Conodont paleontology and biostratigraphy of Ordovician carbonates and petroliferous carbonates on Southampton, Baffin, and Akpatok islands in the eastern Canadian Arctic

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Abstract
Carbonate and petroliferous carbonate units ("oil shales") on Southampton, Baffin, and Akpatok islands have yielded a total of 2277 conodonts, the more biostratigraphically useful of which indicate not all units are correlative. The Boas River "shale", the lower of the two petroliferous units on Southampton Island, overlies the Bad Cache Rapids Group and contains a diverse fauna, including elements of Amorphognathus ordovicicus Branson and Mehl. Previous reports have indicated the presence of Culumbodina penna Sweet, a species whose range only barely overlaps that of A. ordovicicus in the middle Maysvillian. Carbonate beds and bedding-plane surfaces of the higher Red Head Rapids Formation at Sixteen Mile Brook yielded A. ordovicicus faunas containing Aphelognathus cf. A. divergens Sweet. These beds are likely Richmondian, since A. divergens is known elsewhere only from Richmondian strata. A metasicula of "Glyptograptus" hudsoni Jackson, several natural conodont assemblages, and fused enigmatic coniform elements were also found at Sixteen Mile Brook.The petroliferous unit in unnamed strata at Amadjuak Lake on Baffin Island contains Belodina area Sweet, which is indicative of a late Edenian to early Maysvillian age. Conodonts from the petroliferous strata at Jordan River on Baffin Island suggest a Trentonian to early Maysvillian age. The conodonts recovered from unnamed strata on Akpatok Island are not very diagnostic but indicate an age range from Shermanian to Gamachian.