Lower Permian Of Kansas Research Articles

New fossil insects (Diaphanopterodea: Martynoviidae) from the Lower Permian of the Boskovice Basin, southern Moravia

Two new genera and new species assigned to the family Martynoviidae (Diaphanopterodea), Boskovicia celtai nov. gen., nov. sp. and Moravoptera hladilovae nov. gen., nov. sp. are described and illustrated from the Lower Permian (Artinskian/Sakmarian) locality of Obora, southern Moravia (Czech Republic). Discovery of the species Martynovia insignis Tillyard, originally described from the Lower Permian of Kansas (USA), supports close relationship of both faunas across Euramerica.

A new platysomid from the Upper Carboniferous of Kansas (USA) and remarks on the systematics of deep‐bodied lower actinopterygians

AbstractScales and presumptive tooth plates from deep‐bodied platysomid actinopterygians have previously been reported from the Lower Permian of Kansas (USA), but until now, an articulated specimen from this state has not been recovered. The first articulated deep‐bodied platysomid fish from the Upper Carboniferous of Kansas is described herein. This specimen is compared to other known species from the genus Platysomus, with special attention paid to the North American taxa. The cranial osteology of this new specimen is closest to Platysomus schultzei from the Upper Carboniferous of New Mexico. The newly described platysomid species highlights the need for a revision of the fish included within the genus Platysomus.

Paraparchites eskridgensis, new name for the ostracode Paraparchites punctatus Watabe and Kaesler, 2004

In 2004 Watabe and Kaesler published a paper on a new species of the ostracode genus Paraparchites from the Lower Permian of Kansas and named it Paraparchites punctatus. Thereby they failed to notice that already in 1936 a Paraparchites punctatus had been described by Harris and Worrell from the Lower Permian of Oklahoma.

Late Paleozoic stromatolites: new insights from the Lower Permian of Kansas

Carboniferous to Permian marine stromatolites are widely dispersed across the Pangaean margins and embayments and are typified by the ‘Ottonosia-grade stromatolite’ (designated herein). This stromatolite type consists of a well-laminated oncoid or domical stromatoid that developed into branching, laminated columns in the upper reaches. To develop a model for the global pattern, we investigated Lower Permian stromatolites from Kansas (Howe Limestone Member, Red Eagle Limestone). Stromatoids from the Lyon County locality typify the Ottonosia-grade stromatolites. The laminae are sharp throughout the stromatoid and are defined by an increase in cornuspirid foraminfera and algal filaments. The upper zone of the stromatoid is composed of well-laminated branching and brecciated columns (‘pseudo-thrombolitic’). Coeval stromatolites from a new exposure at the Tuttle Creek Dam spillway possess a more massive mesostructure. These stromatolites are composed of a turbinate stromatoid or oncoid base and an overlying domical stromatoid, and are rimmed by smaller meandering columns. Only the basal stromatoid, oncoids, and upper columns are well laminated. In both localities, the microbial-constructing ecosystem is dominated by cornuspirids and calcifying filamentous algae (?Girvanella). The mesostructural differences of the stromatolites are due to different environments of formation. The Tuttle Creek stromatolites formed in a shallow-subtidal to intertidal open marine setting. The coeval Lyon County stromatolites formed in a semi-restricted, marginal marine environment such as a lagoon or supratidal zone. Based on this information and independent sedimentological data, we conclude that lagoonal or supratidal zones were common features in the late Paleozoic intracratonal zones of the Pangaean supercontinent and account for Ottonosia-grade stromatolites occurring in the Laurentian mid-continent, the Zechstein Basin, Japan, Brazil, and Tunisia.

The concepts of astogeny and ontogeny in stenolaemate bryozoans, and their illustration in colonies of Tabulipora carbonaria from the Lower Permian of Kansas

