Conodonts and Biostratigraphy of the Lower Arbuckle Group (Ordovician), Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma

Abstract

Lower Arbuckle Group strata (McKenzie Hill and Cool Creek Formations) have yielded a moderately large conodont fauna of over 2,000 identifiable specimens. The various elements have been assigned to 55 species, 4 of them new, distributed among 17 genera. McKenzie Hill conodonts show no dominant group but contain an assortment of species while Cool Creek conodonts are dominated by an overwhelming number (>60 percent of the total lower Arbuckle fauna) of specimens of Scolopodus. These include, in order of importance, Scolopodus quadraplicatus Branson and Mehl, S. triangularis Ethington and Clark, S. triplicatus Ethington and Clark, and S. filosus Ethington and Clark. The Cool Creek may correlate in part with the El Paso Formation of west Texas.