Sumber : Skinner, Brian J. 1928. Physical Geology. Canada : John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Law of Faunal Succession

Fosil adalah sisa-sisa organisme yang terawetkan secara alamiah dan terakumulasi dalam
sedimen dan kemudian terbatukan. Seperti William Smith sedang membuat studi tentang perlapisan
batuan di negara asalnya, yang mengarah pada perumusan prinsip superposisi stratigrafi dan juga
mengamati fosil yang terkandung di dalam setiap lapisannya. Dia menyimpulkan bahwa di dalam setiap
lapisan yang khas memiliki fosil khas. Hal tersebut memungkinkan untuk dapat mengidentifikasi
perbedaan tiap lapisannya, terlepas hanya dari mengidentifikasikan unsur litologinya (Gambar 7.5).

Dengan kata lain, Smith dapat mengidentifikasikan perlapisan dengan mengenali kumpulan fosil
yang terkandung dalam lapisan tersebut. Berdasarkan hal tersebut , Smith menemukan suatu hukum
yang sekarang kita kenal dengan law of faunal succession.

Facies Sedimentary

Jika seseorang memeriksa urutan batuan sedimen yang tersingkap, kemungkinan besar akan tampak
perubahan pada karakter lapisan saat kita bergerak dari satu lapisan ke lapisan lain di atasnya.
Perbedaan tersebut tercermin dalam perubahan lingkungan pengendapan pada tempat tertentu
sepanjang waktu. Sebagian besar strata sedimen, pada kenyataannya, memiliki karakteristik yang
berbeda dari satu area ke area lainnya sebagai akibat dari perubahan jenis atau intensitas badan
pengangkut atau pada kondisi apa batuan sedimen terendapkan. Dalam setiap zona alami yang dilintasi,
endapan khas dan organisme terkait ditemukan yang berfungsi untuk mengidentifikasi lingkungan
pengendapan. Kelompok karakteristik yang khas dalam unit sedimen yang berbeda, sebagai kelompok,
dari tempat lain di unit yang sama adalah fasies sedimen. Setiap fasies dapat diwakili, misalnya dengan
ukuran butir yang khas, bentuk butiran, stratifikasi, warna, struktur pengendapan, atau fosil.
Sedimentary Facies

If one examines a sequence of exposed sedimentary rocks, most likely changes will be seen in their
character as we move up from one layer to the next above. These differences reflect changes in
depositional environments at a particular place through time. However, if any single unit is traced away
from initial outcrop, it might also be observed to change laterally. Most sedimentary strata, in fact,
change character from one area to another as a result of changes in the type or intensity of transporting
agencies or in the conditions under which sediments accumulate. A diversity of environments is readily
seen if a traverse is made across the edge of a continent and into the adjacent ocean basin (Figure. 7.6).
Within each natural zone that is crossed, distinctive sediments and associated organisms are found
which serve to identify that depositional environments. A distinctive group of characteristics within a
sedimentary unit that differs, as a group, from those elsewhere in the same unit is a sedimentary facies.
Each facies may be represented, for example, by distinctive grain size, grain shape, stratification, color,
depositional structures, or fossils. Adjacent facies merge into one another either gradually or abruptly,
depending on the relationships between the two former depositional environments. (Figure. 7.7) .

If a sedimentary unit were exposed in section across its entire extent, it could be identified as a single
unit despite changes in facies. But typically it is exposed only discontinuously. If each exposed part
represents a different facies, it might be necessary to use the contained fossils to show that it is the
same unit throughout. But a difficulty arise here because the assemblages of fossils in two
differentfacies may not be exactly the same, even though the organisms they represent lived at the
same time. This happens because the environments in which the organisms lived were different. In the
same sea, deep water shellfish are unlike shallow water kinds. On land, animals living in deserts are
unlike those living simultaneously in moist, forested regions. However , such variations do not make it
impossible to show that different rock sections are equivalent, they only make it more difficult.