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The Mississippian is a subperiod in the geologic timescale or a subsystem of the geologic record. It is the earlier of two subperiods of the Carboniferous period lasting from roughly 358.9 to 323.2 million years ago. As with most other geochronologic units, the rock beds that define the Mississippian are well identified, but the exact start and end dates are uncertain by a few million years. The Mississippian is so named because rocks with this age are exposed in the Mississippi Valley.
Micropaleontology is the branch of paleontology (palaeontology) that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and its characteristic details.
Foraminifera are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly an external shell of diverse forms and materials. Tests of chitin are believed to be the most primitive type. Most foraminifera are marine, the majority of which live on or within the seafloor sediment, while a smaller number float in the water column at various depths, which belong to the suborder Globigerinina. Fewer are known from freshwater or brackish conditions, and some very few (nonaquatic) soil species have been identified through molecular analysis of small subunit ribosomal DNA.
The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are traditionally considered to have been composed of microgranular calcite. Like all forams, they were single-celled organisms. In advanced forms the test wall was differentiated into two or more layers. Loeblich and Tappan, 1988, gives a range from the Lower Silurian to the Upper Permian, with the fusulinid foraminifera going extinct with the Permian–Triassic extinction event. While the latter is true, a more supported projected timespan is from the Mid-Carboniferous period.
The Textulariida are an order of foraminifera that produce agglutinated shells or tests. An agglutinated test is one made of foreign particles glued together with an organic or calcareous cement to form an external shell on the outside of the organism. Commonly, the order had been made up of all species of Foraminifera with these types of shells, but genetic studies indicate these organisms do not form an evolutionary group, and several superfamilies in the order have been moved to the order Allogromiida. The remaining forms are sometimes divided into three orders: the Trochamminida and Lituolida, which have organic cement, and the Textulariida sensu stricto, which use a calcareous cement. All three orders or superfamilies are known as fossils from the Cambrian onwards.
Enischorhynchus is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Turonian of southern Texas.
Quinqueloculina is a genus of foraminifera in the family Miliolidae.
The Yorktown Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in the Coastal Plain of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It is overconsolidated and highly fossiliferous.
Abadehella is a genus of large Upper Permian benthic forams in the order Fusulinida. It is the sole known genus of the family Abadahellidae, for which the diagnosis is the same. Abadahellidae was established by Loeblich and Tappan 1984; Abadahella by Okimura and Ishi, 1975.
Elphidium williamsoni is a species of foraminiferans belonging to the family Elphidiidae. Elphidium williamsoni is found in abundance around the coasts of the UK, predominantly in the lower end of the coast.
The Robertinida are an order of Middle Triassic to recent, benthic foraminifera in which tests are planispirally to trochospirally coiled, with chambers provided with an internal partition and hyaline perforated walls composed of optically radiated aragonite.
Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich was an American micropaleontologist who was a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, a United States Geological Survey (USGS) biostratigrapher, and a scientific illustrator whose micropaleontology specialty was research on Cretaceous foraminifera.
Esther Applin was an American geologist and paleontologist. She completed her undergraduate degree in 1919 from the University of California, Berkeley. Later, she completed a master's degree which was focused on microfossils. She was a leading figure in the use of microfossils to determine the age of rock formation for use in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico region. Her job was to examine microfossils collected in drill holes to determine the age of the rock into which the company was drilling. Applin's discoveries were crucial to successful drilling operations across the entire oil industry. Additionally, her contribution to geology and the study of micropaleontology, put women geologists on the map, and was pivotal in earning them respect in the field.
Arthur Earland FRSE FRMS was a British oceanographer and microscopist. He was an expert on Foraminifera and gives his name to Earlandite. He was skilled in the identification of microscopic shells in a manner indicative of likely oil-bearing capacity.
Peneroplis is an extant genus of benthic Foraminifera in the family Peneroplidae. The genus is also represented in the fossil record.
Cyclammina is a genus of foraminifers in the family Cyclamminidae. Most species are extinct, but there are a few that are extant.
Cuneolina is an extinct genus of prehistoric foraminifera in the family Cuneolinidae with species from the Jurassic and Cretaceous.
Cuneolinidae is an extinct family of prehistoric foraminifera in the order Loftusiida, in the suborder Ataxophragmiina and superfamily Ataxophragmioidea.
The following are lists of prehistoric animals:
References
- ↑ Plummer, H. J. (1930). Calcareous foraminifera in the Brownwood shale near Bridgeport, Texas. University of Texas bulletin. 3019, pages 12-13
