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Permian fusulinid Foraminifera from Wherowhero Point, Orua Bay, Northland, New Zealand a

E. Ja. Leven & J. A. Grant‐Mackie

b

a

Geological Institute , Russian Academy of Sciences , Pyzhevskyi 7, Moscow, 109017, Russia b

Department of Geology , The University of Auckland , Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand Published online: 23 Mar 2010.

To cite this article: E. Ja. Leven & J. A. Grant‐Mackie (1997) Permian fusulinid Foraminifera from Wherowhero Point, Orua Bay, Northland, New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 40:4, 473-486, DOI: 10.1080/00288306.1997.9514777 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00288306.1997.9514777

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New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40: 473-486 0028-8306/97/4004-0473 $7.00/0 ©The Royal Society of New Zealand 1997

473

Permian fusulinid Foraminifera from Wherowhero Point, Orua Bay, Northland, New Zealand E. Ja. LEVEN Geological Institute Russian Academy of Sciences Pyzhevskyi 7 109017 Moscow, Russia

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J. A. GRANT-MACKIE Department of Geology The University of Auckland Private Bag 92 019 Auckland, New Zealand Abstract A new thin-section study of limestones from Wherowhero Point, Orua Bay, Northland, has produced a fauna of 24 fusuline taxa and 19 smaller foraminifers. The fusulines are much more diverse than earlier records have shown and include genera and species not previously recorded (e.g., Pseudokahlerina compressa Sosnina, Reichelina cf. lamarensis Skinner & Wilde, Rauserella cf. breviscula Sosnina, Chusenella urulungensis Wang et al., Yabeina ampla Skinner & Wilde, Dunbarula, and Pseudofusulina). A species previously recorded as Yabeina parvula Skinner & Wilde is re-identified as Y. globosa (Yabe), and that identified earlier as Lepidolina multiseptata (Deprat) is determined to be its evolutionary precursor L. shiraiwensis Ozawa. The latter species, together with Kahlerina pachytheca Kochansky-Devide & Ramovs, Neoschwagerina margaritae Deprat, and Yabeina archaica Dutkevich, are the most widespread species in the eight collections studied from four localities, and these four species and Yabeina ampla are the most abundantly represented. The fauna clearly belongs to the Yabeina-Lepidolina fusulinid zone, and to the Late Permian Midian Stage, and the presence of Neoschwagerina margaritae and Yabeina archaica indicates that some samples are probably Early Midian. A Midian age is also supported by the smaller foraminifers Frondina permica Civrieux & Sessauvagie, Robuloides cf. lens Reichel, Dagmarita, Hemigordiopsis, and Neoendothyra. Paleogeographic relationships lie with eastern Asia and less strongly also with western North America. Keywords Waipapa Group; Northland; fusuline foraminifers; Permian; Midian Stage; Yabeina-Lepidolina Zone; Tethys; paleobiogeography INTRODUCTION Fusuline foraminifers were first found in New Zealand by R. F. Hay, New Zealand Geological Survey District

G96041 Received 6 November 1996; accepted 9 June 1997

Geologist, and A. A. Somerville in March 1950 east of Whangaroa Harbour, eastern Northland (Fig. 1), and were identified by Hornibrook (1951) as Verbeekina (= Kahlerina) sp., Neoschwagerina margaritae Deprat, Yabeina multiseptata (Deprat), and Yabeina sp., with a Wordian or Capitanian (mid-Permian) age. The specimens came from "blocks of limestone composed largely of fusulines and fragments of spilite and associated with spilitic lavas" (Hornibrook 1951: 319) in the structurally complex Waipapa Group. Other fossils in the limestones include smaller foraminifers (Cribrogenerina—Hornibrook 1968) and rugose corals (Leed 1956) of eastern Tethyan affinity. Leed (1956) reported Hornibrook's revised opinion of the age of the foraminifers as Ochoan (Late Permian). A Kazanian age was supported by Waterhouse (1968) on the basis of the reported presence in the limestone also of the spiriferide brachiopod Martiniopsis woodi Waterhouse. This was known previously as a zonal index species in the Maitai Terrane, Southland, and the only Maitai taxon said to be common to the two terranes. The three samples on which this identification was based have subsequently been shown (Campbell 1992) to have a lithology and associated fauna different from those of the Marble Bay sequence of Northland (Fig. IB). The samples came more likely from the South Island Maitai or Brook Street Terranes, probably from Southland, so this record and its age indication should be ignored. More attention has been afforded the Northland fusulines in recent years. Hornibrook et al. (1989) accepted the allocation of Y. multiseptata to the subgenus Lepidolina and recorded the previously unidentified Yabeina as Y. cf. globosa. Hornibrook (1990) reported Codonofusiella and Y. multiseptata (as well as Cribrogenerina) from bioclastic limestone clasts in a coarse volcanic breccia from Moturoa Island (locality Q05/f6 in Fig. 1C). In a more detailed study, Vachard & Ferriere (1991) recorded three algal species, two additional corals, 23 species of smaller foraminifers, and eight fusuline species (Table 1) from three microfacies types of wackestone/packstone from Orua Bay (Fig. 1), but without providing a locality map. This fauna they dated as Midian (Late Permian), readily concluded on a Tethyan affinity, and suggested that the sequence had an origin in Cathaysia, followed by a 3000 km migration across the Paleopacific. Campbell (1992) included an updated list of six fusulines from the original Marble Bay locality (Table 1); the lack of correspondence between this fauna and that recorded by Vachard & Ferriere (1991) is remarkable. These variations in records of the biota, as is also apparent amongst the different samples discussed below (Table 2), perhaps reflect differences in the nature and location of depositional sites, slight differences in age, and chance in the preparation of thin sections. Whatever the reason, it is apparent from these lists that the Orua Bay fusuline fauna totals over 30 species. Additional taxa may be found by more detailed analysis.

