New, biostratigraphically significant ammonites from the Jurassic Fernie Formation, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains

Abstract

Jurassic ammonites described here for the first time come from numerous localities in the Fernie Formation in the Foothills and Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains of north- and south-eastern British Columbia and central- and south-western Alberta, and provide useful new age data for several members of the formation. The occurrence of Orthodactylites sp. in the uppermost beds of the Red Deer Member indicates this unit extends upwards into the basal Toarcian, which will be helpful in the search for carbon-isotope excursions associated with the early Toarcian anoxic event. The presence of Hettangian and lower Pliensbachian strata in outcrop of the Gordondale Member is confirmed. Diversity of the ammonite fauna in the Grey Beds is enlarged by the presence of ? Kepplerites – ? Cadomites and Choffatia spp. These faunas also provide biostratigraphic constraints for carbon- and oxygen-isotope trends and U–Pb ages recently recorded from the Highwood Member and Grey Beds exposed in Bighorn Creek and its eastern tributary, and in Fording River. The first occurrence of Zemistephanus richardsoni from cratonic rocks, recorded here, suggests close proximity of the allochthonous terranes Wrangellia and Stikinia, the only other areas from which this species is known, to the northwest North American craton by early Bajocian time. One new species, Cardioceras (Subvertebriceras) ferniensis, is described.