Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Stable Isotope Stratigraphy And Paleosols Of North America's Most Southern Exposure Of Late Paleocene/Early Eocene Fossiliferous Continental Deposits: Documenting The Initial Eocene Thermal Maximum In Big Bend National Park, Texas, Paul David White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A chemostratigraphic section across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, using the stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen, has been developed for North America's most southern exposure of early Paleogene continental deposits in which the boundary is constrained by fossil mammals. A negative carbon excursion has been identified within C24r. The range in d¹³C values is from -8.1 to -13.2‰. Until the development of the chemostratigraphic section it was uncertain if the earliest Eocene was recorded in Big Bend. An early Wasatchian (Wa1) fossil site occurs stratigraphically higher than the carbon excursion and has yielded the stratigraphically lowest Hyracotherium in the …