Did intense volcanism trigger the first Late Ordovician icehouse? REPLY

We appreciate the Comment by Herrmann et al. (2011) to our paper (Buggisch et al., 2010). When we compiled the data set for our publication, we were aware that we had not enough pre-Deicke conodont oxygen isotope data because Webers’ (1966) conodont collections from the Pecatonica Member did not yield enough specimens for isotope analysis. At that time, the recently published data of Herrmann et al. (2010) were not available for comparison. Therefore, we imported data of Herrmann et al. (2005), who reported δ¹⁸O values from 18.1‰ to 19.1‰ (VSMOW) for conodont samples from Minnesota and Missouri. According to Herrmann et al. (2005, p. 457), “The samples were all collected from limestone beds immediately below the widespread Deicke K-bentonite.”