bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Middle Campanian ammonites and inoceramids from the Wolfe City Sand in northeastern Texas
Authors: Cobban W. A. , Kennedy W. J.
Published: August 2016

The middle Campanian Wolfe City Sand in northeastern Texas yields a distinctive ammonite and inoceramid fauna with Patagiosites sp., Placenticeras sp., Hoplitoplacenticeras (Hoplitoplacenticeras) minor n. sp., Baculites mclearni Landes, 1940, Trachyscaphites spiniger (Schlüter, 1872) porchi (Adkins, 1929), Inoceramus (Cordiceramus) azerbaidjanensis Aliev, 1939, and I. (Endocostea) balticus Boehm, 1907. The last-named four species allow a direct correlation with the Baculites mclearni zone of the Western Interior of the United States. The base of this zone has been dated at 79.9 ± 3.2/79.2 ± 1.6 Ma on the basis of K/Ar determinations on biotite from a bentonite. Inoceramus azerbaidjanensis is also known from the Campanian of the U.S.S.R. in Azerbaidjan (where the species was first described), western Turkemenia, Georgia, the northern Caucasus, the Crimea, and Donbass.
First Upper Devonian crustacean coprolites:Favreina priman. sp. from northern Morocco
Authors: Herbig Hans-Georg
Published: August 2016

The crustacean coproliteFavreina priman. sp. and its internal structure are described from an upper Frasnian–lowermost Famennian limestone clast of moderately deep water origin, which derived from an Upper Carboniferous conglomerate of the Rif Mountains, northern Morocco. The fecal pellets were produced by early decapods that may be related to the Palaeopalaemonidae. Foraminifers of the stratigraphic marker genusEonodosariaare associated with the coprolite. This is the third report of Paleozoic crustacean coprolites and the first occurrence prior to the Lower Permian.
Middle Miocene fossil grasses from Fort Ternan, Kenya
Authors: Dugas Daniel P. , Retallack Gregory J.
Published: August 2016

At the well-known fossil mammal locality of Fort Ternan in southwestern Kenya, radiometrically dated at about 14 million years old (middle Miocene), fossil grasses have been preserved by nephelinitic sandstone in place of growth above a brown paleosol (type Onuria clay). Large portions of grass plants as well as fragments of leaves have revealed details of silica bodies, stomates, and other taxonomically important features under the scanning electron microscope. The computer database for grass identification compiled by Leslie Watson and colleagues was used to determine the most similar living grass genera to the five distinct kinds of fossil found. Two of the fossil species are assigned to Cleistochloa kabuyis sp. nov. and C. shipmanae sp. nov. This genus includes one species from low fertility dry woodland soils of New South Wales and Queensland and a second species from “raw clay soils” in western New Guinea. A third fossil species, represented by a large portion of a branching culm, is assigned to Stereochlaena miocenica sp. nov. This genus includes five species of low-fertility woodland soils in southeastern Africa. Both Cleistochloa and Stereochlaena are in the supertribe Panicanae of the subfamily Panicoideae. A fourth species is assigned to Distichlis africana sp. nov. and provides a biogeographic link between the single species of this genus now living in coastal grasslands in southeastern Australia and the 12 species of dunes and deserts found throughout the Americas from Patagonia and the West Indies to the United States and Canada. A fifth species is, like D. africana, in the subfamily Chloridoideae, but its stomata were not seen and it could belong to Cyclostachya, Pogoneura, or Polevansia. This earliest known wooded grassland flora in Africa is taxonomically unlike the modern grass flora of fertile volcanic African landscapes, and may have been recruited from an archaic grass flora of Gondwanan desert and lateritic soils.
A device for precision splitting of micropaleontological samples in liquid suspension
Authors: Scott D. B. , Hermelin J. O. R.
Published: August 2016

The impetus for writing this paper has come from many people who have shown an interest in the device we describe; prior to this paper, we had no reference to provide for interested parties. The original device was described in Elmgren (1973) and illustrated in Thomas (1986). These papers are not readily available to many micropaleontologists; hence, we felt the need to redescribe it here with a few modifications. Traditionally, foraminiferal researchers, especially those working in fossil deposits, work on samples that are first processed and then dried. To split these dry samples to aliquots of manageable numbers of foraminifera, they use the well-known “Otto” microsplitter, which provides accurate splits plus or minus 10–20 percent.
Synonymies of Leptocythere klutinensis Forester and Brouwers, 1985, and Cytheromorpha knikensis Forester and Brouwers, 1985
Authors: Brouwers Elisabeth M. , Forester Richard M.
Published: August 2016

Dr. E. I. Schornikov (Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Vladivostok) has kindly sent comparative specimens informing us that two of our species described from the Gulf of Alaska are junior synonyms of species that Schornikov described in 1974. Leptocythere klutinensis Forester and Brouwers, 1985, p. 364–366, figures 4.1–4.8, 7.6 is a junior synonym of Leptocythere polymorpha Schornikov, 1974, p. 155–157, text-figure 10, Plate 2, figure 3. Cytheromorpha knikensis Forester and Brouwers, 1985, 357–362, figures 5.1–5.8, 6.3–6.6, 7.1–7.2, is a junior synonym of Cytheromorpha lagunae Schornikov, 1974, 153–155, text-figure 9.
New Late Ordovician solitary rugose coral with perforate septa
Authors: Elias Robert J.
Published: August 2016

Neotryplasma flowerin. sp. is an epizoic solitary rugose coral characterized by two orders of perforate, monacanthine, carinate septa, a complex axial structure of septal lobes and lamellae, and a well developed broad dissepimentarium. It occurs in the Late Ordovician (late Edenian to earliest Maysvillian; late Caradoc) Upham Dolomite Member of the Second Value Dolomite, Montoya Group, at El Paso, Texas, U.S.A.NeotryplasmaKaljo, 1957, also includes two Late Ordovician species from the Estonian S.S.R. and one from the late Middle and Late Ordovician of the northern and middle Ural region, U.S.S.R. This genus is assigned to the Neotryplasmatidae n. fam., which is placed in the Suborder Monacanthina Neuman, 1984.

