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At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
USGS2000

Pseudomulceodens: A Mississippian Rostroconch from Mexico

This finding of Pseudomulceodens in Mississippian-age rocks of the Santiago Formation provides the first evidence of the molluscan class Rostroconchia in Mexico. Elsewhere in North American Mississippian rocks the class occurs in Arkansas (Hoare et al., 1982, 1988); Illinois (Weller, 1916); Indiana (Beede, 1906); Iowa (White and Whitfield, 1862); Michigan (Winchell, 1870); Montana and Nevada (Pojeta and Runnegar, 1976); Ohio (Hyde, 1953; Hoare, 1990); and Oklahoma (Branson, 1958). Pseudomulceodens cancellatus (Hyde, 1953) confirms the Osagean age (Early Mississippian) of the Santiago Formation, and reinforces the conclusion that there is paleobiogeographic similarity between faunas of the Nochixtlan region of Oaxaca, Mexico and the midcontinent of the USA during Early Carboniferous time. It seems likely that there was a close connection between southwestern Mexico and the Mid-Continent Paleoprovince, located in the east and central regions of the United States. Prior to this study the rostroconch genera Aphelakardia and Pseudomulceodens were placed in the family Hippocardiidae; they are here transferred to the family Conocardiidae.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS2003

Shell microstructure of the late Carboniferous rostroconch mollusc Apotocardium lanterna (Branson, 1965)

The Late Carboniferous bransoniid conocardioidean Apotocardium lanterna ( Branson, 1965 ) had an entirely aragonitic shell with a finely prismatic outer shell layer, a predominantly crossed lamellar to complex crossed lamellar middle shell layer, and an “inner” shell layer of finely textured porcelaneous and/or matted structure. This “inner” layer is probably homologous with the inner part of the middle shell layer and the inner layer sensu stricto of bivalved molluscs. Shell morphological and microstructural convergences between conocardioids and living heart cockles suggest that at least some conocardioids may have farmed algal endosymbionts in their posterior mantle margins. This symbiosis may have helped conocardioids compete with the biomechanically more efficient bivalves during the latter part of the Paleozoic.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS2005

A new Sunwaptan (Late Cambrian) trilobite fauna from the Upper Mississippi Valley

A single bed at the base of the Jordan Sandstone in a road cut at Arcadia, Wisconsin, yielded an undescribed Late Sunwaptan (Saukia Zone) trilobite fauna that includes at least four species from the families Dikelocephalidae Miller, 1889 and Eurekiidae Hupe??, 1953. Arcadiaspis bispinata n. gen. and sp. is a distinctive eurekiid that is characterized by paired occipital and thoracic axial spines, long genal spines, and a nonspinose pygidial margin. Other genera present are the dikelocephalids, Dikelocephalus Owen, 1852 and Calvinella Walcott, 1914, and the eurekiid, Eurekia Walcott, 1916. Type material of Calvinella spiniger (Hall, 1863) is illustrated photographically for the first time. A new eurekiid species, Corbinia burkhalteri from the Fort Sill Formation, Oklahoma, is also described.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS2005

A new synziphosurine (Chelicerata: Xiphosura) from the Late Llandovery (Silurian) Waukesha Lagerstatte, Wisconsin, USA

A new synziphosurine (Chelicerata:Xiphosura) is described from the Late Llandovery (Silurian) Konservat-Lagerstätte of Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA. Venustulus waukeshaensis n.gen. and sp. is characterized by a semicircular carapace with a slightly procurved posterior margin lacking genal spines and an opisthosoma composed of 10 freely articulating segments, divided into a preabdomen of seven segments with blunt pleurae and a postabdomen of three segments lacking pleurae. The tail spine is short and styliform. This is the earliest known unequivocal synziphosurine, extending their fossil record from the Wenlock to the Llandovery, and only the second species to be described with prosomal appendages; the presence of six pairs (a pair of chelicerae and five pairs of walking legs) contrasts with the seven in the synziphosurine Weinbergina opitzi , but is comparable to the number in modern horseshoe crabs. V. waukeshaensis n. gen. and sp. is not assigned to a family here pending a wider revision, but it bears most resemblance to the Weinberginidae.

Wisconsin↗
USGS2015

Late Triassic megalodontids (Bivalvia) from the headwaters of the Yangtze River, Qinghai province, west China

A bivalve faunule of six species is described from the Upper Triassic Jiapila Formation at the headwaters of the Yangtze River, southern Qinghai, China. The new species, Neomegalodon cornutus and Quemocuomegalodon circularis , are described. The type species of Quemocuomegalodon, Q. orientus , is revised. Quemocuomegalodon orientus Yao, Sha, and Zhang (2003) is now known from abundant, well-preserved specimens that show great variation in shape, size, thickness of shell, and dentition, and the species Q. longitatus , Yao, Sha, and Zhang (2003) is now placed in synonymy with Q. orientus. There are significant morphologic differences between the external appearance of shelled specimens and the internal molds of species of Quemocuomegalodon. This suggests the need for the re-evaluation of many megalodontid species from elsewhere that are known only from internal molds.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS2015

New fusulinids from Lower Permian turbidites at Conglomerate Mesa, southeastern inyo Mountains, east-central California

Seven previously unrecognized fusulinid species from Lower Permian (Wolfcampian and Leonardian) turbidites near Conglomerate Mesa in east-central California, four of which are named as new species, are here described and figured. The four new species are Schwagerina merriami, S. wildei, Parafusulina mackevetti, and Skinnerella rossi. These fusulinid species have close affinities to similar taxa in Texas and northeastern Nevada, and they are distinct from some other faunas of slightly different age in the Conglomerate Mesa area that are dominated by endemic species and other species with Eastern Klamath Mountains affinities.

California↗
USGS2015

New Permian durhaminid cerioid corals from east-central California

Permian colonial corals from Artinskian to Kungurian strata in the Conglomerate Mesa area, Inyo Mountains, east-central California, include five new species, one of which is assigned to a new genus. The new taxa are: Malpaisia maceyi n. gen. and n. sp., Pararachnastraea bellula n. sp., P. delicata n. sp., P. owensensis n. sp., and Cordillerastraea inyoensis n. sp. These species, several of which compare most closely with other Artinskian and Kungurian species from eastern Nevada and northern Mexico, represent three distinct stocks that differentiated on an isolated submarine uplift offshore from the main part of the Cordilleran carbonate shelf.

California↗
USGS1985

Paraheritschioides, a new rugose coral genus from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Idaho

Colonial rugose corals are rare and generally poorly diversified in the Upper Pennsylvanian of the western interior region, conterminous USA. Paraheritschioides n.gen., which includes P. grandis n.sp., and P. complexa n.sp. from the Oquirrh Formation in Idaho, provides a new tool for distinguishing Upper Pennsylvanian rocks in the western interior. The new genus is also represented by P. stevensi (Wilson) in the Permian McCloud Limestone of northern California. The new family Heritschioididae is created to include Paraheritschioides, Heritschioides, Amandophyllum and Heintzella.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1985

Significance of the Goniatite Bilinguites eliasi and Associated Biotas, Parkwood Formation and Bangor Limestone, Northwestern Alabama

The Bangor Limestone contains conodonts, smaller calcareous foraminifers, and a sparse marine macrofauna dating it as late or latest Chesterian (Late Mississippian). The Parkwood Formation, a paralic sequence disconformably overlying the Bangor, has yielded a fauna containing the reticuloceratid ammonoid Bilinguites eliasi Manger and Saunders which permits correlation of the Parkwood Formation in north-western Alabama to the upper part of the Prairie Grove Member of the Hale Formation in the type Morrowan sequence. The macrofauna occurring with the ammonoid, supports this correlation. Bilinguites eliasi also alows correlation with the lower part of the Yeadonian Stage (lowest Namurian 'C') of Europe. Florules collected just below and above the goniatite occurrence in Frankling County correlate with those in the lower two-thirds of the New River Formation, southern West Virgina, and with the upper Namurian of western Europe. -from Authors

