title: Mississippian fossils from southern appalachian metamorphic rocks and their implications for late paleozoic tectonic evolution.
abstract: Fossils of Periastron reticulatum Unger emended. Beck recovered from the Erin Slate of the Talladega slate belt of Alabama establish that these rocks have a Mississippian (Kinderhookian-Tournaisian) age. The Talladega slate belt, the southwestern extension of the western Blue Ridge belt, was interpreted to have been affected by regional dynamothermal metamorphism and coeval deformation as a result of the Acadian orogeny. This fossil find indicates that metamorphism and deformation of the Talladega belt occurred after the Early Carboniferous (Alleghanian), requiring a reevaluation of tectonic interpretations of the southernmost Appalachians.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gastaldo
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Guthrie
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Steltenpohl
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gastaldo
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Steltenpohl