Faunas of Mississippian oolitic limestones: Evidence from Salem Limestone, southern Indiana

Conference · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:5588726

Feldman, H R ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence (USA)

In the Salem Limestone of southern Indiana, a correlation exists between the faunal assemblage and abundance of grains with superficial oolitic coatings in grainstones. Coarse, poorly sorted fossiliferous grainstones are dominated by an echinoderm-bryozoan-brachiopod assemblage of fossils with few mollusks. The presence of large whole fossils, such as articulated crinoid calyces, suggest limited transport of skeletal components. Grainstones, dominated by grains with superficial coatings, and foraminifers tend to contain a diverse mollusk-dominated assemblage of gastropods, bivalves, rostroconchs, chitins, and scaphopods. These fossils are disarticulated, but generally are not fragmented even though many of them are thin and delicate. Echinoderms, brachiopods, and bryozoans are repsented in the mollusk-domdinated assemblage almost exclusively by well-rounded and coated fragments, suggesting that they are not in situ. The presence of similar molluscan assemblages in other Mississippian coated-grain grainstones from Alabama (the Monteagle Limestone) and Oklahoma (an unnamed limestone) indicates that the assemblage may have been wide-spread. Mississippian grainstones dominated by oolites (which are not prominent in the Salem) generally have very few fossils.

• OSTI ID: 5588726
• Report Number(s): CONF-8909166--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA) Journal Volume: 73:8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
CARBONATE ROCKS
FEDERAL REGION V
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
INDIANA
LIMESTONE
MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
NORTH AMERICA
PALEONTOLOGY
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA