>>WALES
ADAM SEDGWICK 1835
THE ORDOVICIAN MY
ORDOVICE>>WELSH TRIBE
CHARLES LAPWORTH 1879

2. NEOPROTEROZOIC TO MIDDLE CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHIC COLUMN
NEOPROTEROZOIC TO MIDDLE CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHIC COLUMN. PRINCIPLE LIFE FORMS AND STAGES OF THE EARLY CAMBRIAN PLACEMENT OF BOUNDARY AT THE PHYCODES pedum ZONE, TRACE 544 MY TYPE LOCALITY>>BURIN PENINSULA, NEWFOUNDLAND CAMBRIAN DIVISIONS BASED TRILOBITE ZONES [BIOMERES -INTERVALS OF TIMES BETWEEN TRILOBITE EXTINCTIONS]

3. PALEOGEOGRAPHY CAMBRIAN CONTINENTS WITHIN 60O OF PALEOEQUATOR GONDWANA
TIBET, SE ASIA, ARABIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, ANTARCTICA, S. AMERICA
LAURENTIA> RIFT ZONES>PASSIVE MARGINS
FLOODING OF INTERIORS DUE TO RIFT SYSTEMS
IAPETUS OPENED BET N. AMERICA & EUROPE
SUBDUCTION ZONES DEVELOPED LATER

4. TECTONIC EVENTS Pan-African Orogeny Caledonian-Hercynian Orogeny
Appalachian, Caledonian, Hercynian, Urals, Ouachita, Samfrau
Overall scenario is coalescence of Pangea during most of the Paleozoic
Taconic Orogeny mid to late Ordovician
Caledonian Orogeny late Silurian to early Devonian
Acadian Orogeny mid Devonian
Alleghenian Orogeny late Penn, Permian
Hercynian Orogeny - Ouachita Orogeny

5. PLATE TECTONIC MOVEMENTS FROM THE NEOPROTEROZOIC TO THE DEVONIAN (750 MY TO 370MY)
BREAK UP OF RODINIA
AVALONIAN OROGENY
OPENING OF IAPETUS
OPENING OF RHEIC
TACONIC OROGENY
CLOSING OF IAPETUS
ACADIAN OROGENY

6. The Appalachians Valley and Ridge Blue Ridge Province Inner Piedmont
folded & faulted sedimentary rks
Blue Ridge Province
metamorphosed Precambrian and Paleozoic Rks
Inner Piedmont
high grade metamorphic rks intruded by granites
Charlotte & Carolina Slate Belt
metamorphosed & folded late Proterozoic & Cambrian sediments and volcanics

7. A) Cambro-Ordovician Passive Margin: Sandy Shelf Deposits B) Middle to Late Ordovician Development of Trench Along the Eastern Boundary and Subsequent Closure of the Iapetus Ocean C) Collision of Island Arc and other Accreted (exotic) Terranes with North America in the TACONIC OROGENY

8. CAMBRIAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY: SHALLOW EPICONTINENTAL SEAS COVERED THE CENTRAL US
Earliest Paleozoic time
of lowest sea level due to
Proterozoic glaciations
By middle Cambrian sea
had flooded the continent

9. LITHOLOGIC FACIES OF THE CAMBRIAN
The transgression of the
Cambrian is visible in the rocks of the Grand Canyon

10. NEOPROTEROZOIC TO CENOZOIC TRANSGRESSIONS AND REGRESSIONS OBSERVED ON THE CRATON
Variable sea level represented sequences of sediments bounded by unconformities on all of the cratons - e.g. Sauk, Tippecanoe

11. ORDOVICIAN-PALEOGEOGRAPHY
Tippecanoe Transgression
St. Peter’s Sandstone

12. The Queenston Clastic Wedge
Redbeds coarser towards
the source area, Taconic
Highlands (4000m)

13. Early Paleozoic Climates
Climates overall warmer than today
Continents 600 N & S of equator
Arid to sub arid environments 450 N & S of equator
Redbeds (alluvial) 300 N & S of equator
Tropical reefs 300 N & S of equator
Cambrian Archeocyathids; Ordovician Bryozoans
Glaciation during the late Ordovician in Africa

14. PALEOZOIC LIFE Cambrian Explosion>Break up of Rodinia
radiation of all phyla>Continental Shelves
Cambrian Reef Systems
Cambrian extinctions (2nd largest)
Ordovician radiation
Global Faunas (Cambrian vs. Paleozoic Faunas)
Ordovician Reef Systems
End-Ordovician extinction events

