Late Paleozoic Periods

(Youngest to Oldest)

Permian: 299-251

Pennsylvanian 318-299

Mississippian 359-318

Devonian 416-359

A global ocean spanning 3000 degrees longitude.

The ocean of Pangea.

Begins with:

1) Oriskany sandstone in the Eastern US, creating the deposit of transgression over unconformity, it was pure, clean sand (good for glass-making) and was transgressive over rocks of various ages, the deposits become younger as it moves toward the craton. 

2) Post-Oriskany: mid-to-late Devonian strata

3) Lastly, created Late Devonian Clastics: sand, mud, conglomerate. They spread West, becoming finer-grained and more marine influenced. 

-Catskill Clastic Wedge

-Chattanooga Shale

1) Catskill Clastic Wedge: near mountains, red sands. Catskill equivalent in Europe is the Old Red Sandstone.

2) Chattanooga Shale: dark, marine, black shale found in the Kasakia sea. Deep marine environment, less oxygen. 

Unique cyclic sediments. A specific type of deposition, 10 beds followed by another 10 beds between minor disconformities, then another 10 beds. Approximately 50 feet is a complete cyclothem. Cyclothem correlation is best to look at in Kansas and Pennsylvania. 

Deposited by transgressions and regressions. The origin of cyclothems is from repeating sea-level rise and fall due to glacial eustasy. 

Found in the Pennsylvania period. 

1) Acadian: Devonian (oldest)

2) Caledonian

3) Alleghenian: Permian (youngest)

Lasted from the Pennsylvanian to the end of the Permian period. 

-Builds southern Appalachian and Ouachita mountains. 

Characteristics of it's Orogenic Structures: 

-vast fold belts

-great thrust faults

-vast metamorphic piedmont region

-red sandstone and shale (post-orogenic)

Takes place in "southern margin" of North America. Took place during the Devonian-Mississippian periods, closed in the Pennsylvanian. 

Modern-day orogenic mountains that formed during the Ouachita orogeny:

a) Ouachitas (AR & OK)

b) Marathon Mountains (TX)

Antler Orogeny

Took place during the late Devonian to Pennsylvanian period. 

1st orogeny in the West. Vast thrust faulting and folding back of arc sediments. Thick clastic wedges formed in basins. Develops shallow sea and lowlands, deposition of Grand Canyon stratigraphy of Permian age (stability and transgression): Kaibab Limestone, Toroweap Formation, Coconino Sandstone and Hermit Shale. 

-Fossil Fuels: coal, oil and gas present in the East. 

-Coal was present in all Devonian rocks. 

-Metallic ores

-Chengjian Site, China (second found; 10 million years older than Burgess Shale)

-Burgess Shale: British Columbia, Canada (first found; 1909)

One of the most important fossil records of all time, preserved in impressions and films. 60,000+ fossils collected. 

Included Fauna:

-4 Groups of Anthropods: Trilobites, Crustaceans, Scoripions, Insects

-Sponges, Crinoids, Sea cucumbers, Chordates

Notable fossils: 

Anomalocaris, Opabinia, Hallucigenia, Marella

"Ancient Cups"

Conical, vase-shaped skeletons. Became extinct by the end of the Cambrian Period. Were the earliest reef builders in North America, Siberia, Antarctica, Australia (biggest). 

Microfossil teeth, visible from the Late Paleozoic to Triassic periods. Fossil hard-parts included tooth-like calcium phosphate fossils. Present in a whole body, eel-like, 40 cm, jawless invertebrate with many teeth.

Teeth were composed of calcium phosphate.

Cambrian had reefs, Ordivician-Silurian has green algae and corals form.

In the early Paleozoic, Chlorophytes evolved. Also present in Paleozoic were land plants, forests, scale trees, ferns and seed ferns. 

First evolved during interglacial stage, now found in south continents and cool climates.

Found on ALL southern continents, indicating that they were once all connected. Index fossil. 