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1985

Chesterian davidsoniacean and orthotetacean brachiopods, Ozark region of Arkansas and Oklahoma

Three species of orthotetaceans and one species of davidsoniacean are among the strophomenid brachiopods from Chesterian (Upper Mississippian) rocks of northern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma. Type material from the Fayetteville Shale, Orthotetes subglobosus and O. subglobosus var. protensus, is figured for the first time. We regard these species, and O. subglobosus var. batesvillensis Girty from the Batesville Sandstone, as distinct species, for which we are selecting lectotypes. We describe a fourth species, O. stenopsis n.sp., from the Pitkin Limestone. Another species, described from the Pitkin as Streptorhynchus suspectum, has an impunctate shell and is thus not an orthotetacean. This bizarre species generally has a long twisted beak, high interarea, and large forked cardinal process; a myophragm may occur in either valve, but more commonly is in the brachial valve alone. We designate a lectotype for this species and propose a new genus Adectorhynchus and a new family Adectorhynchidae, under the Davidsoniacea, for this taxon.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1985

Limnocythere bradburyi n.sp.: a modern ostracode from central Mexico and a possible Quaternary paleoclimatic indicator

Limnocythere bradburyi is a new species of nonmarine ostracode that is living in several lakes in the central Mexican Plateau. These lakes are shallow, turbid, and pan-shaped, having relatively unstable and fluid substrates. Water levels of these lakes are high in the summer and low or dry in the winter. These lakes usually contain fresh to slightly saline water during the rainy season (summer-fall) and slightly saline water during the dry season (winter-spring), and have solute composition that is dominated by Na+, HCO3--CO32-, Cl- ions. The regional climate is characterized as humid temperate with mild equitable temperatures throughout the year. Winter temperatures are usually above 0oC, whereas summer temperatures are commonly below 30oC. The water temperature of the lakes containing L. bradburyi generally reflects atmospheric temperatures. The ostracode's life cycle coincides with the climatic wet cycle and is therefore completed during the warmest period of the year, which is in marked contrast to ostracodes living in lakes in the US and Canada that usually begin their life cycle with the spring rain and snow melt in cold water and complete their life cycle in warm water. This contrasting climatic life-cycle pattern between central Mexico and the US may be sufficient to explain why L. bradburyi occurs commonly in many Quaternary deposits in the southwestern US, but has not been found living in the US.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1985

Redescription of Bellerophon asiaticus Wirth (Early Triassic: Gastropoda) from China, and a survey of Triassic Bellerophontacea

The bilaterally symmetrical gastropod Bellerophon asiaticus Wirth is redescribed from specimens collected in Guizhou Province, PRC. The species is reassigned to Retispira, a common late Paleozoic taxon. Retispira is another example of a Paleozoic gastropod genus that crossed the era boundary. Associated pelecypods that date these Guizhou occurrences as Early Triassic are well known species in PRC and are illustrated. Both Bellerophon and Euphemites probably occur in the Early Triassic, though the quality of illustrations leaves some uncertainty; the existence of Stachella in the Triassic is more problematic. There was no dramatic reduction of the Bellerophontacea from their abundance and diversity in the Permian. It may be a general phenomenon that most late Paleozoic family-level and many generic-level taxa of gastropods were unaffected by the late Permian 'crisis'.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1984

Middle Cambrian fossils from the Doonerak anticlinorium, central Brooks Range, Alaska

Middle Cambrian fossils collected near Wolf Creek in the Wiseman quadrangle, northern Alaska, include trilobites and paraconodonts. Trilobites date the strata as early Middle Cambrian, correlative with the Amgan Stage of Siberia. The assemblage includes: Kootenia cf. K. anabarensis Lermontova, cf. 'Parehmania' lata Chernysheva and Pagetia sp. Specimens of the paracondont genus Westergaardodina, from the same sample as the megafossils, record the earliest known occurrence of this taxon. These fossils, the first to establish an age for part of the sedimentary sequence in the Doonerak Anticlinorium, are the oldest fossils yet taken from the central and western Brooks Range.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1988

A New Species of Pulvinites (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Upper Paleocene Paspotansa Member of the Aquia Formation in Virginia