15. THE TOMMOTIAN FAUNA Small Shelly Fossils 1-2 mm Calcium phosphate
Calcium cqarbonate
Most phyla represented
1 to 2 MY duration

16. Trilobite Radiation Comprise 95% of all Cambrian Fossils
Most successful arthropod
Chitinous shell with an underlayer of calcite
5 major extinctions during the Cambrian and associated radiations
Each Cambrian Biomere involved the extinction of 40 to 95% of existing trilobite genera

17. THE BURGESS SHALE
Fine grained turbidite deposit at the base of a reef

18. THE BURGESS FAUNA
Hallucigenia
Anomalocaris
Opabinia

19. Archaeocyathids & Stromatoporoid Reefs
Archeocyathid Reefs begin during the Tommotian Stage in Siberia
Spread rapidly through world
Extinct by Early Cambrian
Stromotoporoid Reefs begin during the Middle Cambrian
They remain a dominant reef builder until the Devonian

20. Ordovician Life
Terminal Cambrian trilobite extinction led the way for rapid Ordovician radiations in other groups
Radiation of molluscs particularly gastropods decreased importance of stromatolites
Tabulate and Rugose coral reefs
Graptolites as index fossils
Emergence of land plants
First Vertebrates

21. Ordovician Extinctions
Blackriver-Trenton
Mid Ordovician, catastrophic regional extinction
All echinoderms and cephalopods; 90% trilobites, 83% pelecypods
Terminal Ordovician Extinction
Major glaciation in Gondwana (sea level drop]
3rd largest in recorded geologic history; 80% of all genera

22. THE MIDDLE PALEOZOIC THE SILURIAN 438-408 MY
SILURES>> WELSH TRIBE
Roderick Murchison 1835
THE DEVONIAN MY
(Old Red Sandstone)
DEVON>> County in SW England
Roderick Murchison
Adam Sedgwick 1839

23. INTRODUCTION Silurian Devonian
30 MY Duration
Devonian
48 MY Duration
Final Collision and Suturing of Baltica and Laurentia
Caledonian and Arcadian Orogenies
High Stands of Sea Level
Epicontinental seas; marine deposits and thick sequences of evaporites
Reefs became important

24. Paleogeography

25. PALEOGEOGRAPHY Closing of Iapetus Ocean
Baltica-Laurentia; Mongolia-Siberia
Closing of Rheic Ocean as Gondwana migrated to west (Laurentia/Baltica-Gondwana)
Laurentia continued to be a tropical craton
Shallow seas covered the continents during much of Silurian
Devonian orogenies in Northern Hemisphere
Caledonian (Scandinavia/Greenland) & Acadian (New England) & Antler (CA-NV)

26. Cratons and Mobile Belts of North America and Europe

27. TECTONIC EVENTS Caledonian & Acadian Orogenies
Extension of Late Ordovician Taconic Orogeny
Mid Devonian Iapetus Ocean closed
Baltica collided with Laurentia
Avalonia (Island Arc) sutured to both Baltica and Laurentia
Norway collided Greenland forming the highlands responsible for the Old Red Sandstone

28. Orogenic Development Of the Eastern US
Acadian Orogeny produced
a thick clastic wedge (the
Catskill Wedge) of red beds
[conglomerates and sandstones]

29. East-West Cross Section across the Devonian Catskill Wedge
During the Devonian the rate of
sedimentation increased from
7m/MY to 17m/MY to 70m/MY
Chattanooga Shale- Anoxic black shale, marker bed

30. Lithofacies & Thickness Map of the Upper Devonian Sequence of the Eastern US

31. The Appalachians Valley and Ridge Blue Ridge Province Inner Piedmont
folded & faulted sedimentary rks
Blue Ridge Province
metamorphosed Precambrian and Paleozoic Rks
Inner Piedmont
high grade metamorphic rks intruded by granites
Charlotte & Carolina Slate Belt
metamorphosed & folded late Proterozoic & Cambrian sediments and volcanics