Neotryplasmaappears to be closest toSumsarophyllumLavrusevich, 1971a, from the Late Ordovician of the Zeravshan-Gissar region, U.S.S.R. This is noteworthy because Erina (1978) and Erina and Kim (1980) suggested that the latter may be a scleractinian coral of the Order Fungiida Verrill, 1865. The rugosan mode of septal insertion has been confirmed inNeotryplasma. N. floweriseems to bear close resemblance to a poorly known Ordovician coral,Cyathophyllum(?)kjerulfiKiaer, 1932, from Caradoc–Ashgill strata in the Trondheim region of Norway.
Revision of Acheilus and Theodenisia (Late Cambrian, Trilobita)
Authors: Ludvigsen Rolf
Published: August 2016

Acheilus Clark, 1924, is a kingstoniid trilobite, not a catillicephalid or an unrecognizable genus as previously thought. The catillicephalid Theodenisia Clark, 1948, is here restricted to those species in which the axial furrows terminate at the 4s furrow and which lack a preglabellar furrow. Peracheilus n. gen. is proposed as a replacement name for the catillicephalid Acheilus Raymond, 1924. It includes those species previously assigned to Theodenisia in which the axial furrows continue past the 4s furrow to join a narrow preglabellar furrow. Acheilus, Theodenisia, and Peracheilus occur in the Late Sunwaptan of North America; Theodenisia also occurs in the early Ibexian.
A new occurrence of Granatocrinus granulatus (Roemer) from the Fort Payne Chert of Alabama
Authors: Waters Johnny A. , Bell Gorden L.
Published: August 2016

The Mississippian was a time of widespread diversification of pelmatozoan echinoderms in the United States. The crinoids and blastoids were diverse and abundant in a variety of geologic settings. Most of the Osagean occurrences of blastoids are associated with platform carbonates such as the Burlington Limestone. These blastoids lived in association with a crinoid community dominated by camerate crinoids. Blastoids also lived in coeval Osagean deltaic environments such as the Borden Delta but were less diverse and abundant.
The first fossiliferous Pridolian beds from the southern Appalachians in northern Alabama, and the age of the uppermost Red Mountain Formation
Authors: Berdan Jean M. , Boucot A. J. , Ferrill Benjamin A.
Published: August 2016

Fossiliferous Late Silurian strata have not previously been recognized in the folded Appalachians south of central Virginia (Berry and Boucot, 1970). In this note, we report that the Red Mountain Formation at two localities in northern Alabama (Sparks Gap and Clear Branch Gap in Red Mountain near Birmingham, Figure 1) has yielded fossils like those of the Cobleskill Limestone (Pridolian, latest Late Silurian). The Red Mountain Formation in this area consists of interbedded sandstone, mudstone, claystone and limestone; some beds are hematitic and most are intensely weathered. The critical fossils are the brachiopod Eccentricosta sp. cf. E. jerseyensis (Weller, 1900) and the ostracode Welleriopsis? sp. aff. W.? pustulosa Berdan, 1972. The Eccentricosta beds at Sparks Gap and Clear Branch Gap are assigned to the Red Mountain because they are lithologically similar to lower beds in the formation. Thus the youngest part of the Red Mountain Formation in the Birmingham area is of Late Silurian, Pridolian, age. At Sparks Gap, underlying beds yielded Late Silurian corals that are not assigned to a faunal zone.
New barnacle records from the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama
Authors: Canis Wayne F. , Zullo Victor A.
Published: August 2016

Collins (1973), in a major systematic study of the Upper Cretaceous cirripeds of the eastern Gulf Coast, described four species of Cretiscalpellum, four of Arcoscalpellum, one of Virgiscalpellum (with two subspecies), and one of Brachylepas. In a companion paper, Mellen (1973) analyzed the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of these species and established the following biostratigraphic zones (Figure 1):
Resistance to and repair of shell breakage induced by durophages in Late Ordovician brachiopods
Authors: Alexander Richard R.
Published: August 2016

Repaired shell breakage in Late Ordovician brachiopods from the Cincinnatian Series in the tri-state area of Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio may be described in increasing order of severity as scalloped, divoted, cleft and embayed. Concavo-convex brachiopod taxa display disproportionately higher frequencies of shell repair assigned to each category, whereas inflated, biconvex, plicate, sulcate taxa display disproportionately lower frequencies of shell repair. Certain plicate biconvex taxa lack examples of cleft and embayed valves. Plano-convex and dorsi-biconvex, costate taxa showed intermediate frequencies of shell repair, but lack representatives of embayed valves. Selective pressure for evolution of morphologic characters resistant to shell breakage may have favored phyletic trends of increasing size, geniculation and progressive development of a commissural ridge around the lophophore platform of the interior of the concave brachial valve ofLeptaenaandRafinesquina. Size-frequency distributions for repaired and undamaged valves provide equivocal evidence of a size refuge from predator-induced shell breakage inRafinesquina. Among the contemporaneous, potentially durophagous predators, nautiloids probably inflicted the sublethal injuries sustained by the brachiopods. The incriminating evidence includes a fragment of a crushing element imbedded in a valve ofRafinesquinathat bears a very striking resemblance to calcified rhyncholites of Mesozoic to Recent nautiloids.
Biostratinomy of ostracode assemblages from a small reef flat in Maunalua Bay, Oahu, Hawaii
Authors: Izuka Scot K. , Kaesler Roger L.
Published: August 2016

Comparisons of biotopes based on ternary plots and cluster analyses of living ostracode assemblages with those from subfossil assemblages from a small reef flat show that biostratinomic processes modify the assemblages before they are incorporated into the sediment of the reef flat. Selective preservation changes the assemblages by preferentially preserving robust carapaces over fragile carapaces. The thin-shelled Paradoxostomatidae, which are abundant in the algae-dwelling assemblages, are largely destroyed by biostratinomic processes and are represented by only a few individuals in the subfossil assemblages.