New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40

474

greywacke -36'S

green spilite with

Auckland

limestone/marble red melange

NORTH ISLAND

176'E I Whangaroa o Harbour %

P04/f7605 f7507. f7520 Wherowhero Point

Q

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Q05/f6

Tauranga Bay

Fig. 1 Locality map and regional basement geology. A, Outline map of Auckland-Northland showing the study area. B, Marble Bay-Orua Bay area showing the basement geology (stippled) (from Sporli & Gregory 1981). C, Whangaroa-Bay of Islands. Fusulintbearing localities are shown by fossil masterfile numbers; P04/fl02 covers the Wherowhero Point-western Orua Bay area.

Fusulines are now known from eight localities in Northland (Fig. 1B, C) mainly in faunas that are less diverse and more poorly preserved than the original find. The only other fusulines known from New Zealand occur in the South Island Torlesse Supergroup (Hornibrook & Shu 1965; Hornibrook et al. 1989; Hada & Landis 1995) and are of Middle Permian age (late Kubergandian - early Murgabian). The Northland localities lie in a 10-12 km wide zone running southeast from Whangaroa with "common chert and manganese-bearing rocks" (Rear & Hay 1961). The fusulines are found in "grey, veined and stylolitic limestones" occurring "as lensoid bodies up to several metres across and more laterally extensive sheets, generally conformably intercalated with the green argillite" (Sporli & Gregory 1981: 225). These authors documented a stratigraphic sequence in the Marble Bay - Kairawaru Bay area with basal green spilite overlain by chert, green argillite (and limestone/ marble), and terrigenous greywacke at the top. A fifth lithotope, red melange, includes lensoidal centimetric to metric bodies of spilite, chert, limestone and other lithologies, and was interpreted as having been thrust over the greywacke. The whole sequence, of unknown but probably not great thickness, was regarded as allochthonous, originating in the tropical Paleopacific, transported large distances, and tectonically emplaced onto the margin of Gondwanaland. The present study deals with collections of fusulinebearing limestone housed in the Department of Geology, The University of Auckland (AU... in the departmental Catalogue of Fossil Collections), which have yielded a rather more diverse foraminiferal fauna than hitherto recorded. All samples come from Wherowhero Point, the western headland of Orua Bay, Whangaroa, either from one or other of two sites 100-200 m apart (Fig. 1), or as general collections from

the area (i.e. those in which a more precise site has not been recorded). Localities are listed in the archival Fossil Record Master File of the Geological Society of New Zealand (PQ4/ f... = fossil locality no. within the 1:50 000 topographic map sheet P04). Localities and collections are as follows: P04/T102 (general no., as mentioned above, and thus not shown on Fig. 1): AU14242, collected by G.W. Gibson 1961; AU14243, col. GWG, undated; AU14244, col. P.O. Gibson, Aug 1990. P04/f7518: AU2482, col. J.A. Grant-Mackie & H.W.R. Maehl, Jan 1966; AU9148, col. M.R. Gregory, Apr 1978; AU 10338, col. HWRM & P.F. Ballance, Jun 1967. P04/f7519: AU2483, col. HWRM & PFB, Jun 1967. P04/f7520: AU2484, col. HWRM, Jan 1967. Collections from the other localities shown in Fig. 1 are not included in this study.

