Nonmarine mollusks, the most consistently occurring element of Mesozoic and Cenozoic nonmarine macrofaunas, are abundant and locally dominant in many preserved terrestrial and freshwater "paleocommunities." Maximum interpretive potential of mollusk assemblages is derived from detailed analysis of several biologic and physical factors: (1) taxonomy based on modern malacologic and paleontologic concepts that include differentiation of genetic and nongenetic morphologic variability; (2) biostratonomy (the history of the faunal assemblage from death to final burial); (3) community structure; (4) time-space variability of assemblages relative to a detailed lithostratigraphic framework; and (5) rock types, fabric, and structures of the enclosing sedimentary rock. Collectively, hese factors indicate whether the faunal assemblage was preserved in the original environment in which it lived. Failure to gather and/or interpret adequately these data has promoted the widely held misconception that mollusks are of little value in the interpretation of depositional environments, biostratigraphy, correlation, and age determination of nonmarine rocks.

Two examples of the interpretive value of Paleocene and Eocene nonmarine mollusks are (1) depositional environments and regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction of part of the Green River and Wasatch Formations, southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado;

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and (2) biostratigraphy and correlation of part of the Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation, northern Powder River basin, Wyoming and Montana.

The Green River and Wasatch Formations are complexly intertonguing lacustrine and fluvial units that were deposited during early and middle Eocene time in Western Interior basins of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. The structure of nonmarine molluscan associations within these strata delineates littoral and sublittoral lacustrine, pond, fluvial, and terrestrial habitats. Littoral and sublittoral lacustrine habitats are characterized by a low-diversity association of prosobranch gastropods and unionid bivalves. Rank and relative abundance of taxa differ in these habitats. Ponds are dominated by a diverse association of aquatic pulmonate gastropods with sphaeriid bivalves. Lowland and flood-plain habitats are characterized by a locally diverse association of terrestrial pulmonate gastropods and a fluvial association dominated by unionid bivalves with prosobranch and aquatic pulmonate gastropods. Comparison with structurally similar molluscan associations from modern habitats, paleosynecology of fossil taxa, and lithostratigraphic data provide bases for paleoenvironmental interpretation. Analysis of paleogeographic and stratigraphic distribution of these Eocene molluscan associations, relative to a detailed lithostratigraphic framework, permits regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction within the Green River and Wasatch Formations.

In the northern Powder River basin, the Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation contains diverse, commonly excellently preserved assemblages of Paleocene nonmarine mollusks. Detailed study of the distribution of gastropods and bivalves in the stratigraphic interval from below the Wall coal bed to above the Arvada coal bed clearly indicates the value of mollusks in correlation of sedimentary sequences between the Wall, Anderson, Smith, Roland, and Arvada coal beds. Clinal morphologic variation in shell form and sculpture through time within a lineage of viviparid gastropods provides an additional method for correlation within part of the stratigraphic interval.

These studies clearly indicate the value of mollusks in the interpretation of depositional environments, biostratigraphy, and correlation of Paleogene nonmarine rocks.

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