Mixing of algae-dwelling assemblages and sediment-dwelling assemblages results in a lower relative proportion of many species in the subfossil assemblages than in the living assemblages. The Leptocytheridae, which comprise a large portion of the sediment-dwelling fauna, are reduced in relative proportion in the subfossil assemblages as a result of dilution of the sediment-dwelling fauna with an abundant, algae-dwelling fauna.

Transportation of ostracode remains by wave-induced currents removes the patchiness that is characteristic of the biotopes of the living ostracode assemblages but does not completely homogenize the assemblage despite the close spacing of sampling and the small areal extent of the biotopes studied.
A microcrinoid colony from a cephalopod body chamber (Chesterian: Arkansas)
Authors: Mapes Royal H. , Lane N. Gary , Strimple Harrell L.
Published: August 2016

An unusual occurrence of a colony of microcrinoids from shale within a fragment of a large orthoconic nautiloid body chamber is described from the Imo Formation (Mississippian, Chesterian) near Elba, Arkansas. The colony, about 70 individuals, consists principally of immature specimens that lack facets for the arms, and a few mature specimens with four or five arm facets. The crinoids are interpreted as record of a census population that was engulfed suddenly by mud. The crinoids are assigned to Allagecrinus coronarius Gutschick, 1968. The body chamber may have been broken during predation by other large cephalopods, or sharks, known from the Imo, or by post-mortem transport. The shell served as a firm substrate on which the microcrinoid larvae could settle and the convex sides may have provided some protection from currents.
Calcareous algae and associated microfossils from Mid-Carboniferous rocks in east-central Idaho
Authors: Groves John R.
Published: August 2016

Mid-Carboniferous (upper Chesterian–lower Atokan) rocks exposed north of the Snake River Plain in east-central Idaho are assigned to the Arco Hills, Bluebird Mountain and lower Snaky Canyon formations (ascending order). In the southern Lemhi Range, calcareous algae and associated microproblematica from these rocks include representatives of at least 13 genera and genus-level taxa within the Dasycladaceae, Aoujgaliaceae, Ungdarellaceae, and incertae familiae. Local appearances of Masloviporidium delicata and Donezella lutugini are early Morrowan or younger as determined independently by studies of associated foraminifers and conodonts. Beresella polyramosa and Komia abundans are locally restricted to Atokan rocks. These findings are consistent with compiled data on worldwide stratigraphic distributions of these taxa, and suggest that certain Upper Paleozoic calcareous algae may be of limited value in biostratigraphic correlation.
Truncorotaloides danvillensis (Howe and Wallace), new generic assignment for a Late Eocene planktonic species of Foraminiferida
Authors: Godfrey Woodson M. , van den Bold Willem A.
Published: August 2016

Globorotalia danvillensis was described by Howe and Wallace (1932) from beds at Danville Landing on the Ouachita River, Louisiana. Fisk (1938) gave these beds formational status, because he considered them to be a mappable unit, representing the uppermost Eocene deposits in Louisiana. These beds are placed in the Globorotalia cerroazulensis s.l. Zone. Globorotalia danvillensis was later reported by Bergquist (in Bergquist and McCutcheon, 1942) from upper Eocene beds in Mississippi. The present authors have found the same species in beds of the Lower Jackson Group at Montgomery Landing, Louisiana, which include the upper part of the Porticulasphaera semiinvoluta Zone and the lower part of the Globorotalia cerroazulensis Zone. During the investigation it was found that the species exhibits small, secondary, sutural apertures on the spiral side, which places it in the genus Truncorotaloides Brönnimann and Bermúdez (1953). Howe (1939), in his study of the Cook Mountain foraminifera, followed the custom of that time (see Cushman and Dusenbury, 1934, p. 63) of tentatively referring small coiled species of planktonic foraminifera to Globigerina cretacea d'Orbigny. Re-examination of samples from the Cook Mountain Formation of Saline Bayou, Winn Parish, Louisiana (H. V. Howe collection M 524–527) reveals that many of Howe's specimens belong to Truncorotaloides danvillensis. This species occurs here together with T. rohri Brönnimann and Bermúdez.
Phytoplankton: below the salt at the global table
Authors: Tappan Helen
Published: August 2016

The abundance and diversity of marine phytoplankton and the geologic timing of its major innovations and extinctions show a broad but inverse relationship to stages of terrestrial plant evolution. Successively, the first appearance of land plants, and the later major increases in global live terrestrial biomass and dead biomass in the form of plant litter, peat, coal, and soil humus, increased the retention on land of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and decreased the amount of these nutrients that was transported by rivers to the seas. Each major increase in terrestrial nutrient retention resulted in extensive changes in the marine ecosystem, as it adapted to the new conditions. From its time of origin in the early Paleozoic, the terrestrial biota figuratively occupied the position at the head of the table, and only the unutilized nutrient excess trickled down to the oceanic phytoplankton and its dependent food web.
Upper Silurian/Lower Devonian Stromatoporoidea from the Keyser Formation at Mustoe, Highland County, west-central Virginia
Authors: Stock Carl W. , Holmes Ann E.
Published: August 2016

