PROVENANCE OF SILICIFIED PALEOZOIC INVERTEBRATE FOSSILS DISPERSED IN NEOGENE - QUATERNARY AGE SEDIMENTS ACROSS THE NEW JERSEY ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN

The present investigation of the provenance of silicified invertebrate Paleozoic fossils on the New Jersey Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) adds 131 Paleozoic fossils recovered from eight new sites to the six sites previously reported. Fossils are dispersed in the surficial geology formations and Pleistocene alluvium across the ACP. Below taxonomic class, there was little correlation between Paleozoic taxa found on the ACP to Paleozoic formations in northern New Jersey. The ACP taxa are mixed, dominated by tabulate and rugose corals and poriferids but also include crinoids, brachiopods, bryozoans and a single trilobite. Aragonitic bivalves, gastropods and others are notably absent, brachiopods are expressed mostly as external molds on poriferids. Most specimens are worn and weathered, but a proportion are pristine and sharp-edged suggesting an ice-rafting event in addition to the Neogene fluvial event generally accepted as their means of transit