1) Late Ordovician: global cooling was caused by the presence of Gondwanaland ice caps. 

Devonian

2) Late Devonian: global cooling was caused by Gondwanaland glaciation.

3) Late Permian: caused by the Pangea assembly, drained seas, two polar regions, equatorial ocean changes, volcanic activity, flood basalt eruptions and greenhouse gas effects. 

-Cretaceous 145-65 million years ago (youngest)

-Jurassic 200-145

-Triassic 251-200 (oldest)

Total span in 160 million years from 251-65 mya

Occurred in four stages, three of the stages were during the Mesozoic period. 

1) Stage 1: Triassic

-Rifting and volcanism, normal faulting, sea-floor generation

2) Stage 2:

-Rifting of narrow oceans, outpouring of basaltic lavas

3) Stage 3: Jurassic-Cretaceous

-Atlantic Ocean rifts northward, South America and Africa split, closing of the Tethys Sea

4) Stage 4: Post-Mesozoic

-North America and Eurasia split, Antarctica and Australia split

-Navajo Formation: appeared during the early Jurassic in MT, WY and NV. Exhibited clean, recycled eolian sands.

-Sundance Formation: appeared in the middle Jurassic period and was most famous for reptile fossils due to the deposits of the Sundance Sea.

-Morrison Formation: appeared in the late Jurassic period and was famous for dinosaurs. 

"Age of Reptiles" "Age of Ammonoids" "Age of Cycads"

-Most popularly known as the "Age of Reptiles"

Triassic: relatively cool, lower sea-level, mountain building.

Jurassic: mild climate, no glaciers, monsoons evident, tropical conditions shown.

Cretaceous: warm climate, subtropical, high sea-level.

Terrestrial Invertebrates has a limited preservation record, it includes: snails, clams, centipedes, insects.

Marine Invertebrates appeared in the mid-Triassic time, includes: bivalves, corals, echnioderms, cephalopods and gastropods.

Floating plants. Was originally not mineralized in the pre-Mesozoic era but had mineralized coverings in the Mesozoic. 

Most important types: 

-Dinoflagellates

-Coccolithophorids

-Siliocoflagellates

One of the orders of dinosaur pelvic bones, known as triradiate or lizard-hipped. 

These type of dinosaurs were the first dinosaurs and small forms. Inclued Euraptor, Herrerasaurus, Coelophysis, Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Also included herbivores like Plateosaurus, Ultrasaurus and Seismosaurus. 

One of the orders of pelvic bones, pubis parallel to the ischium, much like birds. Known as bird-hipped.

Lived in the late Triassic period. Included Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurs, and Ceratopsians.  

Ectothermic means they rely on outside temperatures.

Endothermic means they generate body heat. 

Dr. Bakker had evidence of warm-bloodedness from mammal-like characteristics like other warm-blooded creatures. 

Confuciosornis was the earliest bird with a toothless beak, several million years older than Archaropteryx. 

Protoavis was the first disputed bird. 75 million years older than Archaeopteryx. 

Maiasaura was known as the "good mother lizard". 

Dr. Jack Horner believed this because he had evidence of nests 7.5 meters apart (exact length of reptile), while the mother raised them in 3+ years of growth. 

Atmosphere-Plant Interaction in the Mesozoic.

Said that massive outpouring of CO2 during the eruption of Deccan Traps loaded the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses. Contributing to the excess of CO2 in ocean waters which poised key plankton thus making them extinct. Loss of these plankton sparked a "biotic crisis" when it eliminated the base of the food chain which led to further extinctions. 

Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction. Second great extinction. 

25% of all families lost. Including some ocean vertebrates, all marine invertebrates. Terrestrial extinctions include reptile clans like dinosaurs. Terrestrial survivors were turtles, snakes and crocodiles. 

Possible causes include asteroid impact, evidence in Alvarez' theory which has found iridium enrichment 30 times the normal amount in the Cretaceous period clay. Indicating asteroid impact.