Stromatoporoids are the major fossil faunal element of the Upper Limestone Member of the Keyser Formation in an outcrop at Mustoe, Virginia. The member is divided into four subunits at Mustoe, in ascending order: a bioherm, two biostromes, and a laminated micritic subunit. Stromatoporoids are found in all subunits, and they decrease in quantity upward. Nine species are described in three genera:Plexodictyoncf.P. waparksiStearn,Parallelostroma typicum(Rosen),P. kaugatomicum(Riabinin),P. barretti(Girty),P.cf.P. barretti, P. keyserensen. sp.,P. longicolumnumn. sp.,P. multicolumnumn. sp., andDensastroma pexisum(Yavorsky). With the exception ofP. barretti, a Lower Devonian stromatoporoid, the species of stromatoporids found at Mustoe have been known only from Silurian rocks in other areas.
Operculum of the early Middle Ordovician gastropod Palliseria robusta Wilson
Authors: Yochelson Ellis L.
Published: August 2016

A flat, thin, platelike operculum from the Antelope Valley Limestone of central Nevada fits the aperture of the shell of Palliseria robusta; abundance of these shells at the locality where the operculum occurs further supports its association with P. robusta. The operculum shows no evidence of spiral growth; its inner surface has one muscle prong. Palliseria shells are present in Nevada in enormous numbers, but opercula are known from only three localities. Because these platelike opercula are less robust than the coiled shells, most opercula may have been destroyed by wave and current movements after death of the animals.
Middle Devonian Styliolina obtusa (Hall) (Incertae sedis) and Styliolina spica (Hall) (“Vermes”) from western New York, reconsidered
Authors: Yochelson Ellis L.
Published: August 2016

Styliolina obtusa (Hall, 1879), only known from specimens on two slabs, is placed in synonymy with S. fissurella (Hall, 1843), a ubiquitous fossil in western New York. Styliolina spica (Hall, 1888) is known only from the holotype. This individual is about three times larger than specimens of S. fissurella (Hall); it is removed from the genus. “S.” spica is based on the broken apical end of a calcareous worm tube and is similar to Coleolus. Both of these poorly known taxa were described from different intervals in the Wanakah Shale Member of the Ludlowville Formation near Buffalo, New York.
Color patterns of Odontogryphea thirsae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) of the Paleocene Nanafalia Formation along the Chattahoochee River (Georgia-Alabama)
Authors: Swann Charles T.
Published: August 2016

The bivalve Odontogryphea thirsae, formerly “Ostrea thirsae,” is restricted to the Nanafalia Formation and is extensively used as a biostratigraphic zonal indicator in the Paleocene of the southeastern and central United States. Toulmin (1977) noted that O. thirsae was reported from the Tuscahoma Sand in early publications but stated (p. 191), “Reports of occurrence in the Tuscahoma Sand are probably in error.”
A chondrophorine coelenterate from the Borden Formation (Lower Mississippian) of Kentucky
Authors: Yochelson Ellis L. , Mason Charles E.
Published: August 2016

A disc-like soft-bodied fossil recovered from the Farmers Member of the Borden Formation in northeastern Kentucky is described and is interpreted as a chondrophorine float, an internal feature. This is apparently the first report of a post-Devonian fossil porpitid.
A pycnodont fish from the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama
Authors: Bell Gorden L.
Published: August 2016

An unusually complete large pycnodont fish from the Mooreville Chalk of Green County, Alabama, is figured and compared to several previously described specimens. Material from the specimen apparently places Grypodus Hay = Ancistrodon Roemer, Hadrodus Leidy, and Propenser Applegate into synonymy. The specimen is referred to Hadrodus hewletti (Applegate). A complete dentition is present and most of the thick, tuberculated ganoid scales that covered the body are preserved. Exact location of the dorsal fin has been determined and many of the fragile gill rakers are represented.
Systematic position of Litomylus(?) alphamon Van Valen (Mammalia: Insectivora): further evidence for the Late Paleocene age of Swan Hills Site-1 in the Paskapoo Formation of Alberta
Authors: Gingerich Philip D.
Published: August 2016

The Swan Hills are erosional remnants of a once-continuous plateau lying between the Athabaska River and Lesser Slave Lake in the north-central part of Alberta, western Canada. Fossils were first discovered in the Paskapoo Formation here in 1964 by L. S. Russell, who described a small mammalian fauna from Swan Hills Site-1 (Russell, 1967). Russell's collection from Site-1 was interpreted (correctly) as representing the Tiffanian Land-Mammal Age (Late Paleocene). Of particular interest, Russell (1967) described a new primate species of the plesiadapiform family Carpolestidae, “Carpolestes” cygneus, based on fragmentary remains from Site-1. This species was later transferred to Carpodaptes by Rose (1975). Judging from the evolutionary grade of Carpodaptes cygneus, Rose (1977) regarded Swan Hills Site-1 as early or early middle Tiffanian in age. Additional work on C. cygneus at other Canadian sites indicated that Site-1 might be early late Tiffanian in age (Krause, 1978). This distinction is important because Carpodaptes has a more detailed evolutionary record in Wyoming and Montana, and correct attribution of the name C. cygneus, originally based on three isolated teeth, to samples better known elsewhere necessarily requires precise correlation. The holotype and type sample of C. cygneus, by themselves, are too fragmentary and limited to characterize the species. Species of Carpodaptes are among the most common and useful fossils available for precise dating of sediments associated with Laramide tectonic deformation in the Western Interior. At 55° north latitude, Swan Hills Site-1 remains the most northerly locality in North America yielding Paleocene mammals.
Strepsidura ficus(Gabb) of Harris (1895), Eocene of Texas: a volutid gastropod species distinct fromWhitneya ficusGabb, 1864, Eocene of California
Authors: Givens Charles R. , Garvie Christopher L.
Published: August 2016

