Late Ordovician-Early Silurian chitinozoans from north-eastern and western Illinois, USA

Samples of uppermost Ordovician and Silurian strata from two cores from north-eastern and western Illinois were processed for chitinozoans. Due to apparent sea-floor oxidation or palaeoenvironmental constraints, very few samples yielded specimens, but those that did allow tentative correlation with established biostratigraphical zonations for the Chitinozoa. Samples from the Wilhelmi Formation of core DH76-21 in north-eastern Illinois yielded Spinachitina fragilis, a typically earliest Silurian taxon. A sample from the Maquoketa Group strata of core Principia #4, western Illinois, yielded a monospecific assemblage of Conochitina elegans, which is suggestive of a late Ordovician age. Higher in this core, a sample from the upper strata of the Bowling Green Dolomite yielded an assemblage indicating a late Rhuddanian to Aeronian age, including Angochitina hansonica, previously only described from strata in Nevada, and one new species, Fungochitina illinoisensis. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.