Taallalt, Issoumour Mountain

Taallalt, Issoumour Mountain

Geological time
Silurian Devonian
Age
~420 million years ago
Period
Late Silurian (Pridoli)
Formation
Unknown
Depositional environment
Open marine shelf to deeper offshore setting below storm wave base
Fossil types
Crinoids, orthoconic cephalopods, other marine invertebrates
Paleoecology highlights
Calm offshore waters, fine sediment accumulation, floating crinoid colonies with gas-filled loboliths, episodic transport and burial, low-energy seafloor conditions

Picture an offshore sea stretching far into the horizon. The water is clear and sunlit near the surface, fading into deeper blue below. Fine carbonate mud and silt settle slowly onto the seafloor, forming pale, layered sediments that blanket the landscape.

The environment is stable and low-energy, with only occasional disturbances. Over time, this calm marine setting builds thick successions of limestone and shale, preserving dead organisms that sink to the bottom, capturing a snapshot of a distinctive Silurian ecosystem in the final stages before the Devonian world began.

Taallalt, Issoumour Mountain shown on the globe Map

†Camerata

2 specimens

Crinoidea

9 specimens

Orthoceratoidea

13 specimens

†Scyphocrinites elegans

2 specimens

Unclassified

1 specimen