Morphometric analysis demonstrates thatStrepsidura ficus(Gabb) of Harris (1895), from the lower middle Eocene Reklaw and Queen City Formations of Texas, is specifically distinct fromWhitneya ficusGabb (1864) of the Californian Eocene. Accordingly, the new nameStrepsidura harrisiis proposed for the Texas species.Strepsiduras.s. is represented in North America byS. ficus(Gabb),S. harrisin. sp., and an unnamed species closely related toS. harrisiin the upper Paleocene Sequin Formation of Texas.Strepsiduras.s. apparently originated in the Old World Tethyan Realm during the Paleocene and subsequently spread to North America.
Form of the trilobite digestive system: alimentary structures in Pterocephalia
Authors: Chatterton Brian D. E. , Johanson Zerina , Sutherland George
Published: August 2016

Three types of alimentary canals (=midgut) occur in the Annelida and non-trilobite Arthropoda: 1) a sagittal tube with metamerically paired diverticula related to the number of somites; 2) a tube that is constricted slightly between somites; and 3) a simple tubular gut that may taper slightly backwards to the anus. At least two of these three types (1 and 3) occur in the Trilobita. Pterocephalia and Olenoides share the first type with the probable sister taxon to the Trilobita, Naraoia (Nectaspida), and this is probably the plesiomorphic condition for the class. Varying feeding habits may well have made this character homoplastic within each of these groups. The preservation of parts of the alimentary tract in specimens of Upper Cambrian Pterocephalia n. sp. (McKay Group, British Columbia) was probably a function of taphonomic and/or very early diagenetic changes that resulted from the type of food preferred by that trilobite. Other trilobites from the same beds do not have their soft parts preserved. The alimentary structures are preserved in a different fashion from, apparently unattached to, and an order of magnitude larger than genal caeca that occur in this taxon. Thus, genal caeca are regarded as imprints of circulatory rather than alimentary structures.

Energy dispersive analysis of a fragment of preserved alimentary tract of Pterocephalia n. sp. showed the presence of Ca, Si, Al, Fe, P, K, Na, and Cl. These alimentary tracts are composed of a complex mixture of minerals that probably includes clays, detrital quartz, carbonates, phosphates, and oxides or hydroxides. The structure of these dark fillings is microcrystalline. The presence of detrital minerals as part of this mixture would suggest that this trilobite was a deposit feeder.
Advanced cladid crinoids from the middle Mississippian of the east-central United States: advanced-grade calyces
Authors: Kammer Thomas W. , Ausich William I.
Published: August 2016

Species of the late Osagean and early Meramecian advanced cladid crinoid genera (suborder Poteriocrinina) Adinocrinus, Eratocrinus, Lekocrinus n. gen., Linocrinus, Sarocrinus, and Worthenocrinus n. gen. from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri are redescribed and redefined from study of type material and museum collections. These species are considered to have advanced-grade calyces because of the substantial size reduction of the infrabasals and basals relative to the radials. Nomenclatural and systematic changes include the following: 1) Eratocrinus coxanus (Worthen, 1882) is a senior synonym of Zeacrinus keokuk Worthen, 1882; 2) E. commaticus (Miller, 1891a) is a senior synonym of Z. blairi Miller and Gurley, 1895; 3) Lekocrinus n. gen. is described and Scaphiocrinus divaricatus Hall, 1860, and Z. planobrachiatus Meek and Worthen, 1860, are assigned to this new genus; 4) Linocrinus praemorsus (Miller and Gurley, 1890a) is a senior synonym of Poteriocrinus lautus Miller and Gurley, 1896; 5) Sarocrinus kirki n. sp. is described; 6) P. varsoviensis Worthen, 1882, is assigned to Sarocrinus and is a senior synonym of P. tentaculatus Worthen, 1883, P. granilineus Miller and Gurley, 1890a, Z. pocillum Miller, 1891b, S. nitidus Kirk, 1942, and S. plenus Kirk, 1942; 7) P. asperatus Worthen, 1882, is assigned to Sarocrinus; 8) Worthenocrinus n. gen. is described and W. paterus n. sp. is assigned to this new genus; 9) Poteriocrinus iowensis Worthen, 1882, is considered a nomen dubium and placed in incertae sedis.
Pleistocene echinoid (Echinodermata) fauna from southeast Jamaica
Authors: Donovan Stephen K. , Dixon Harold L. , Pickerill Ron K. , Doyle Eamon N.
Published: August 2016

A previously undocumented echinoid fauna occurs in the terrigenous clastic sedimentary sequence of the Old Pera Beds (Lower Pleistocene) and the overlying Port Morant Formation (Upper Pleistocene) at Old Pera, parish of St. Thomas, southeast Jamaica. The fauna is comprised of complete tests (particularly from two horizons in the Port Morant Formation), test fragments, and radioles, and includes:Cidaris(Tretocidaris)bartletti(A. Agassiz);Eucidaris tribuloides(Lamarck); diadematoid indet. gen. and sp.;Echinometra viridisA. Agassiz;Echinometra? sp.;Clypeaster rosaceus(Linné); a juvenileC. subdepressus? (Gray); mellitid indet. gen. and sp.; clypeasteroid sp.;Schizaster doederleiniChesher;Meoma ventricosa(Lamarck); and irregular indet. gen. and sp.Schizaster doederleiniis still extant in the Caribbean, but is not known to live in Jamaican waters.Schizaster doederleiniandMeoma ventricosaare the first nominal spatangoids to be reported from the Jamaican Pleistocene.
Conodonts from the Bromide Formation (Middle Ordovician), south-central Oklahoma
Authors: Bauer Jeffrey A.
Published: August 2016

