Fishes and tetrapods in the upper pennsylvanian (kasimovian) cohn coal member of the mattoon formation of illinois, United States: Systematics, paleoecology, and paleoenvironments

D. Carpenter; H. J. Falcon-Lang; M.J. Benton; W.J. Nelson

doi:10.2110/palo.2010.p10-121r

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70034451

Fishes and tetrapods in the upper pennsylvanian (kasimovian) cohn coal member of the mattoon formation of illinois, United States: Systematics, paleoecology, and paleoenvironments

D. Carpenter·H. J. Falcon-Lang·M.J. Benton·W.J. Nelson

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

A newly discovered vertebrate assemblage is reported from the Upper Pennsylvanian (mid- to upper Kasimovian) Cohn Coal Member of the Mattoon Formation of southeast Illinois, United States. Teeth, scales, and spines of xenacanth (Dicentrodus, Orthacanthus, Triodus, Xenacanthus) and euselachian (Sphenacanthus) sharks dominate the assemblage. Less common are the teeth, scales, and centra of holocephalan (Helodus) and actinopterygian fishes, together with rare tetrapod (mainly pelycosaur) phalanges and centra. The assemblage occurs within a broad, shallow channel incised into a prominent Vertisol. The channel is interpreted as having been cut during a seasonally dry glacial phase when sea level was low, but filled during a subsequent transgression triggered by deglaciation. We interpret this as a brackish water (estuarine) assemblage, based on the co-occurrence of the vertebrate material with spirorbids (putative microconchids) and paleoecological inferences gleaned from a critical analysis of the literature dealing with Pennsylvanian fish ecology. This interpretation is broadly consistent with taphonomic data and the results of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope analysis of shark material. The pelycosaur material may have been reworked from the lowstand Vertisol, however, and these animals occupied dryland niches that developed during glacial phases.

Explore related subjects

Palaios Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 38.47616943274547° to 38.52802454624194° latitude; -87.85079956054688° to -87.77835845947266° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

D. Carpenter, H. J. Falcon-Lang, M.J. Benton, W.J. Nelson. 2011-11-03. Fishes and tetrapods in the upper pennsylvanian (kasimovian) cohn coal member of the mattoon formation of illinois, United States: Systematics, paleoecology, and paleoenvironments. https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2010.p10-121r

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2021

Miocene neritic benthic foraminiferal community dynamics, Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, USA: Species pool, patterns and processes

The presence/absence and abundance of benthic foraminifera in successive discrete beds (Shattuck “zones”) of the Miocene Calvert and Choptank formations, exposed at the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, USA, allows for investigation of community dynamics over space and time. The stratigraphic distribution of benthic foraminifera is documented and interpreted in the context of sea-level change, sequence stratigraphy, and the previously published distribution of mollusks. Neritic benthic foraminiferal communities of four sea-level cycles over ∼4 million years of the middle Miocene, encompassing the Miocene Climatic Optimum and the succeeding middle Miocene Climate Transition, are dominated by the same abundant species. They differ in the varying abundance of common species that occur throughout most of the studied section and in the different rare species that appear and disappear. Transgressive systems tracts (TSTs) have higher species diversity than highstand systems tracts (HSTs) but much lower density of specimens. In contrast to some previous research, all beds in the studied section are interpreted as being from the inner part of a broad, low gradient shelf and were deposited at water depths of less than ∼50 m. It is suggested that species are recruited from a regional species pool of propagules throughout the duration of TSTs. Recruitment is curtailed during highstands leading to lower diversity in the HSTs.

Maryland↗

USGS2015

A new record of the late Pleistocene coral Pocillopora palmata from the Dry Tortugas, Florida reef tract, USA

Pocilloporid corals dominated shallow-water environments in the Caribbean during much of the Cenozoic; however, the regional diversity of this family declined over the last 15 My, culminating with the extinction of its final member, Pocillopora palmata , during the latest Pleistocene. Here we present a new record of P. palmata from Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys and infer its likely age. Although most existing records of P. palmata are from the sub-aerial reef deposits of MIS5e (&sim; 125 ka), the presently submerged reef in the Dry Tortugas was too deep (> 18 m) during this period to support significant reef growth. In contrast, the maximum water depth during MIS5a (&sim; 82 ka) was only &sim; 5.6 m, which would have been ideal for P. palmata . Diagenetic alteration prevented direct dating of the samples; however, the similarity between the depths of the Pleistocene bedrock in the Dry Tortugas and other reefs in the Florida Keys, which have been previously dated to MIS5a, support the conclusion that P. palmata likely grew in the Dry Tortugas during this period. Our study provides important new information on the history of P. palmata , but it also highlights the vital need for more comprehensive studies of the Quaternary history of Caribbean reef development. With modern reef degradation already driving yet another restructuring of Caribbean coral assemblages, insights from past extinctions may prove critical in determining the prognosis of Caribbean reefs in the future.

Florida↗

USGS2014

New ichnological, paleobotanical and detrital zircon data from an unnamed rock unit in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (Cretaceous: Alaska): Stratigraphic implications for the region

A paleontological reconnaissance survey on Cretaceous and Paleogene terrestrial units along the Yukon River drainage through much of east-central Alaska has provided new chronostratigraphic constraints, paleoclimatological data, and the first information on local biodiversity within an ancient, high-latitude ecosystem. The studied unnamed rock unit is most notable for its historic economic gold placer deposits, but our survey documents its relevance as a source rock for Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates, invertebrates, and associated flora. Specifically, new U-Pb ages from detrital zircons combined with ichnological data are indicative of a Late Cretaceous age for at least the lower section of the studied rock unit, previously considered to be representative of nearly exclusively Paleogene deposition. Further, the results of our survey show that this sedimentary rock unit preserves the first record of dinosaurs in the vast east-central Alaska region. Lastly, paleobotanical data, when compared to correlative rock units, support previous interpretations that the Late Cretaceous continental ecosystem of Alaska was heterogeneous in nature and seasonal.

Palaios↗