THE FAUNA OF THE STONY HOLLOW MEMBER OF THE UNION SPRINGS FM. (LATE EIFELIAN) OF NEW YORK STATE

It has long been known that the rocks of lower Marcellus age (Early Middle Devonian-Late Eifelian) in eastern North America contain a fauna distinct from the lower Eifelian (Onondaga Fauna) below and the lower Givetian (Hamilton Fauna) above. Workers as early as the 1930’s noted that the fossils seen in the Stony Hollow Member of the Union Springs Formation in eastern New York State (NYS) could be found all across the eastern United States in a very restricted stratigraphic interval (Delaware Fm. of Ohio, Rogers City Fm. of Michigan, Spillville Fm. of Iowa, Lake Church Fm. of Wisconsin, Miami Bend Fm. of Indiana). It was later determined that this anomalous fauna represents an incursion of warm-water adapted taxa into the east-central U.S. out of central Canada, recording an interval of global warming during this time. Even though this anomalous fauna was first identified in the NYS area, the full extent of the fauna in the type area has yet to be clearly understood. The goal of this research is to document, as fully as possible, the geographic and stratigraphic extent of the Stony Hollow Fauna in east-central NYS, specifically examining the lower limit of the fauna to determine as precisely as possible when the taxa first arrive in NYS, how abrupt was the transition from the Onondaga Fauna below, and to what degree, if any, is there overlap between the two faunas.