Forty-seven samples of the Bromide Formation (Simpson Group) of south-central Oklahoma produced a collection of 10,216 conodonts assigned to 46 species. The conodont fauna is dominated by species ofPhragmodusandPlectodinaand indicates a latest Whiterockian to early Mohawkian (Black Riveran) or late Llandeilian to early Caradocian age. Five new species are named includingAnsella crassa, Bryantodina aequalis, Plectodina edentula, Walliserodus declivis, andPharagmodus ambiguus.The latter species is distinct fromPhragmodus flexuosusMoskalenko, a species to which it has been assigned in past reports.

Analysis of conodont distribution with respect to the shallow-water Bromide lithofacies distinguishes shallow to deeper water conodont associations. Samples from shallower water facies containAnsella crassan. sp.,Cahabagnathus sweeti(Bergström),Curtognathusspp.,Eoplacognathus elongatus(Bergström),Erismodus typusBranson and Mehl,Oneotodus?ovatus(Stauffer),Phragmodus ambiguusn. sp.,Phragmodus flexuosus, andStaufferella falcata(Stauffer). Samples from deeper water facies contain forms such asAnsella nevadensis(Ethington and Schumacher) andBaltoniodus gerdae(Bergström).
Validation of Aleteceras Whitehouse as a crioceratid coiled subgenus of Myloceras Spath (Ammonoidea)
Authors: Mckenzie E. Donald
Published: August 2016

Recently, aguirre urreta and Riccardi (1988) have shown that Calliscaphites andinus Leanza, 1970, belongs in Myloceras Spath, and raised Calliscaphites as a subgenus for crioceratid coiled members of this genus. In doing so, they noted (p. 611) that, although Whitehouse (1926) had previously described Aleteceras as a genus for crioceratid coiled species that are now (Wright, 1957) included in Myloceras, none of these species appeared to have been unequivocally shown to have a crioceratid mode of coiling throughout life. This view had been strengthened by their reading of McNamara (1978). They did, however, note that “crioceratid coiling in Aleteceras would imply validation of this taxon as a senior synonym of Calliscaphites.”
A unique occurrence ofEndophyllum(rugose coral; Devonian) in eastern North America: An ecological and biogeographical puzzle
Authors: Oliver William A. , Sorauf James E. , Brett Carlton E.
Published: August 2016

Endophyllumis described for the first time from North America. The occurrence of a single, large colony in Middle Devonian strata in New York is both biogeographically and environmentally anomalous: it belongs to an Old World Realm genus but was found in the Eastern Americas Realm, and it occurred in a gray, ambocoeliid-bearing mudstone, a facies in which morphologically complex corals are otherwise unknown. Available evidence suggests that the coral lived not far from where it was found, possibly on a hardground or bank a few km north of the outcrop.Endophyllum ciurcainew species is described.
The resting trace of an acorn-worm (Class: Enteropneusta) from the Lower Triassic
Authors: Twitchett Richard J.
Published: August 2016

A new trace fossil from the Lower Triassic of northern Italy is described. It is a sinuous resting trace of a bilaterally symmetrical worm-like animal. The anterior end is characterised by a pair of lateral projections. It most closely resembles an acorn-worm (class Enteropneusta) in morphology. As such, it is the only known resting trace of an acorn-worm from the fossil record.
Upper Devonian conodonts from the Timan-Pechora region, Russia, and correlation with a Frasnian composite standard
Authors: Klapper Gilbert , Kuz'Min Alexei V. , Ovnatanova Nonna S.
Published: August 2016

A Frasnian composite standard provides a refined scaling for the thirteen-fold conodont zonation first developed in the Montagne Noire, France, but since replicated in North America, Australia, and now the Timan-Pechora region of Russia. Zones 4–13 are identifiable in seven cores from the Ukhta area of southern Timan and a core from the Bagan Field of the Khoreyver Basin. Scaling of the zones through graphic correlation demonstrates the diachronism in different sections of the bases of many conodont species, including those of zonally definingPalmatolepis.This can be effectively shown in a correlation diagram scaled to a composite standard based on graphic correlation, whereas it is obscured by the assumption of synchronism inherent in conventional zonal correlation charts.

Newly described species occurring in the Timan-Pechora region and elsewhere areOzarkodina nonaginta, Ancyrognathus amplicavus, Mesotaxis johnsoni, Palmatolepis amplificata, P. mucronata, P. ormistoni, andP. timanensis.A number of other species described earlier from the region also occur outside Russia, mainly in Canada and Australia. Distribution patterns in the composite standard indicate close faunal connections between the Timan-Pechora, western Canada, and Western Australia.
Schopfodus, a new conodont genus from the upper Middle Ordovician of eastern North America
Authors: Leslie Stephen A.
Published: August 2016

