Paleodepositional setting of rhodoliths from the Upper Pennsylvanian (Virgil) Salem School Limestone of northcentral Texas.

Abstract

Rhodoliths from the Late Pennsylvanian (Virgil) Salem Limestone, exposed in norht-central Texas, consist of accretionary algally coated-grains composed of roughly concentric laminar thalli of the ancestral coralline alga Archaeolithophyllum lamellosum. The Salem School rhodoliths are associated with a diverse flora and fauna and occur within a shallow water paleodepositional setting, whose rock lithology can be described as an intensively burrowed skeletal wackestone. Correlation of the Salem School Limestone with its coeval equivalent, the Leavenworth Limestone of the midcontinent region, is based upon unit stratigraphic position, occurrence in both limestones of the distinctive fusulinid Waeringella spiveyi, and the occurrence of similar rhodoliths in both units in seemingly identical paleogeographical settings. -Author