ABUNDANT CONODONT FAUNAS FROM THE LOWER AND MIDDLE TRIASSIC OF SUBSURFACE BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, AND THE NORTH AMERICAN RECORD OF NEOGONDOLELLIN DIVERSIFICATION AROUND THE SMITHIAN–SPATHIAN BOUNDARY

Abundant conodont faunas from the subsurface of British Columbia, Canada, allow the correlation of Lower and Middle Triassic strata with outcrop sections in British Columbia, the Canadian Arctic and the western USA, as well as recording the previously recognized radiation of neogodondolellin conodonts in the early Spathian. Twenty-eight samples collected from the Progress Hz Caribou D-040-H/094-G-07 and Progress Hz Laprise A-082-I/094-G-01 wells yielded more than 1100 conodont specimens, representing twenty-nine pectiniform species belonging to fourteen genera. These faunas enable the recognition of the Dienerian–Smithian, Smithian–Spathian, and Spathian–Anisian boundaries in these wells. Five of the conodont species recognized in the Smithian and Spathian samples are new species of Neogondolellinae, and in addition to these several other neogondolellin conodont species also occur. These faunas are the manifestation in British Columbia of the previously recognized global increase in diversity of neogondolellin conodonts in the early Spathian. These conodonts help to characterize the events around the globally significant Smithian–Spathian boundary, and to correlate this boundary in North America.