Apparatus-based conodont taxonomy has organized the plethora of generic and specific names of form-based taxonomy into a more biologically and phylogenetically sound taxonomy (Schopf, 1966; Webers, 1966; Bergström and Sweet, 1966; Sweet and Bergström, 1972; Rhodes and Austin, 1981; Sweet, 1981, 1988). In the transition from form-based to apparatus-based taxonomy, some conodonts that are not very common, or that have only one or two element types in their apparatus, have remained in a state of form-based taxonomy limbo. An example of this is Trichonodella? tricurva (Schopf, 1966). This relatively uncommon species was known from only one element type (Schopf, 1966) and has not been used in biostratigraphy. Schopf (1966) questioned the generic assignment of T.? tricurva and noted its distinct morphology. Sweet and Bergström (1972) indicated that the type species of Trichonodella (Branson and Mehl, 1948) is a junior synonym of Plectodina aculeata, or of a closely related Plectodina species. Trichonodella? tricurva does not fit within the apparatus-based generic concept of Plectodina (Sweet, 1981), and it is therefore inappropriate to refer it to Trichonodella or Plectodina. No genus contains a tertiopedate element that is morphologically similar to the holotype of T.? tricurva (Schopf, 1966). Additional material from strata that are in part coeval with the stratum typicum of T.? tricurva supports the idea that T.? tricurva represents a new genus. The new genus Schopfodus is proposed for the conodont elements described by Schopf as T.? tricurva and the associated elements of its apparatus.
Location of trace fossils and problematica of George Frederic Matthew from Part W, Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology
Authors: Miller Randall F.
Published: August 2016

George frederic matthew studied the geology of eastern Canada during the late 1800's to early 1900's and became an authority on Cambrian paleontology. Matthew advised the Geological Survey of Canada as its Cambrian expert and published over 200 papers spanning topics from Precambrian stromatolites to Pennsylvanian arthropods to archaeology (Miller, 1988a; Landing and Miller, 1988). He described a number of trace fossils and problematica cited in Hantzschel (1975), but the location of some specimens and their status has been uncertain, sometimes considered missing. Most of the specimens have now been located and this paper summarizes their current location.
Long expected sponges from the Neoproterozoic Ediacara fauna of South Australia
Authors: Gehling James G. , Rigby J. Keith
Published: August 2016

New fossils from the Neoproterozoic Ediacara fauna of South Australia are interpreted as the oldest known hexactinellid sponges. They occur within the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite (Pound Subgroup) from several locations in the Flinders Ranges. The new genus,Palaeophragmodictya, is characterized by disc-shaped impressions preserving characteristic spicular networks and is reconstructed as a convex sponge with a peripheral frill and an oscular disc at the apex.
Bivalves and gastropods from the Middle Campanian Anacacho Limestone, south central Texas
Authors: Elder William P.
Published: August 2016

The Anacacho Limestone was deposited during the Campanian and represents two depositional intervals, one of early Campanian and one of middle Campanian age. These two intervals correspond to periods of major eustatic sea level rise. This study focuses on the molluscan paleontology of the middle Campanian interval in the eastern part of the Anacacho exposure belt in Medina County, Texas. Molluscan assemblages in this area are indicative of inner to mid-shelf environments. No significant reef components are present. These eastern Anacacho deposits are interpreted to represent more offshore, deeper water environments than those to the southwest, where reef and lagoonal deposits have been reported.

Analysis of the macrofossil components from these eastern localities has expanded the number of invertebrate species known from the Anacacho Limestone by nearly three-fold. This increase in diversity, based on a small amount of new work, suggests that many more taxa are yet to be identified, particularly in the western part of the exposure belt in Uvalde and Kinney Counties. This paper documents the bivalve and gastropod fauna, discussing and illustrating 24 bivalve taxa and 11 gastropod species. Two new bivalve species are named,Panopea anacachoensisnew species andSpondylus siccusnew species, and two potentially new gastropod species are identified but not named herein due to inadequate material. This paper expands the distribution of many eastern Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast taxa westward into Texas and shows strong ties between the Anacacho fauna and that of the Campanian Tar Heel and Bladen Formations of the Black Creek Group in North Carolina. The taxonomic ties between these two areas probably reflect the thorough documentation of the North Carolina fauna, which is the best documented Campanian bivalve fauna in the Gulf or Atlantic Coast regions.
Late Albian inoceramid bivalves from the Andes of Tierra del Fuego: Age implications for the closure of the Cretaceous marginal basin
Authors: Olivero Eduardo B. , Martinioni Daniel R.
Published: August 2016

At the southernmost tip of South America, a thick pile of deep marine volcaniclastic rocks called the Yahgan Formation (Kranck, 1932) was deposited during the Early Cretaceous in a small marginal basin developed between the continent and a Pacific-facing volcanic arc (Katz, 1972; Dalziel et al., 1974). North and northwest of Tierra del Fuego, in the adjacent Austral or Magallanes basin, this unit is laterally replaced by coeval, fine-grained deposits representing basinal, slope, and platform marine settings (Winslow, 1982; Biddle et al., 1986; Wilson, 1991). The geometry of the basins changed markedly with a compressional event that produced the tectonic inversion of the marginal basin and the formation of a retroarc foreland basin in front of the rising cordillera. Closure of the marginal basin and strong deformation of the Yahgan Formation apparently occurred in the mid-Cretaceous (Halpern and Rex, 1972; Dalziel et al., 1974; Wilson, 1991); however, the timing of the opening and closing of the basin is poorly constrained because of the scarcity of fossil evidence. So far, a Late Jurassic-Neocomian age was favored for the Yahgan Formation on the basis of the record of belemnites and ammonites (Aguirre Urreta and Suárez, 1985; Halpern and Rex, 1972; Winn, 1978). Halpern and Rex (1972) mentioned the Hauterivian genusFavrellain Gardiner Island, but this record has been questioned by Thomson et al. (1982) who considered the ammonite imprint to be some kind of heteromorph. Also, the timing of the transition from marginal to foreland basin is not well documented. On the basis of indirect evidence the initiation of the foreland basin stage was assigned to the Albian in the Ultima Esperanza region of Chile (Wilson, 1991) and to the Late Cretaceous in northern Tierra del Fuego (Biddle et al., 1986). Recent field work by the authors in the area of No Top Mountain-Moat River, Tierra del Fuego (Figure 1), has resulted in the first record of diagnostic late Albian inoceramids in the Yahgan Formation. The objective of this note is to document this fauna and to briefly discuss its implications on the control of the timing of the transition from marginal to foreland basin in the area.
A Late Cretaceous nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from marine sediments of coastal California
Authors: Coombs Walter P. , Deméré Thomas A.
Published: August 2016