32. Physiographic Provinces of the Appalachian Region

33. Highland Areas Associated with the Antler Orogeny of California- Nevada

34. Domes and Basins Vertical Uplift and Subsidence
Erosional and Depositional Features

35. Depositional Basins of the North American Craton

36. Model Illustrating the Deposition of Evaporites Michigan Basin
Cyclic: Dolomite, Anhydrite, Halite
1500 m of carbonates, rock salt and gypsum
in 5 major cycles

37. NEOPROTEROZOIC TO CENOZOIC TRANSGRESSIONS AND REGRESSIONS OBSERVED ON THE CRATON
Variable sea level represented sequences of sediments bounded by unconformities on all of the cratons -
Highest Stand of sea Level

38. Oriskany Sandstone Kaskaskia Transgression

39. The Reef System Tabulate corals and Stromotoporoid sponges
Fauna was vertically zoned (tiered by depth)
Clear ecological succession in reef building from pioneer community (clumps of twig-like colonies) to platy and domed shaped colonies to binding stage by sponges
Michigan, Canning Basin (Australia), British Columbia

40. Mineral Deposits
Sedimentary copper, lead and zinc sulfides and Iron ores
Occur in shales and carbonates
Disseminated or interbedded
Tri-state mining district (MO)
Howard’s Pass, Yukon, Canada
Wales
New York to Alabama

41. Clinton Iron Ore Silurian Clinton Group near Birmingham, AL
The ore is an oolite of hematite (iron oxide)

42. Other Economic Deposits
Silurian Salt, Michigan and upstate New York
Silurian Petroleum Deposits-OH, OK,TX
Devonian Petroleum Deposits
Williston Basin- MT and Alberta
First oil well in US 1859 (PA)
Silica for glass- Devonian Oriskany Sandstone, % pure

43. Mid-Paleozoic Climates
Gondwana centered over the South Pole
climates ranged from cold to warm
glacial striations present in South America yet Red beds and carbonates and evaporites were also present in N. Africa, India and Australia
Other continents were equatorial
Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia were warm

44. MID PALEOZOIC LIFE The Origin of the Ammonoids
Cephalopods, Devonian
Evolved from straight chambered nautiloids
Eurypterids and the Origin of Arachnids
Chelicerata (horseshoe crabs and sea scorpions)
Ferocious predators of the Paleozoic seas

45. Life of the Silurian Eurypterids Devonian forms reached 2 m
Huge eyes and pincers

46. Radiation of Fishes
During Cambrian and Ordovician only 1 order of fish, jawless, Ostracoderms (Marine)
Early Silurian 3 more orders of jawless fish and the first jawed fish, acanthodian, appeared and inhabited both marine and fresh water
By Middle Devonian all classes of jawed fish had appeared
All restricted to 40o of the equator
Extinction at end of Devonian, terminated the ostracoderms and the armored placoderms

47. Evolution of the 5 Major Groups of Fishes

48. Ostracoderms
A: Thelodus
B: Pteraspis
C: Jamoytius
D: Hemicyclaspis

49. Evolution of Jaws in Fish

50. Placoderms
Skull 1 m high
fish 10m long
Dunkleosteus

51. The Origin of Tetrapods
Amphibian
Crossopterygians

52. Ichthyostega Late Devonian (Old Red Sandstone)
One of the Oldest Known Amphibians

53. The Radiation of Land Plants
Earliest Fungi appear in the Early Silurian
First Land Plants are Late Ordovician
First Vascular Plants are Late Silurian
With the appearance of forests in Late Devonian oxygen levels increased and reached a peak in the Late Paleozoic
Land erosion rates significantly decreased

54. The Development of Tiering
Vertical Separation Between Organisms
Removes competition between organisms of similar feeding habits
Different stalk heights in crinoids
Low herbaceous plants grading into true forest with tall trees

55. Terrestrial Communities
By Early Devonian land communities were diverse
Rhynie Chert (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Silicified peat bog
Preserved plants as well as spiders, mites and insects

56. Mass Extinction Major marine extinction of the Late Devonian
Frasnian-Famennian epochs
33% marine families became extinct
Nearshore marine and reef benthic species
corals, stromotoporoids, all but 1 order of trilobites, many brachiopods and ammonoids
No corresponding terrestrial extinction

57. Frasnian-Famennian Extinction
Occurred during a regression
Associated with low oxygenated water and high metal concentrations
Sharp drop in temperature (O2-Isotope studies)
Presence of glass spherules
All indicate a probable asteroid impact which caused deep anoxic and high metallic content water to poison shoal communities