9418863 Murphy This project seeks to develop an integrated biostratigraphic zonation of the Lochkovian and Pragian Stages of the Lower Devonian based on stratigraphic sections and taxonomic studies of Nevadan, Spanish, Austrian, and Bohemian material. It will integrate the biostratigraphies of the two most useful groups, the conodonts and the graptolites, with the biostratigraphies of the brachiopods, ostracodes microvertebrates, trilobites, dacryoconarids, and corals stratigraphies as they are currently known. The project necessarily depends on a close collaboration in their various institutions. The study will integrate the various biostratigraphies through application of Shaw's method of graphic correlation modified to weight evolutionary appearance of taxa more strongly in developing a composite section for the Lower Devonian (lochkovian-Pragian) that may be used for chronostratigraphic interpretation within the interval. Most stratigraphic problems depend fundamentally on being able to assign relative ages to the strata being studied. This project will seek to set up a globally useful standard of comparison for biostratigraphic work and relative age dating in the Lochkovian-Pragian interval. This is now possible because of the present data base and circumstances of key personnel.
