The Cisuralian Ammonoid Genus Uraloceras

• Main Author: Hemmesch, Nikki Theresa
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks 2004
• Subjects: Geology; Paleobiology; Ellesmere Island; Novaya Zemlya; ural mountains; Alaska; Yukon
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/td/425; https://boisestate.on.worldcat.org/v2/oclc/61680602

Ammonoids occur abundantly within Cisuralian strata at Beck Springs, Buck Mountain, Nevada. The genus Uraloceras has been recovered from a micritic concretionary interval deposited within a tectonically initiated sub-basin of the Cisuralian Dry Mountain Trough. The abundant and diverse fauna at Beck Springs, Buck Mountain contain faunal elements characteristic of a transitional paleobiogeographic association, which includes "Boreal", equatorial, cosmopolitan, and endemic forms. Endemism may have been associated with paleogeographic isolation of basins and sub-basins on the western margin of Northern Pangaea. Uraloceras is biostratigraphically restricted to Sakmarian through early Kungurian of northern Pangaea and further restricted to Artinskian strata in North America. Uraloceras is also an important paleobiogeographic indicator because it is restricted to "Boreal" and "Transitional" associations along the continental margins of Northern Pangaea. The genus Uraloceras occurs throughout Northern Pangaea: the Ural Mountains, Novaya Zemlya, the Verkhoyansk Mountains, China (Nei Monggol and Gansu), Ellesmere Island, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alaska, and Nevada. Four representatives of Uraloceras are recognized in this study; U involutum, U burtiense, U fedorowi, U n. sp. A.