Unit Name: Lynx Group
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Group
Status: Formal
Usage: Revised
Age Interval: Dresbachian (499 - 496.8 ma)
Age Justification: Sparse faunal data indicate a Dresbachian age for the Lynx Group.
Province/Territory: Alberta; British Columbia
Originator: Lynx Formation; Walcott, C.D., 1963; Lynx Group; Aitken, J.D. and Greggs, R.G., 1967.
Type Locality:
On Chushina Ridge, between Snowbird Pass and Billings Butte, directly east of Mount Robson, in British Columbia. A supplemental reference section on Rearguard Mountain was proposed by Burling (in: Walcott, 1928) and recommended by Mountjoy (1962) as the type section for the Lynx Group.
Distribution:
The Lynx Group is characteristically between 1,068 and 1,220 m (3,500 and 4,000 ft) thick in the front and main ranges; it thins eastward to 732 m (2,400 ft) in the western front ranges at Jasper, in the Chetamon Thrust Sheet. The group is subdivided to the southward into an upper and lower division, the upper Lynx comprising the Lyell, Bison Creek and Mistaya formations or their carbonate equivalent, the lower Lynx embracing the Waterfowl and Sullivan formations. The Lynx Formation was extended northward to the McBride and Monkman Pass areas by Slind and Perkins (1966), Campbell et al. (1973) and McMechan (1985).
Lithology:
Alternating thin- and thick-beds of argillaceous, often dolomitic carbonates.
Relationship:
The Lynx Group is overlain by the Lower Ordovician Survey Peak (formerly Chushina) Formation, and is gradationally underlain by the red and green shales of the Arctomys Formation
History:
The Lynx Formation, established by Walcott in 1913, was later accurately described by Burling (in: Walcott, 1928). Mountjoy (1962) excluded Arctomys-like lithologies from the base of the Lynx Formation, and Aitken and Greggs (1967) raised the Lynx to group status, to encompass the interval from the base of the Waterfowl to the top of the Mistaya formations.
Other Citations:
Aitken, 1967; Aitken and Greggs, 1967; Burling, 1955; Campbell, Mountjoy and Young, 1973; McMechan, 1985; Mountjoy, 1962; Slind and Perkins, 1966; Walcott, 1913, 1928.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: R.G. Greggs; E.W. Mountjoy
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 09 Aug 2005