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Journal of Paleontology

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The Youngest Cambroclaves: Cambroclavus absonus from the Middle Cambrian of the Cantabrian Zone (Northwest Spain)

¹ Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 24, D-48149 Münster, Germany, <thomas.wotte@uni-muenster.de>

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
CAMBROCLAVES ARE Cambrian phosphatized problematica. The group is known from spine-like remains that are locally abundant on a number of Cambrian paleocontinents. Cambroclaves are known through a relatively short time interval (late Early Cambrian–early Middle Cambrian) mostly from tropical, carbonate platform successions on the Siberian Platform, East Gondwana (Australia, China, Kazakhstan), and West Gondwana. The West Gondwana occurrences include Cambroclavus ludwigsdorfensis Elicki, 1994 and Cambroclavus sp. from the late Early Cambrian of eastern Germany (Elicki, 1994, 2005; Elicki and Wotte, 2003), and Cambroclavus sp. from the early Middle Cambrian of Sardinia (Elicki and Wotte, 2003; Elicki et al., 2003; Elicki, 2005, 2006). Recently, Clausen and Álvaro (2006) reported the zhijinitid form Parazhijinites cf. guizhouensis Qian and Yin, 1984 from the early Middle Cambrian of the Cantabrian zone of northwest Spain. Other than the mentioned tropical occurrences, Landing (1991) published the obviously cool to cold water form Samsanoffoclavus matthewi Landing, 1991 from the middle Early Cambrian of Cape Breton Island (Avalonia).

This report provides a description of cambroclavids from the Middle Cambrian of the Cantabrian zone (northwest Spain), the determination of their stratigraphic position, and a discussion of the consequences for the general stratigraphic range of cambroclaves.

The Cambrian succession of the Cantabrian zone (Fig. 1) consists of the ?Neoproterozoic?–Early Cambrian siliciclastic Herrería Formation, the Early–Middle Cambrian carbonate Láncara Formation, and the Middle Cambrian–Tremadocian siliciclastic Oville Formation (Fig. 2). The Láncara Formation is subdivided into a lower dolomitic member with limited fossils (algae, archaeocyaths, and some trilobites; cf. Debrenne and Zamarreño, 1970; Sdzuy, 1995; Perejón and Moreno-Eiris, 2003) and a fossiliferous upper carbonate member (Fig. 2). The latter is further subdivided into the Beleño facies, characterized by granular crystalline, grey to roan . . . [Full Text of this Article]