Table 1 Fusuline taxa recorded by earlier workers from the Whangaroa region. Vachard & Ferriere (1991)

Campbell (1992)

Chusenella cf. cheni Skinner & Wilde Codonofusiella ex gr. nana Erk Kahlerina ex gr. pachytheca Kochansky & Ramovs Minojapanella elongata Fujimoto & Kanuma Nankinella ex gr. orbicularia Lee Reichelina media K..V. MiklukhoMaclay Sichotenella cf. sutschanica Toumanskaya Yabeina parvula Skinner & Wilde

Chusenella sp. Codonofusiella sp. Colania douvillei (Ozawa) Kahlerina sp. Neoschwagerina margaritae (Deprat) Yabeina (Lepidolina) multiseptata (Deprat)

475 FUSULINID ASSEMBLAGES AND THEIR ANALYSIS

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All studied samples contain abundant fusulinids. Most are poorly preserved, but the use of a large number of oriented thin-sections enables more certain identification of fusulinid and smaller foraminiferan assemblages (Table 2). Figured specimens (F97 etc.) are recorded in the Department's catalogue of type and figured specimens. Recent decisions of the Permian Subcommission (Jin 1996) attempt to stablise chronostratigraphic nomenclature for the Permian and introduce a three-fold, rather than twofold, division based on North American sequences. These, however, can not yet be correlated precisely with Tethyanbased stages, which are therefore used herein. The Midian Stage of the Tethys is approximately equivalent to the Capitanian plus the late portion of the Wordian Stages of the North American scheme (Fig. 2).

Table 2

Foraminifers show that all studied samples have a restricted age range and belong to the Yabeina-Lepidolina fusulinid zone or the Midian Stage (Leven 1992,1996). Such fusulinid genera and species as Yabeina archaica, Y. globosa, Lepidolina shiraiwensis, Kahlerina pachytheca, Reichelina, and Codonofusiella are characteristic of this stage. Among the small foraminifers Frondina permica, Dagmarita, Hemigordiopsis, Neoendothyra*, and Robuloides are also typical (Lys 1988; Kotlyar et al. 1989). Most of our samples are probably early Midian. Indeed, Neoschwagerina margaritae from P04/f7518 and flO2 (AU14243, AU14244) is widely distributed throughout the *The scheme of classification within the Foraminiferida currently in use in Russia, and followed here, places Neoendothyra within the Superorder Endothyroida, whereas Vachard & Ferriere (1991) classified it within Superorder Fusulinoida. It is excluded in Table 1.

Foraminiferal fauna from Wherowhero Point collections identified in the present study. Locality:

P04/

Collection:

AU

Fusulinids Reichelina sp. R. cf. turgida Sheng R. cf. lamarensis Skinner & Wilde Sichotenella{7) sp. Rauserella cf. breviscula Sosnina Rauserella (?) sp. Schubertella (?) sp. Dunbarula nana Kochansky-Devide & Ramovs Dunbarula (?) sp. Codonofusiella cf. schubertelloides Sheng Pseudofusulina sp. Chusenella urulungensis Wang, Sheng & Zhang Chusenella (?) sp. Neoschwagerina margaritae Deprat N. cf. craticulifera (Schwager) Yabeina archaica Dutkevich Y. ampla Skinner & Wilde Y. globosa (Yabe) Lepidolina shiraiwensis (Ozawa) Lepidolina sp. Kahlerina pachytheca Kochansky-Devide & Ramovs K. cf. globiformis Sosnina Kahlerina sp. Pseudokahlerina compressa Sosnina Small foraminifers Glomospira sp. Agathamina (?) sp. Hemigordiopsis sp. Globivalvulina (?) sp. Nodosaria sp. Frondina sp. F. permica Civrieux & Dessauvagie Pachyphloia sp. P. cf. cukurkoyi Civrieux & Dessauvagie Geinitzina sp. Deckerella sp. Cribrogenerina sp. Palaeotextularia sp. Climacammina sp. Dagmarita sp. Neoendothyra sp. Robuloides cf. /e«.s Reichel Bradyina (?) sp. Tetrataxis sp.

f7518 2482

9148

X X

f7519

f7520

10338

2483

2484

X

X

flO2 14242

14243

14244

X

X

X

X

X X X

X X X X X ?

X X X

X X

X X cf. X, aff. X cf.

cf.

X

X

aff. X

X

X

X

X X nov.

X

X

X

X X

X

?

X

X X

X X

X X X X

X

X X

X

X

X X X

X X X

X X X

X X

X X X X X X X X

X

New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40

476

tDIOMET AGE (Ma

u NORTH AMERICAN STAGES

TETHYAN STAGES

DORASHAMIAN CHANGHSINGIAN

DZHULFIAN

?

PERM IAN

CAPITANIAN

MIDIAN

? ? ? ? ?

KAZANIAN MURGABIAN

UPI