Conodonts and Biostratigraphy of Upper Ordovician Strata along a Shelf to Basin Transect in Central Nevada

Conodonts representing 38 species of 26 genera have been identified in samples from Upper Ordovician rocks at three central Nevada localities. Ranges of these species and associated graptolites are used graphically to determine correlation of the strata considered with an evolving composite standard that includes information from Ordovician strata at more than 100 localities in North America. Results indicate that the Hanson Creek Formation at Lone Mountain is latest Edenian through mid-Richmondian in age; that the Ordovician part of the Hanson Creek in the Monitor Range section spans an interval from Maysvillian through Richmondian; and that the upper 29 m of the Vinini Formation at the Vinini Creek locality is of mid-Maysvillian to late Richmondian age. Physical discontinuities in the Ordovician-Silurian boundary interval complicate correlations, but it is now clear that conodonts that range upward into, and have long been considered distinctive of the Lower Silurian, make their debut in central Nevada in an upper segment of the Upper Ordovician Normalograptus persculptus graptolite zone that may be latest Richmondian in age.