AN INITIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CRINOID FAUNA FROM THE FORT PAYNE FORMATION OF NORTH ALABAMA AND SOUTH-CENTRAL TENNESSEE

The Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian, late Osagean) Fort Payne Formation is wide in extent stretching from the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama and Georgia northwestward through Tennessee and Kentucky to the subsurface of the Illinois Basin. The Fort Payne Formation is a time transgressive unit that migrated west-northwest during the Early to Middle Mississippian and was deposited in relatively deep water and in certain regions adjacent to the abandoned Borden delta front. The southern portion of the Fort Payne Formation in Tennessee and Alabama is referred to as the Fort Payne Chert. This work concentrates on the Fort Payne Chert section of North Alabama and South-Central Tennessee, and the diverse crinoid assemblage within. The richly fossiliferous Fort Payne Chert is distinguished by an abundance of large crinoid stems and fragments, with some spiriferid brachiopods, and scattered solitary corals. The megafossils indicate that the Fort Payne Chert correlates with the Keokuk of the Mississippi Valley Section which stratigraphically corresponds to the late Osagean Gnathodus texanus-Taphrognathus Condont Zone of the Fort Payne Chert. The result of this work is to report on the richly diverse crinoid fauna that is present in the Fort Payne Chert of the study area. Monobathrid camerates identified include: Alloprosallocrinus, Agaricocrinus, Actinocrinites, Uperocrinus, and Eretmocrinus. The monobathrid camerates have the greatest number of specimens. Other genera of crinoids identified include: Barycrinus, Catillocrinus, and Synbathocrinus. This fauna also includes new Fort Payne taxa.