Journal of Paleontology, 90(1), 2016, p. 43–58 Copyright © 2016, The Paleontological Society 0022-3360/16/0088-0906 doi: 10.1017/jpa.2015.51


Early Albian (Early Cretaceous) douvilleiceratid ammonites from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada


Masao Futakami1 and James W. Haggart2,3


1Paleontological Laboratory, Kawamura Gakuen Woman’s University, 1133 Sageto, Abiko-shi, Chiba-ken, 270-1138 Japan ⟨M.Futakami@kgwu.ac.jp⟩


2Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, 1500-605 Robson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 5J3 ⟨jhaggart@nrcan.gc.ca⟩


3Department of Earth, Oceans and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4 ⟨jhaggart@eos.ubc.ca⟩


Abstract.—The early Albian to mid-Albian cosmopolitan genus Douvilleiceras is represented in the Haida Gwaii archipelago of western British Columbia by five species, D. mammillatum (Schlotheim), D. offarcinatum (White), D. scabrosum Casey, D. spiniferum (Whiteaves), and D. aff. spiniferum (Whiteaves). Specimens of one of these taxa, D. spiniferum, are particularly abundant on Haida Gwaii and the species is discussed with respect to its morphological variability and ontogenetic development. The important morphological features for taxonomic criteria of the genus Douvilleiceras are the mode of tuberculation, the pattern of ribbing, and the proportions of the shell in the middle growth stage.


Introduction


The Cretaceous succession of the Haida Gwaii archipelago (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands) of western British Columbia, Canada, includes numerous abundant and well-preserved molluscan faunas, particularly in the Haida Formation, making this one of the best localities to study ammonite faunas of the North Pacific faunal province. The Haida Formation contains a number of importantAlbian ammonite taxa recognized elsewhere in the Pacific region and in some cases globally, including the genus Douvilleiceras and the species Anagaudryceras filicinctum (Whiteaves, 1876), “Anahoplitoides” [=Pochialayniceras Alabushev and Alabusheva (1988)] yakounensis (Whiteaves, 1900), Arcthoplites (Lemuroceras) linaensis McLearn, 1972, Brewericeras hulenense (Anderson, 1938), Calliphylloceras nizinanum Imlay, 1960, Cleoniceras (Grycia) perezianum (Whiteaves, 1876), and Parasilesites laperousianum(Whiteaves, 1876). Among these, “A.” yakounensis, C.(G.) perezianum,and A.(L.) linaensis are all very interesting in representing typical Boreal faunal elements. The early Albian ammonite fauna of HaidaGwaii is thus amixture of Tethyan and Boreal components in a broad sense and this mixed fauna has been called the North Pacific Fauna by Jeletzky (1977). Based on numbers of specimens collected over the past 140


years, ammonites of the genus Douvilleiceras form one of the most abundant and distinctive ammonite genera characteristic of the early Albian faunas of Haida Gwaii. The douvilleiceratids from the Haida Formation, particularly in the Maude Island section found in Skidegate Inlet, have been studied system- atically by Whiteaves (1876) and McLearn (1972), who both recognized only one distinct species, Douvilleiceras spiniferum


43


(Whiteaves, 1876). Using an expanded set of morphological criteria, however, as well as large populations of specimens unavailable to the previous workers, we recognize five species within the genus Douvilleiceras in the Albian strata of Haida Gwaii. Since Casey (1961) established the first modern biostrati-


graphic framework for the Albian, the European and Tethyan Albian ammonite zonations have been closely studied by numerous workers (e.g., Owen, 1988, 1999, 2007; Hoedemaeker et al., 1990; Reboulet et al., 2011) and, consequently, Douvilleiceras mammillatumhas been recognized as an important zonalmarker.As shown byCasey (1962), douvilleiceratid species are particularly abundant in the mammillatumZone, the upper part of the lower Albian, of northwestern Europe. On a global scale, the stratigraphic range of douvilleiceratid ammonites is restricted to the interval from the Leymeriella (L.) tardefurcata Zone (L. acuticostata Subzone) (Kennedy and Kollmann, 1979; Bréhéret et al., 1986; Owen, 1999) to the Lyelliceras lyelli Sub- zone of the Hoplites dentatus Zone (Owen, 1971; Destombes, 1979), indicating the lower part of the lower Albian to the lower part of the middle Albian.


Geological setting


Highly fossiliferous strata of Albian-Turonian age crop out along the shores of Bearskin Bay in central Skidegate Inlet, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (Fig. 1). These Cretaceous strata, referred to the Queen Charlotte Group (Sutherland Brown, 1968; Haggart, 1991), are well exposed along the south shore of Graham Island adjacent to the town of Queen Charlotte City, as well as along the shores of Lina, Maude, and other


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