Middle Cambrian fossils from the Doonerak anticlinorium, central Brooks Range, Alaska

Abstract

Middle Cambrian fossils collected near Wolf Creek in the Wiseman quadrangle, northern Alaska, include trilobites and paraconodonts. Trilobites date the strata as early Middle Cambrian, correlative with the Amgan Stage of Siberia. The assemblage includes: Kootenia cf. K. anabarensis Lermontova, cf. 'Parehmania' lata Chernysheva and Pagetia sp. Specimens of the paracondont genus Westergaardodina, from the same sample as the megafossils, record the earliest known occurrence of this taxon. These fossils, the first to establish an age for part of the sedimentary sequence in the Doonerak Anticlinorium, are the oldest fossils yet taken from the central and western Brooks Range.