The deep-water brachiopod Dicoelosia King, 1850, from the Early Silurian tropical carbonate shelf of Anticosti Island, eastern Canada

Abstract

Dicoelosia occurs in two deep water benthic shelly assemblages on an Early Silurian (uppermost Aeronian, Stimulograptus sedgwickii Zone) carbonate ramp to shelf, within the 25 m thick bluish-grey mudstone of the Richardson Member in the middle Jupiter Formation, Anticosti Island, Québec. Dicoelosia dauphinensis new species is erected on the basis of its relatively large, elongate shell, with a concavo-convex lateral profile, moderately wide, planoconvex lobes and subparallel lateral margins. Dicoelosia dauphinensis first occurs in a Gotatrypa-Dicoelosia Community, in which it constitutes about 7 percent of the individuals within sampled populations. This is replaced about 2 m up section by a Resserella-Dicoelosia Community, where D. dauphinensis makes up 22 percent of the individuals preserved on single bedding planes. Subsequently, Dicoelosia becomes a rare component of the Stegerhynchus-Triplesia Community in a shallowing-upward succession of the upper Richardson Member. It is in this upper Richardson shelly community that Stimulograptus sedgwickii is locally common, together with in situ brachiopod nests of Eocoelia, Triplesia, and Lissatrypa at the upper Jupiter Cliff section. The water depth estimated for the Resserella-Dicoelosia Community is between 100-120 m, below the normal depth range of the Clorinda Community (BA5) on Anticosti, in a distal shelf setting about 80-100 km offshore from the Laurentia paleocontinent, on the west side of the Iapetus Ocean. The interpretation of water depth is based on the facts that, 1) Dicoelosia-rich communities are confined to strata, which lack shallow water sedimentological evidence such as thick calcarenites and hummocky cross stratification, 2) Dicoelosia does not occur with shallower water taxa seen in the overlying Clorinda and Stricklandia communities associated with cyclocrinitid algae, corals and stromatoporoids in the Cybèle Member, and 3) Dicoelosia occurs only in the deeper water sections of the Richardson Member, some 10-15 km basinwards from mid-shelf shallower Richardson facies of the Anticosti Basin. Thus, the Dicoelosia-rich communities are interpreted to mark a maximum flooding surface within the distal shelf to ramp Llandovery succession of Anticosti Island.