Silurian trilobites from the G. B. Schley Fjord region, eastern Peary Land, North Greenland

Abstract

A trilobite fauna of Pterospathodus celloni Biozone age (late Llandovery) is described from a horizon near the top of the Odins Fjord Formation. The commonest trilobite is the phacopid Acernaspis sp., with which are associated the proetid Cyphoproetus? cf. C. alyo, the harpetid Scotoharpes?, a second phacopid (Ananaspis?), the encrinurid Briania and an undetermined encrinurid. The llilobile species compare closely with others already described from various localities in the mid-late Llandovery of Greenland and Canada. The overall composition of the trilobite fauna, however, contrast with that previously known from the Odins Fjord Formation; this may partly reflect the more offshore position of the Schley Fjord fauna on the Peary Land shelf. However, drowning of the shelf produced a possibly diachronous decrease in fauna! content and diversity as deepening and muddying progressed southwards over time. Thus, faunal contrasts may simply reflect sampling of different levels within this muddying-upwards succession.