Deep Spring Formation

Deep Spring Formation
Deep Spring Formation
Stratigraphic range: Ediacaran – Cambrian 540–527 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Deep Springs Valley, the locality after which the formation is named.
Type	Geological Formation
Sub-units	Dunfee, Esmeralda and Gold Point Members
Underlies	Campito Formation
Overlies	Reed Dolomite
Thickness	549 m (1800 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Limestone
Other	Quartzite, Siltstone
Location
Region	Nevada
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Deep Springs Valley

The Deep Spring Formation is a geologic formation in Nevada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods, like Wutubus and Elainabella. It is also one of the only known Ediacaran Lagerstätten in the Southwestern United States.

Geology

The Deep Spring Formation is mainly composed of siltstone, sandstone, limyor dolomitic sandstones, quartzite, sandy limestones and dolomite. It is overlain by the Campito Formation, whilst it is underlain by the Reed Dolomite.

Members

The Deep Spring Formation is composed of three members, which are as follows, in ascending stratigraphic order (lowest to highest):

Dunfee Member: This member is the thickest, getting up to 670 ft (200 m) thick, and is composed of medium-gray or grayish-orange fine crystalline and very thin bedded limestone. Some layers of limestone contain fine grains of quartz, and small irregular carbonate pellets about a quarter of an inch in diameter. There are also light-gray, medium-gray or very-pale-orange fine to coarse crystalline and laminated to thick-bedded dolomite, which occur at the base and top of the member.
Esmeralda Member: This member can get up to 600 ft (180 m) thick, and consists primarily yellowish-gray, pale-yellowish-brown, and very-light-gray very fine to fine grained, and evenly laminated to rarely cross-stratified quartzite and calcareous sandstone. There are medium-gray very fine crystalline to fine crystalline limestone, some of which is oolitic. Within some parts of the member, there are also greenish-gray, olive-gray, and very pale orange siltstone, as well as very-pale-orange very fine crystalline to medium crystalline dolomite.
Gold Point Member: This member is the thinnest, getting up to 350 ft (110 m) thick, and is primarily composed of grayish-olive, greenish-gray, and medium-gray siltstone and very fine grained silty quartzite in the lower parts of this member, whilst in the upper parts of the member has medium-gray fine crystalline dolomite, with occasional limestones.

Paleobiota

The first organism to be described from the Deep Spring Formation in 2014 was Elainabella in the Esmeralda Member, an enigmatic alga with similarities to green algae, suggesting that part of the formation was at one point a shallow marine environment or a microbial reef community. From there, more organisms would be described and named from this formation, most of which are ichnogenera like Planolites, alongside some hyoliths within Cambrian sections, and even a myriad of tubular forms within the Ediacaran sections, like Wutubus and Saarina, expanding not only the stratigraphic range of some of these forms, but also their biogeographic range.

All organisms listed here are from the Ediacaran sections of the formation, unless stated otherwise.

Color key

Taxon	Reclassified taxon	Taxon falsely reported as present	Dubious taxon or junior synonym	Ichnotaxon	Ootaxon	Morphotaxon

Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text
~~crossed out~~ taxa are discredited.

Lophotrochozoa

Genus	Species	Notes	Images
Salanytheca	Salanytheca sp.	Orthothecid hyolith, from the Cambrian section of the formation.
Spinulitheca	S. billingsi	Hyolith lophotrochozoan, from the Cambrian section of the formation.

incertae sedis

Genus	Species	Notes
Cloudina	C. hartmannae	Worm-like organism.
Costatubus	C. bibendi	Tubular fossil, first occurrence in this formation and new species. Previously reported as Conotubus.
Coleoloides	C. inyoensis	Tubular fossil.
Gaojiashania	Gaojiashania sp.	Worm-like organism.
Saarina	S. hagadorni	Tubular fossil, first occurrence in this formation and new species.
Sinotubulites	S. cienegensis	Tubular fossil, originally reported as S. cienegensis.
Wutubus	W. annularis	Tubular fossil.
Wyattia (?)	W. reedensis (?)	Mollusc-like fossil. May by synonymous with Cloudina, though this is tenuous at best.
Vendotaenia	Vendotaenia sp.	Ribbon-like organism.

Flora

Genus	Species	Notes	Images
Elainabella	E. deepspringensis	Enigmatic filamentous multicellular alga.
Stromatolites	Stromatolites	Cyanobacteria layered formation.

