Leavenworth Cass IA Outcrop, Locality 27 (Carboniferous of the United States)

Where: Cass County, Iowa (41.2° N, 94.9° W: paleocoordinates 0.4° S, 26.0° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Leavenworth Limestone Member (Oread Limestone Formation), Virgilian (303.7 - 298.9 Ma)

• Leavenworth Limestone Member of the Oread Limestone is the "middle-limestone" of the Oread Megacyclothem (Pennsylvanian, Virgilian); stratigraphic and faunal evidence suggests that the Salem School Member of northcentral Texas is time correlative with the Leavenworth Limestone

•stone

•Thickness: 2.7 feet

Environment/lithology: platform or shelf-margin reef; mudstone

• Leavenworth limestone was deposited in a relatively shallow water on a broad, slowly subsiding, carbonate platform
• "mudstone-facies"

•Leavenworth limestone is dark bluish-gray, fine-grained, dense, very hard, vertically jointed, moderately fossiliferous; in most localities is occurs as one prominent bed ranging in thickness from slightly under 1 foot to a max. of 3 feet; skeletal mud occurs at 27 (of 32) localities and is the dominent LL facies

•extra remark on locality: the LL is a thick (2f 7") sequence of two limestones separated by a thin gray-green shale; basal limestone unit (2f thick) superficially appears to be "typical" Leavenworth except that it contains abindant nodules of black chert and many well preserved brachiopods (Meekella and Composita); overlying this limestone unit is a thin 3" gray-green calcareous shale carrying an abundant marine microfauna overlain by a 4" gray-brown argillaceous limestone; all considered to be Leavenworth

Size classes: mesofossils, microfossils

• in addition to the algae: coated grains composed of algal crust (Archaeolithophyllum cf. lamellosum), "Osagid"-type coated grains

•silicified sponge spicules are found at localities 16, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29; sponge spicules were observed across the outcrop belt though

•fecal pellets are found but not present at localities 1,2,4,16,17,19,22, 24A, 25, 26, 28, 29

Primary reference: D.F. Toomey. 1969. The Biota of the Pennsylvanian (Virgilian) Leavenworth Limestone, Midcontinent Region Part I: Stratigraphy, Paleogeography, and Sediment Facies Relationships. Journal of Paleontology 43(4):1001-1018 [B. Seuss/B. Seuss/B. Seuss]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 217128: authorized by Barbara Seuss, entered by Barbara Seuss on 25.01.2021

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Tubothalamea
 Miliolida - Cornuspiridae
Foraminifera
 Lagenina - Syzraniidae
 Hormosinacea - Hormosinidae
Reophax ? sp.3 de Montfort 1808
 Textulariina - Hyperamminidae
 Endothyroidea - Endothyridae
 Endothyroidea - Bradyinidae
Bradyina magna2 Roth and Skinner 1930
 Fusulinoidea - Eostaffellidae
 Fusulinina - Palaeospiroplectamminidae
 Fusulinina - Tuberitinidae
 Tetrataxoidea - Tetrataxidae
 Palaeotextularoidea - Biseriamminidae
 Palaeotextularoidea - Palaeotextulariidae
 Lituolida - Lituolidae
"Textularia" exima3
"Textularia exima Eichwald, 1860" sensu Ireland, 1956
Rhodophyceae
  -
Foliophycus sp.1 Johnson 1960
Florideophyceae
 Cryptonemiales - Archaeolithophyllaceae
Ulvophyceae
 Bryopsidales - Codiaceae
Hormogoneae
 Oscillatoriales - Girvanellaceae
Girvanella sp.1 Nicholson and Etheridge 1878
Conodonta
 Ozarkodinida - Anchignathodontidae
"Ozarkodina minuta" = Hindeodus minutus4
"Ozarkodina minuta" = Hindeodus minutus4 Ellison 1941 conodont
P element
 Ozarkodinida - Idiognathodontidae
Idiognathodus elegantulus4 conodont
P element, A1 or A2 element
Idiognathodus "sp. 1"4 Gunnell 1931 conodont
P element
unclassified
  -
Porifera indet.4 Grant 1836
tetraxon spicule (probbly orthotriaene), triaxon spicules (clinopentactines, spinose orthohexactine, orthopentactine, plagiotriaene); spicules
Cuneiphycus
  -
Shamovella
  -
"Tubiphytes cf. obscurus" = Shamovella obscura1
"Tubiphytes cf. obscurus" = Shamovella obscura1 Maslov 1956