2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16–19, 2005)

Paper No. 34
Presentation Time: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM

MIDDLE AND LATE PERMIAN PALEONTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE QUINN RIVER FORMATION, BILK CREEK MOUNTAINS, HUMBOLDT COUNTY, NEVADA


KLUG, Christopher Allen, Geology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, Klugca@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Approximately 200 m of limestone, siltstones, volcaniclastics, siltstones and cherts record deposition in mostly deep marine conditions prior to the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event. The Quinn River Formation potentially records the precursor paleoecologic conditions for the event. Preliminary data collected at the section record: a diverse brachiopod with the most abundant speices beinging Stenoscisma sp, Neophricodothyris sp and a gastropod dominated Middle Permian fauna; a gap in Fossiliferous strata straddling the P/Tr boundary; a prolonged non-fossiliferous stratigraphic interval extending into the Early Triassic; and the return of normal marine conditions in later Early Triassic strata as evidenced by abundant Ammonite fossils. Carbon-Oxygen isotopes show declining trends from the Lower Permian to the Lower Triassic.