Lower Ordovician calcareous microfossils from the San Juan Formation, Argentina: a new type of calcitarch and its paleoenvironmental implications

The calcareous microfossils present in the Ordovician and Silurian carbonate successions around the world are limited to few studies and their biological affinities and environmental preferences remain indefinite. In the carbonate Ordovician San Juan Formation from the Cerro La Chilca section, a group of calcareous microfossils was recognized and, based on their size, they are included in the calcitarch classification. Two types of calcitarchs have been recognized, Type-III calcitarch: large spheres with a thin to medium wall (diameter ~250 μm), and Type-0 calcitarch: small spheres with a thin wall (diameter ~80 μm). The carbonate microfacies analysis of the lower part of the San Juan Formation allowed defining five successive microfacies: burrowed bioclastic wackestone (M1), peloidal intraclastic packstone-grainstone (M2), intraclastic floatstone (M3), intraclastic wackestone-packstone (M4) and bioclastic boundstone (M5). These microfacies are interpreted to range from shallow subtidal facies below wave action to shoal and reef facies. It is possible to infer that the recovered calcitarchs show variations in size in relation to the facies that contain them. The calcitarchs recognized in wackestone-type facies are the Type-0 calcitarch and those recovered from the packstone-grainstone facies are the Type-III calcitarch. The calcitarch sizes variation probably is related to a gradual increase of energy within a shallow subtidal environment. Occurrences of calcitarchs within the Floian Oepikodus evae-O. intermedius conodont zone extends their fossil record into the Early Ordovician.