Ichnogenera

Ichnogenera
Genus	Species	Notes	Images
Bergaueria	Bergaueria sp.	Resting place of Cnidarians.
Neonereites (?)	Neonereites (?) sp.	Burrows.
Planolites	Planolites sp.	Burrows.
Scolicia (?)	Scolicia sp.	Burrows.
Rusophycus	Rusophycus sp.	Resting traces.
Cruziana	Cruziana sp.	Movement traces.
Treptichnus	T. pedum	Burrows.
Helminthoidichnites	Helminthoidichnites sp.	Burrows.
Helminthopsis	Helminthopsis sp.	Feeding trails.
Cochlichnus	Cochlichnus sp.	Burrows.
Belorhaphe	Belorhaphe sp.	Burrows.
Helicolithus	Helicolithus sp.	Burrows.
Diplichnites	Diplichnites sp.	Arthropod trackways.
Skolithos	Skolithos sp.	Burrows.
Monocraterion	Monocraterion sp.	Burrows.
Monomorphichnus	M. multilineatus	Trilobite feeding traces.
Astropolithon (?)	Astropolithon (?) sp.	Sea star burrows.

References

↑ Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; O’Connell, Nizhoni; Eyster, Athena; Lonsdale, Mary C. (22 September 2022). "The Ediacaran−Cambrian transition in the southern Great Basin, United States". GSA Bulletin. doi:10.1130/B36401.1.
1 2 McKee, Edwin (1968). "Geology of the Magruder Mountain area, Nevada-California" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin: H7. doi:10.3133/b1251h. Wikidata Q57805921.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Smith, E.F.; Nelson, L.L.; Strange, M.A.; Eyster, A.E.; Rowland, S.M.; Schrag, D.P.; Macdonald, F.A. (1 November 2016). "The end of the Ediacaran: Two new exceptionally preserved body fossil assemblages from Mount Dunfee, Nevada, USA". Geology. 44 (11): 911–914. doi:10.1130/G38157.1.
1 2 3 Rowland, Stephen M.; Rodriguez, Margarita G. (March 2014). "A Multicellular Alga with Exceptional Preservation from the Ediacaran of Nevada". Journal of Paleontology. 88 (2): 263–268. doi:10.1666/13-075. ISSN 0022-3360. S2CID 129796477.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stewart, J. H. "Upper Precambrian and Lower Cambrian Strata, in the Southern Great Basin California and Nevada" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survery. Geological Survey Professional.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Selly, Tara; Schiffbauer, James D.; Jacquet, Sarah M.; Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; Andreasen, Brock D.; Huntley, John Warren; Strange, Michael A.; O’Neil, Gretchen R.; Thater, Casey A.; Bykova, Natalia; Steiner, Michael; Yang, Ben; Cai, Yaoping (16 February 2020). "A new cloudinid fossil assemblage from the terminal Ediacaran of Nevada, USA". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (4): 357–379. doi:10.1080/14772019.2019.1623333.
↑ Wotte, Thomas; Sundberg, Frederick A. (September 2017). "Small shelly fossils from the Montezuman–Delamaran of the Great Basin in Nevada and California". Journal of Paleontology. 91 (5): 883–901. doi:10.1017/jpa.2017.8.
1 2 3 Yang, Ben; Warren, Lucas V.; Steiner, Michael; Smith, Emily F.; Liu, Pengju (March 2022). "Taxonomic revision of Ediacaran tubular fossils: Cloudina, Sinotubulites and Conotubus". Journal of Paleontology. 96 (2): 256–273. doi:10.1017/jpa.2021.95. hdl:11449/222774.
↑ Signor, Philip W.; Mount, Jeffrey F.; Onken, Beth R. (1987). "A Pre-Trilobite Shelly Fauna from the White-Inyo Region of Eastern California and Western Nevada". Journal of Paleontology. 61 (3): 425–438. ISSN 0022-3360.
↑ Taylor, Michael E. (1966). "Precambrian Mollusc-like Fossils from Inyo County, California". Science. 153 (3732): 198–201. ISSN 0036-8075.
↑ Lonsdale, Mary C.; Moore, Kelsey R.; Webb, Lucy C.; Schildbach, Mia; Livi, Kenneth J.T.; Smith, Emily F. (31 May 2025). "RIBBON-LIKE COMPRESSION FOSSILS FROM THE LATE EDIACARAN ESMERALDA MEMBER OF THE DEEP SPRING FORMATION AT MOUNT DUNFEE, NEVADA, USA". Palaios. 40 (5): 131–140. doi:10.2110/palo.2024.027.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alpert, Stephen P. (1976). "Trilobite and Star-like Trace Fossils from the White-Inyo Mountains, California". Journal of Paleontology. 50 (2): 226–239. ISSN 0022-3360.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tarhan, Lidya G.; Myrow, Paul M.; Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; Sadler, Peter M. (July 2020). "Infaunal augurs of the Cambrian explosion: An Ediacaran trace fossil assemblage from Nevada, USA". Geobiology. 18 (4): 486–496. doi:10.1111/gbi.12387.

Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2021.

[1] Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; O’Connell, Nizhoni; Eyster, Athena; Lonsdale, Mary C. (22 September 2022). "The Ediacaran−Cambrian transition in the southern Great Basin, United States". GSA Bulletin. doi:10.1130/B36401.1.

[McKee_1968-2] 1 2 McKee, Edwin (1968). "Geology of the Magruder Mountain area, Nevada-California" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin: H7. doi:10.3133/b1251h. Wikidata Q57805921.

[Smith_2016-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Smith, E.F.; Nelson, L.L.; Strange, M.A.; Eyster, A.E.; Rowland, S.M.; Schrag, D.P.; Macdonald, F.A. (1 November 2016). "The end of the Ediacaran: Two new exceptionally preserved body fossil assemblages from Mount Dunfee, Nevada, USA". Geology. 44 (11): 911–914. doi:10.1130/G38157.1.

[Rowland_2014-4] 1 2 3 Rowland, Stephen M.; Rodriguez, Margarita G. (March 2014). "A Multicellular Alga with Exceptional Preservation from the Ediacaran of Nevada". Journal of Paleontology. 88 (2): 263–268. doi:10.1666/13-075. ISSN 0022-3360. S2CID 129796477.

[Stewart1970-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stewart, J. H. "Upper Precambrian and Lower Cambrian Strata, in the Southern Great Basin California and Nevada" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survery. Geological Survey Professional.

[Selly_2020-6] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Selly, Tara; Schiffbauer, James D.; Jacquet, Sarah M.; Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; Andreasen, Brock D.; Huntley, John Warren; Strange, Michael A.; O’Neil, Gretchen R.; Thater, Casey A.; Bykova, Natalia; Steiner, Michael; Yang, Ben; Cai, Yaoping (16 February 2020). "A new cloudinid fossil assemblage from the terminal Ediacaran of Nevada, USA". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (4): 357–379. doi:10.1080/14772019.2019.1623333.

[Wotte2017-7] Wotte, Thomas; Sundberg, Frederick A. (September 2017). "Small shelly fossils from the Montezuman–Delamaran of the Great Basin in Nevada and California". Journal of Paleontology. 91 (5): 883–901. doi:10.1017/jpa.2017.8.

[Yang2022-8] 1 2 3 Yang, Ben; Warren, Lucas V.; Steiner, Michael; Smith, Emily F.; Liu, Pengju (March 2022). "Taxonomic revision of Ediacaran tubular fossils: Cloudina, Sinotubulites and Conotubus". Journal of Paleontology. 96 (2): 256–273. doi:10.1017/jpa.2021.95. hdl:11449/222774.

[9] Signor, Philip W.; Mount, Jeffrey F.; Onken, Beth R. (1987). "A Pre-Trilobite Shelly Fauna from the White-Inyo Region of Eastern California and Western Nevada". Journal of Paleontology. 61 (3): 425–438. ISSN 0022-3360.

[Taylor1966-10] Taylor, Michael E. (1966). "Precambrian Mollusc-like Fossils from Inyo County, California". Science. 153 (3732): 198–201. ISSN 0036-8075.

[Lonsdale2025-11] Lonsdale, Mary C.; Moore, Kelsey R.; Webb, Lucy C.; Schildbach, Mia; Livi, Kenneth J.T.; Smith, Emily F. (31 May 2025). "RIBBON-LIKE COMPRESSION FOSSILS FROM THE LATE EDIACARAN ESMERALDA MEMBER OF THE DEEP SPRING FORMATION AT MOUNT DUNFEE, NEVADA, USA". Palaios. 40 (5): 131–140. doi:10.2110/palo.2024.027.

[Alpert1976-12] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alpert, Stephen P. (1976). "Trilobite and Star-like Trace Fossils from the White-Inyo Mountains, California". Journal of Paleontology. 50 (2): 226–239. ISSN 0022-3360.

[Tarhan2020-13] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tarhan, Lidya G.; Myrow, Paul M.; Smith, Emily F.; Nelson, Lyle L.; Sadler, Peter M. (July 2020). "Infaunal augurs of the Cambrian explosion: An Ediacaran trace fossil assemblage from Nevada, USA". Geobiology. 18 (4): 486–496. doi:10.1111/gbi.12387.