Stratigraphic and temporal context and faunal diversity of Permian-Jurassic continental tetrapod assemblages from the Fundy rift basin, eastern Canada

2015/04/07 by Hans‐Dieter Sues, Paul E. Olsen · 78 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Tetrapod (structure) #Geology #Paleontology #Stratotype #Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point #Permian #Rift #Structural basin #Early Triassic #Biostratigraphy #Stage (stratigraphy)

paper · pdf · doi:10.4138/atlgeol.2015.006

published in Atlantic Geology 51(1), 139 (Atlantic Geoscience Society)

openalex publication_date 2015/04/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/17

Abstract

<p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: 'Minion Pro','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Fundy basin in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is the largest exposed rift basin of the Newark Supergroup and also extends beneath the Bay of Fundy. Its strata can be divided into four tectonostratigraphic sequences (TS). TS I is represented by the probably Permian Honeycomb Point Formation and possibly the Lepreau Formation. TS II includes the Wolfville Formation with the probably Middle Triassic Economy Member and the early Late Triassic Evangeline Member. These members have yielded markedly different assemblages of continental tetrapods. TS III comprises most of the Blomidon Formation, which is Norian to Rhaetian in age. The Blomidon Formation has yielded few skeletal remains of tetrapods to date but many tetrapod tracks. TS IV includes the late Rhaetian top of the Blomidon Formation and the McCoy Brook Formation, which overlies the North Mountain Basalt and is latest Rhaetian and earliest Jurassic (Hettangian) in age. The McCoy Brook Formation has yielded a diversity of continental tetrapods and lacks any of the characteristic Late Triassic forms. Recent work has correlated the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Jurassic (Hettangian) to a level well above the North Mountain Basalt. Thus most of the tetrapod fossils from the McCoy Brook Formation are latest Rhaetian in age, but the higher horizon with skeletal remains of sauropodomorph dinosaurs may be earliest Hettangian in age. The Fundy basin preserves the only known, stratigraphically tightly constrained record of the profound biotic changes in continental ecosystems across the Triassic-Jurassic transition.</span></span></p>

Citations

• First record of the tritylodontidOligokyphus(Synapsida) from the Lower Jurassic of western North America
• Extensive 200-Million-Year-Old Continental Flood Basalts of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province
• Palynology and age of the upper Blomidon Formation, Fundy basin, Nova Scotia
• Oligokyphus(Cynodontia: Tritylodontidae) from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Yunnan, China
• The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Fundy Group (Triassic) of the St. Martins area, New Brunswick
• Dispersal and diversity in the earliest North American sauropodomorph dinosaurs, with a description of a new taxon
• STRATIGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE EARLY MESOZOIC BREAKUP OF PANGEA IN THE LAURASIA-GONDWANA RIFT SYSTEM
• Synchrony between the Central Atlantic magmatic province and the Triassic–Jurassic mass-extinction event?
• Zircon U-Pb Geochronology Links the End-Triassic Extinction with the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province
• Early ornithischian dinosaurs: the Triassic record
• The Late Triassic pseudosuchianRevueltosaurus callenderiand its implications for the diversity of early ornithischian dinosaurs
• The Liassic Therapsid Oligokyphus
• Pejo fault system: an example of multiple tectonic activity in the italian Eastern Alps
• NORTH AMERICAN STRATIGRAPHIC CODE

Cited by

• Morphological and histological description of small metoposaurids from Petrified Forest National Park, AZ, USA and the taxonomy ofApachesaurus
• South American Crocodylomorphs (Archosauria; Crocodylomorpha): A review of the early fossil record in the continent and its relevance on understanding the origins of the clade
• Newark Supergroup [wikipedia]