A partial nodosaurid ankylosaur skeleton, consisting primarily of the ilia, hindlimbs, posterior dorsal armor, plus partial forelimb elements and additional armor, was recovered from the marine Point Loma Formation, late Campanian age, north of San Diego, California. The specimen is similar to contemporaneous species ofPanoplosaurusandEdmontoniafrom terrestrial sediments of the western interior, but there are also similarities to the armor ofStegopelta landerensisfrom marine sediments of earliest Cenomanian age from Wyoming. Skeletal elements critical for generic determination are not preserved, and the specimen is identified as Nodosauridae, incertae sedis. An associated marine invertebrate fauna and nannoplankton flora have revealed some discrepencies in the correlation systems used for Upper Cretaceous marine rocks of coastal California. Hollow limb bones of the specimen are interpreted as a preservational artifact. Nodosaurids had broad ecological tolerances, and visited riparian and coastal environments more frequently than other dinosaurs. However, a review of morphologic and distributional evidence fails to support a theory of amphibious or aquatic habits for nodosaurids.
Clarification ofNautilus praepompiliusShimansky from the late Eocene of Kazakhstan
Authors: Saunders W. B. , Shimansky V. N. , Amitrov O. V.
Published: August 2016

The discovery of a specimen ofNautilus praepompiliusShimansky, 1957, from the Chegan Formation of Kazakhstan confirms that this species is assignable toNautilus, and that this extant genus extends back to the late Eocene. It is morphologically closest toNautilus pompiliusLinnaeus. The nepionic constriction shows that the hatching size was ca. 23 mm dia, close to that forNautilus pompilius(ca. 26 mm dia).
An unusual Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) hexactinellid sponge from the Great Valley sequence, western Sacramento Valley, Northern California
Authors: Rigby J. Keith , Embree Patrick , Murphy Michael
Published: August 2016

The new farreid hexactinellid spongeHormathospongia dictyotanew genus and new species, is described from the upper Santonian Dobbins Shale Member of the Forbes Formation of the Upper Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence from the west side of the Sacramento Valley, northwest of Sacramento. The relatively simple skeleton is composed of quadrangularly arranged hexactines with overlapping rays, an arrangement strikingly similar to the skeletal structure of early Paleozoic reticulosid hexactinellids. However, the California Cretaceous sponges clearly show those spicules embedded in siliceous beams that are united to form a solid dictyonal skeletal framework of only a single layer of regular mesh. Such an occurrence and stratigraphic relationships suggests that the dictyonine sponges had their origin from the simply spiculed reticulosid hexactinellids rather than from the more complex dictyosponges.
A new genus of cryptic lucinid? bivalve from Eocene cold seeps and turbidite-influenced mudstone, western Washington
Authors: Saul Louella R. , Squires Richard L. , Goedert James L.
Published: August 2016

Two previously undescribed species of Bivalvia of Eocene age are herein tentatively considered to belong to the family Lucinidae because of their ligament areas and elongated anterior adductor scars. Both species are elongate for a lucinid, have edentulous hinges, striated muscle scars, and are placed in the new genus Cryptolucina. Both are found in the Humptulips Formation of middle to late Eocene age in western Washington, and both Cryptolucina megadyseides new species and C. elassodyseides new species are associated with deep-water, cold-seep limestone. Cryptolucina megadyseides is also associated with turbiditic mudstone.
Occurrence of Aturia coxi (Cephalopoda: Nautilida) from the uppermost Miocene of Japan and its implication for late Miocene marine climate in the northwestern Pacific
Authors: Ozawa Tomowo , Tomida Susumu
Published: August 2016

The description of a specimen of Aturia coxi from the uppermost Miocene of central Japan provides additional data on this poorly known Neogene species. Aturia coxi Miller is the youngest representative of this nautiloid genus, which is known from the middle to upper Miocene formations of the Indo-Western Pacific and became extinct at the end of Miocene. In addition to the presence of Aturia coxi, the abundance of tropical and subtropical benthic molluscs indicates that tropical molluscan faunas invaded mid-latitude waters around Japan in the latest Miocene. The extinction of Aturia and other Miocene molluscan genera marks the end of the Miocene Epoch.
Maastrichtian ammonites from the Hornerstown Formation in New Jersey
Authors: Kennedy W. J. , Cobban W. A.
Published: August 2016

The base of the Paleocene Hornerstown Formation at the Inversand pit and certain other localities in New Jersey yields a diverse phosphatised fauna of Maastrichtian age, including the ammonites Pachydsicus (Neodesmoceras) mokotibensis Collignon, 1952, Sphenodiscus lobatus (Tuomey, 1854), Baculites spp., and Eubaculites carinatus (Morton, 1834). S. lobatus is known from the older Red Bank Sand and Tinton Sand in New Jersey; the other species are known only from the basal Hornerstown. Occurrences at the Inversand pit are regarded as either reworked or remainié, although details of Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary events have been destroyed by pervasive burrowing that pipes the Hornerstown down into the underlying Navesink Formation.