USGS Science⌕ Search

Geology topics

William Albert Oliver

Publications and source records attributed to William Albert Oliver.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

lowaphyllum (rugose coral) from the Upper Devonian of Arizona

The rugose coral genus lowaphyllum is uncommon but widely distributed in rocks of Devonian age. It is here reported for the first time from western North America (Late Devonian). lowaphyllum is also known from the late Middle and Late Devonian of Eastern North America, but the lack of Early and early Middle Devonian species anywhere in North America leaves open the question of derivation of these forms and their relationship to Early Devonian species in Europe and Australia.

Arizona↗

Classification and new genera of noncystimorph colonial rugose corals from the Onesquethaw stage in New York and adjacent areas

A. proposed classification is outlined for 39 species of colonial rugose corals in 10 genera belonging to the families Stauriidae, Craspcdophyllidae (including Cylindrophyllinae new subfamily and Craspedophyllinac), Disphyllidae?, and Zaphrentidae, from the Onesquethaw and lower Cazenovia Stages in New York and adjacent areas. These corals are described or redescribed in another report now in press. Three new genera, Asterobillingsa , Grewgiphyllum , and Cyathocylindrium , are described in this report.

New York, Ontario↗

Succession of rugose coral faunas in the Lower and Middle Devonian of eastern North America

Rocks of Early Devonian age are widely but sporadically distributed in the eastern half of North America and coral studies are based on a very incomplete record. Middle Devonian rocks are thicker and cover a greater area. Both Early and Middle Devonian corals are more similar to western European species than they are to presumably contemporary forms from western North America, although some of the eastern faunas contain a significant portion of endemic genera. The general outline of an eastern province was inherited from the Silurian, but disappeared by Late Devonian time when the worldwide Frasnian fauna invaded the area. A reef fauna of middle Helderberg age is known from the northeast part of the province and is composed of both endemic and widespread genera. Approximately contemporaneous off-reef deposits have few species, but these are common in argillaceous rocks of a somewhat larger area. Rocks of middle Onesquethaw (Schoharie) age, although thin and discintinuous, include the largest and most widespread Early-Devonian coral fauna. Endemic genera are numerous but other elements are widespread and some species are apparently ancestral to species in the succeeding Onondaga fauna. The late Onesquethaw (Onondaga) faunas are the largest and most widely distributed of all those under review. Succeeding faunas of the Cazenovia, Tioughnioga and Taghanic Stage (Hamilton-Tully sequence) are less widespread and are clearly derivatives of the late Onesquethaw fauna. The Taghanic fauna is the latest Middle Devonian rugose coral fauna in the area

Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Brunswick,↗