EARLY CARBONIFEROUS (EARLIEST TOURNAISIAN-KINDERHOOKIAN) BRACHIOPOD AND CONODONT FAUNAS OF THE “ELLSWORTH” MEMBER OF THE NEW ALBANY SHALE, ILLINOIS BASIN, SOUTHERN INDIANA

The upper New Albany Shale in southern Indiana consists of the Jacob’s Chapel, Henryville, Underwood, and Falling Run beds within the upper Clegg Creek Member and the “Ellsworth” Member. The conodont fauna from the upper Clegg Creek Member below the Falling Run Bed and “Ellsworth” Member includes Bispathodus aculeatus aculeatus, Branmehla bohlenana, Br. inornata, Cryptotaxis culminidirecta, Palmatolepis glabra ssp., Pa. gracilis gracilis, and Protognathodus sp. This fauna is latest Famennian (uppermost Devonian praesulcata Zone). The “Ellsworth” Member at a roadcut exposure near Rockford, Indiana (locality 9 of Huddle, along US Alt. 31, now covered) is the type locality for the lost holotype of conodont Siphonodella sulcata. The gray-green brachiopod-bearing shale noted by Huddle at the type locality of Si. sulcata is the “Ellsworth” Member, which in Indiana Survey Drill Hole 324, eight km northwest of Huddle locality 9, contains specimens of Bispathodus, Branmehla, Polygnathus communis communis, and Si. sulcata. This fauna is correlated with the lowest Carboniferous sulcata Zone. At the US Highway 31 roadcut, sulcata Zone conodonts occur in association with a brachiopod fauna originally described by Huddle that includes:Subglobosochonetes seymorensis, Rhipidomella newalbaniensis, Schuchertella sp., Rhynchopora prisca, and Sphenospira sp. cf. S. alta. In the Indiana Survey Drill Hole 324 core, brachiopod assemblages in the lower half of the "Ellsworth" are comprised almost entirely of S. seymorensis, with moderately diverse assemblages with S. seymorensis, R. prisca and R. newalbaniensis in the upper half below the Henryville Bed. None of the brachiopod species recovered from the “Ellsworth” fauna of southeastern Indiana are known to carryover from older Famennian (praesulcata Zone) strata in the region, although older related species of Rhynchopora, Ripidomella, and Schuchertella occur in the latest Famennian carbonate platform fauna of the Louisiana Limestone of Illinois and Missouri. The “Ellsworth” brachiopod fauna is similar to the earliest-early Tournaisian fauna described from the Glen Park Formation of western Illinois Basin in Illinois and eastern Missouri that also yields conodonts of the sulcata Zone.