Hi all,
Here is a recent report I recall from a year ago of large sub-fossil worm reefs 650 m deep off Santa Monica, that may or may not be of interest. Perhaps someone has identified the worm tubes by now.
"... serpulid annelids. Many of the tubes were encased in soft mudstones of unknown age and were partially fossilized."
http://www.mbari.org/expeditions/Southern13/Leg2/Logbook/day4.htm
Geoff
-----Original Message-----
From: annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu [mailto:annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu] On Behalf Of Powell, Charles
Sent: Saturday, 20 September 2014 6:24 a.m.
To: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu
Subject: Re: [Annelida] worm tubes
Thank you for adding me Larry. I can fill in some of the details of the
locality, age and environment of the rocks. The worm tube colonies are
being collected from rocks mapped as the "Temblor" Formation. Temblor is
in quote because it does not directly correlate with the type Temblor
Formation in the Temblor Range in southern San Luis Obispo County, probably
200 miles away. This is a common problem in California geology. The rocks
are well bioturbated mostly medium- to fine-grain sandstone with occasional
well rounded pebble conglomerate beds. A normal marine fauna including
mollusks and a number of marine mammals has and is being been found at the
site. The site is the expansion of the Calaveras Reservoir east of Fremont
and south of Livermore in the San Francisco East Bay. A new dam is being
constructed and at this point they are still digging out for the new dam
and exposing lots of faulting and apparently a thin section of marine
"Temblor" Formation. Using sedimentology and the mollusks I believe the
environment is outer shelf, possibly upper slope, possibly in a large same
- think similar to Monterey Bay today, but between 20 and 15 million years
ago. In fact I was talking with a vertebrate paleontologists last night
who has looked and some of the vertebrates and between us we think the
rocks are between 19.5 and 16 Ma. The colonies appear to have been
transported as all of them I saw were lying on their side if you consider
the rounded portion up. Jim Walker (the site paleontologists) and I are
very excited about these worm colonies. If anyone has any questions please
ask and I'll answer as best I can.
Best,
Chuck
On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 10:58 AM, Lovell, Larry <LLovell from lacsd.org> wrote:
> Alexei, Colin, Harry, and others,
>>>> Thanks to all for the comments on these fossil worm tubes. I am adding
> Chuck Powell to the email list so he can see any further relies on Annelida
> to my post. He is the originator of the question and has more pics and
> information he can share. Please make sure to include him in any further
> discussion.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>
