Wheeler Shale

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Wheeler Shale
Stratigraphic range: Middle Cambrian (c. 507 Ma)
File:ElrathiakingiUtahWheelerCambrian.jpg
Elrathia kingii, famed trilobite of the Wheeler Shale.
Type Geological formation
Thickness 100-200 metres
Lithology
Primary Calcareous Shale
Other Mudstone, Shaley Limestone & Limestone
Location
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Region House Range and Drum Mountains, Millard Co., west Utah
Country USA
Type section
Named for House Amphitheater (Geographic feature & type locality)
Named by Charles Doolittle Walcott

The Wheeler Shale (named by Charles Walcott) is a Cambrian (c. 507 Ma) fossil locality world famous[1] for prolific agnostid and Elrathia kingii trilobite remains (even though many areas are barren of fossils)[2] and represents a Konzentrat-Lagerstätten. Varied soft bodied organisms are locally preserved, a fauna (including Naraoia, Wiwaxia and Hallucigenia) and preservation style (carbonaceous film) normally associated with the more famous Burgess Shale.[3] As such, the Wheeler Shale also represents a Konservat-Lagerstätten.[4]

Together with the Marjum Formation and lower Weeks Formation, the Wheeler Shale forms 490 to 610 m (1,610 to 2,000 ft) of limestone and shale exposed in one of the thickest, most fossiliferous and best exposed sequences of Middle Cambrian rocks in North America.[5]

At the type locality of Wheeler Amphitheater, House Range, Millard County, western Utah, the Wheeler Shale consists of a heterogeneous succession of highly calcareous shale, shaley limestone, mudstone and thin, flaggy limestone.[6] The Wheeler Formation (although the Marjum & Weeks Formations are missing) extends into the Drum Mountains, northwest of the House Range where similar fossils and preservation are found.[6]

Taphonomy & Sedimentology

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Further information: Burgess Shale type preservation

Detailed work recognises a number of ~10 m thick lagerstätten sequences in the formation, each of which formed at a sea-level high stand[7] in deep water.[8] The lagerstätte were deposited by turbidities and mudslides onto an oxygenated sea floor.[7] The productive layers comprise mud and clay particles, with a tiny fraction of wind-blown quartz.[9]

Stratigraphy

The Wheeler Shale spans the Ptychagnostus atavus[10] and uppermost-Middle Cambrian Bolaspidella trilobite zones (See House Range) for full stratigraphy).

Fauna

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Main article: Burgess Shale type fauna

Incomplete list of the fauna of the Wheeler Shale:[6][11][12][13][14][15][16] (Note: the preservation of hard bodied trilobite remains and soft bodied animals seems to be mutually exclusive within particular horizons.)[4][17]


Protista

Arthropoda

Arachnomorpha

Trilobita

Brachiopoda

Chordata

Cnidaria

Mollusca

Echinodermata

Porifera

Priapulida

Unclassified

Gallery

  • Asaphiscus wheeleri, Cambrian, Wheeler shale, Utah.

  • Emeraldella brocki.jpg

    Emeraldella brocki an arthropod From the Burgess Shale

References

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  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Photos of Wheeler Shale fossils from UC Berkeley
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Utah's Cambrian Life from University of Kansas Natural History Museum
  15. ↑ Cambrian fossils from Utah by the University of Utah
  16. ↑ Comprehensive treatment from The Virtual Fossil Museum
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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