A Middle Cambrian trilobite faunule from the Meguma Group of Nova Scotia

1991/11/01 by Brian R. Pratt, John W.F. Waldron, John W. F. Waldron · 39 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Ecological succession #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Geological formations and processes #Geology #Group (periodic table) #Nova scotia #Ordovician #Paleontology #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Sequence (biology) #Tectonics #Terrane #Trilobite

paper · doi:10.1139/e91-164

published in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 28(11), 1843-1853 (NRC Research Press)

openalex publication_date 1991/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

The Meguma Group of southern Nova Scotia is a thick succession of mostly deep-water siliciclastic sedimentray rocks of uncertain age. Previous fossil finds have been in the Halifax Formation of the upper part of the sequence and have provided Early Ordovician ages. A newly discovered trilobite-bearing bed from the underlying Goldenville Formation yields Middle Cambrian taxa of Acado-Baltic affinity. Specimens belonging to Paradoxides (s.l.), Agraulos, Dorypyge, and Ellipsocephalidae indicate that the Meguma Group is an exotic succession with faunal similarity to the adjacent Avalon Terrane and to Middle Cambrian successions in Europe, the Middle East, and west Africa.

Cited by

• Provenance of the Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia: rifted margin of early Paleozoic Gondwana
• U–Pb (zircon) ages and provenance of the White Rock Formation of the Rockville Notch Group, Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada: evidence for the “Sardian gap” and West African origin
• The evolutionary significance of a Lower Cambrian trace-fossil assemblage from the Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia
• Meguma terrane orocline: U–Pb age and paleomagnetism of the Silurian Mavillette gabbro, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Greater Avalonia—latest Ediacaran–Ordovician “peribaltic” terrane bounded by continental margin prisms (“Ganderia,” Harlech Dome, Meguma): Review, tectonic implications, and paleogeography
• A paleogeographical review of the peri-Gondwanan realm of the Appalachian orogen1This article is one of a series of papers published in this CJES Special Issue: In honour of Ward Neale on the theme of Appalachian and Grenvillian geology.

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