Recognition of ontogeny within a stenolaemate bryozoan colony requires separating the individualistic aspects of a zooid's growth from those of its neighbors. The ancestrula is the only zooid within a colony that always displays a partially independent ontogeny that ceases when it starts to experience shared changes with its neighboring daughter zooids during subsequent accretionary skeletal growth.Stenolaemate astogeny (shared changes across multiple zooids during the growth of both the ancestrular zooid and its asexual descendants) includes all coordinated changes in the size, shape, number, and calcification of autozooids, polymorphs, and extrazooidal structures, as well as changes within autozooids or polymorphs, such as the formation of basal diaphragms and brown bodies. Despite the fact that many of these directional changes occur within individual zooids, they are not part of ontogeny because they are taking place simultaneously across zooids that share a common skeleton, extrazooidal tissues, and pseudocoelomic spaces.Shared directional multizooidal changes occurring during colony growth provide a confirmatory test for the existence of astogeny. Astogeny was statistically evaluated in 6–15 characters measured within the exozones of four colonies of Tabulipora carbonaria (Worthen in Worthen and Meek, 1875). Statistically significant (at P ≤ 0.05) directional changes took place across growth stages within the exozone in the following morphometric characters: zooecial density, zooecial wall surface area, acanthostyle density, zooecial wall thicknesses, maximum acanthostyle diameters, and intrazooecial diaphragm abundances. Overall, earlier exozonal growth stages differ statistically from those of the later exozone, with characteristics of intermediate growth stages intergrading between the two. Discriminant function analysis segregated intervals of exozonal growth into early-, intermediate-, and late-stage clusters, confirming patterns delineated by univariate statistical tests.Based on these exozonal growth patterns, heterochronic changes in exozone astogeny characterized evolution within and across species of Tabulipora. Onshore populations of T. carbonaria were astogenetically progenetic relative to offshore ones along an environmental gradient across Kansas, whereas local populations became temporally more hypermorphic in a short-term stratigraphic succession of similar environments. Tabulipora carbonaria originated by astogenetic recapitulation in populations of its probable ancestor, T. ramosa. Therefore, speciation, microevolution, and clinal variation in Tabulipora all involved heterochronic modifications of exozone astogeny.

Possible Early Pennsylvanian Ancestor of the Cycadales

A specimen of Lesleya, previously known only as isolated sterile foliage, has been found with two rows of ovule-bearing receptacles on opposite sides of the petiole. This specimen is from the Lower Pennsylvanian (Namurian B or C) of western Illinois. The fertile portion of this specimen is similar to Phasmatocycas kansana Mamay from the Lower Permian of Kansas and Texas, which Mamay interpreted as an ancestral form to cycads. Phasmatocycas was found attached to the base of Taeniopteris by Gillespie and Pfefferkorn. The foliar portions, Lesleya and Taeniopteris, have many features in common; the major morphologic difference is curvature of the veins. Lesleya and its attached fertile petiole are proposed as ancestors of Taeniopteris and Phasmatocycas, and ultimately, the ancestors of modern cycads. This extends the age of known precursors of cycads back from the Early Permian to Early Pennsylvanian (about 320 million years ago), approximately 35 million years earlier.

Aspects of permian palaeobotany and palynology. I. Sobernheimia jonkeri nov. gen., nov. sp., a new fossil plant of cycadalean affinity from the waderner gruppe of sobernheim

Sobernheimia nov. gen., monotypified by S. jonkeri is a new plant from the Lower Permian of the Nahe area, German Federal Republic. It is characterized as a phylloid, bilaterally symmetrical structure, bearing seed-like bodies at the lateral margins; the lateral margins are divided into lobes, alternating with the seed-like bodies. Sobernheimia is reminiscent of Phasmatocycas Mamay from the Lower Permian of Kansas and Texas, but because of limited material taxonomic relationships remain uncertain. There may be evidence, however, that Sobernheimia represents a form intermediate between the pteridosperm Spermopteris Cridland et Morris and the cycadalean Phasmatocycas Mamay.

A novel method for the study and classification of shales

The electron spin resonance spectra of a range of shales, from the Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian of Kansas, U.S.A., have been recorded. Cluster analysis of the spectral data produced a four-group classification of the samples. The results compare well with a classification based on X-ray diffraction results.

Method of Fossilisation of an Insect Wing

IT has long been known that when the wing of an insect becomes fossilised the original chitin is either completely destroyed or else replaced by some other substance, such as carbon, silica, or oxide of iron. This, however, does not explain the extraordinary perfection with which some insect wings have been preserved, even in Palaeozoic strata. A recent study of two thousand fossil insects from the Lower Permian of Kansas, approximately two hundred millions of years old, has brought to light many specimens in which the wings are as perfect as if they had just been dissected from the insect; yet it is evident that the original ehitin is not present, neither is it replaced by any other substance. The explanation of this is to be found as follows:

Vertebrate footprints in the lower Permian of Kansas

Vertebrate footprints in the lower Permian of Kansas