Upper cretaceous (Santonian-Campanian) ammonite and inoceramid biostratigraphy of the Chico Formation, California

Abstract

Outcrops of the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian-Campanian) Chico Formation, exposed along the east flank of California's northern Great Valley, have yielded a highly diverse, well-preserved molluscan fauna. Previously uncollected deposits, as well as classic localities, have been stratigraphically collected to determine the Santonian-Campanian succession of important ammonites and inoceramid bivalves. Five megafossil zones are readily identifed in outcrops of the Chico Formation. These are, in ascending stratigraphic order, the zones of Hyphantoceras venustum, Baculites capensis, Bostrychoceras elongatum, Inoceramus schmidti and Baculites chicoensis. Two of the zones, Bostrychoceras elongatum and I. schmidti, are missing at the type locality of the Chico Formation because of a stratigraphic disconformity. As a result, previous conceptions about the ranges of some important ammonites and inoceramids in California are in error. Lowest exposures of the H. venustum Zone in the Chico Formation are probably latestConiacian in age. Recent palaeomagnetic sampling of Cretaceous strata of the Great Valley (Ward et al., 1983) has confirmed that the Baculites chicoensis Zone is indicative of the lowest Campanian. The age of the I. schmidti Zone in California is therefore latest Santonian. This molluscan sequence enables precise correlation of Chico strata with other Upper Cretaceous outcrop in the Great Valley; in addition, lowermost deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of British Columbia can now be firmly correlated with California strata.