Pulvinites lawrencei n.sp. is described from the upper Paleocene (Landenian Stage) Paspotansa Member of the Aquia Formation in Stafford County, Virginia. This is the first report of a member of the pteriacean family Pulvinitidae in the Tertiary on either side of the Atlantic, the only other post-Mesozoic records of Pulvinites being in the Paleocene of California and the present-day Pacific off southeast Australia. The stratigraphic setting and co-occurring molluscan assemblage of the new species indicate shallow-shelf, open-marine conditions with near normal salinities.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1991

Mytiloides hattini n. sp.: a guide fossil for the base of the Turonian in the Western Interior of North America

Mytiloides hattini, a new species of inoceramid bivalve from the basal Turonian (Upper Cretaceous), is described and its stratigraphic importance discussed. This inoceramid is particularly significant because its first occurrence can be used as a marker for the base of the Turonian in strata that typically contain no ammonites and few other taxa. The lowest occurrence of Mytiloides hattini is characterized by abundant specimens over wide regions of the Western Interior of North America; this species also apparently occurs in the lowest Turonian strata of western Europe. The typical absence of ammonites in this stratigraphic interval potentially makes the first occurrence of Mytiloides hattini an important fossil for regional and intercontinental correlation of the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary.

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1992

Campanian ammonites from the Upper Cretaceous Gober Chalk of Lamar County, Texas

The Roxton Limestone Member at the top of the Gober Chalk in northeast Texas yields a rich fauna, dominated by Baculites haresi Reeside, 1927, and Inoceramus balticus Boehm, 1909, with sparse occurrences of pachydiscus cf. P. paulsoni (Young, 1963), Anapachydiscus sp.juv., Placenticeras placenta (DeKay, 1828), Hoplitoplacenticeras aff. H. plasticum (Paulcke, 1907), Menabites (Delawarella) delawarensis (Morton, 1830), M.(D.) danei (Young, 1963), M.(D.) aff. M.(D.) vanuxemi (Morton, 1830), Submortoniceras vandalinaense Young, 1963, Submortoniceras sp., Eubostrychoceras sp., and Scaphites hippocrepis (DeKay, 1828) III. The presence of S. hippocrepis III suggests a late early Campanian age assignment for the fauna. The assemblage includes species known from the Western Interior, Gulf Coast, Atlantic seaboard, and western Europe. -Authors

Journal of Paleontology↗
USGS1996

A camerate-rich late carboniferous (Moscovian) crinoid fauna from volcanic conglomerate, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China

A low-diversity camerate-rich crinoid fauna from the Qijiagou Formation, Taoshigo Valley near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uygar Autonomous Region, China was collected during field work in May, 1993. The crinoid fauna is dominated by species of Platycrinites. Other camerate crinoids include a species in the Paragaricocrinidae, Actinocrinites, a hexacrinitid, and an acrocrinoid. The only other non-North American occurrence of this latter family is Springeracrocrinus from the Moscovian of Russia. In addition to the camerates, there are several advanced cladid inadunates more typical of Upper Carboniferous crinoid faunas, including an erisocrinoid (possibly Sinocrinus), Graphiocrinus, ?Cromyocrinus, and an agassizocrinoid (Petschoracrinus) represented by partly fused infrabasal cones. A single radial plate with angustary facet may represent a cyathocrinoid, There also is a catillocrinoid, assigned here to Paracatillocrinus. The fauna, which resembles Moscovian crinoids described from Russia, is preserved in graded volcanic conglomeratic debris flows that overlie a carbonate mound and contain clasts up to 3 m in dimension. The crinoids are fragmentary, with many calyces seemingly torn into two or three pieces and dumped in with the pyroclastic debris. Camerates are represented by large thecal scraps consisting of numerous plates, or by large individual plates or circlets. Other fossils include rare solitary rugose corals, tabular bryozoans, Neospirifer, and other fragmentary brachiopods. We suspect that the crinoids may have been swept off of a nearby carbonate mound and deposited as debris-flow bedload.

Journal of Paleontology↗