Gymnophyllum wardi Temporal range: Pennsylvanian | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Hexacorallia |
Subclass: | † Rugosa |
Order: | † Stauriida |
Genus: | † Gymnophyllum |
Species: | †G. wardi |
Binomial name | |
†Gymnophyllum wardi Howell, 1945 | |
Gymnophyllum wardi, commonly known as button coral, is an extinct coral from the Pennsylvanian part of the Carboniferous period. [1] The fossils are found in relatively few places worldwide; most specimens are known from the upper part of the Wewoka Formation in and around Lake Okmulgee in Okmulgee State Park or the adjoining Dripping Springs State Park in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma in the United States. [2] [3]
G. wardi was first described by B.F. Howell in 1945, and is the only species in the genus Gymnophyllum. Many specimens of G. wardi are known, ranging in age from very young and immature to very old individuals. The individuals are described as "flat disclike solitary corallites", with exposed septa almost everywhere on the base, though not at the peduncle in the center, which is depressed. [1] The top of the coral disc has a "large smooth axial area" and shorter septa. The youngest individuals have long septa, which can be somewhat crooked; the axial center has a deep fossula which contains the cardinal septum, which is thick and short. Older corals have a large axial area with the cardinal fossula and projecting septa at their edges, making them appear like a "toothed wheel". [1]
In mature specimens, the fossula has almost disappeared and the top axial area is smooth and wide with septa that project slightly starting outside this area, and continuing almost to the basal peduncle, which is small. The oldest specimens are flat, have "short deformed septa" and no fossula, but do have a theca between the basal septa. [1] Some specimens consist of two corralites joined together. [1] All of these physical characteristics are similar to those of some other fossil coral species, like Hadrophyllum orbignyi . [4] G. wardi and other similar fossil corals may even have been able to move along the sea floor or right themselves if tipped over. [5]
Samples of G. wardi can be 15.5 millimetres (0.61 in) in diameter. They are found in outcrops of shale from the Wewoka formation, and may be collected along the shores of Lake Okmulgee by getting in the shallow water, "washing the edge with a container of water, and watching carefully for little discs freed from the sediment". [6] The University of Kansas Biodiversity Research Center has a large collection of fossils. [7] Park rangers have discouraged fossil collection in the park; fossils are on display in the park's shop and are available for sale from some dealers. [2] [6]
Okmulgee is a city in the Tulsa metropolitan area and the county seat of Okmulgee County in Oklahoma, United States. The name is from the Muskogee word okimulgi, which means "boiling waters". The site was chosen because of the nearby rivers and springs. Okmulgee is 38 miles south of Tulsa and 13 miles north of Henryetta via US-75.
Anthozoa is a class of marine invertebrates which includes sessile cnidarians such as the sea anemones, stony corals, soft corals and sea pens. Adult anthozoans are almost all attached to the seabed, while their larvae can disperse as planktons. The basic unit of the adult is the polyp; this consists of a cylindrical column topped by a disc with a central mouth surrounded by tentacles. Sea anemones are mostly solitary, but the majority of corals are colonial, being formed by the budding of new polyps from an original, founding individual. Colonies are strengthened by calcium carbonate and other materials and take various massive, plate-like, bushy or leafy forms.
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mouth is fringed with tentacles. Although some species are solitary, most are colonial. The founding polyp settles and starts to secrete calcium carbonate to protect its soft body. Solitary corals can be as much as 25 cm (10 in) across but in colonial species the polyps are usually only a few millimetres in diameter. These polyps reproduce asexually by budding, but remain attached to each other, forming a multi-polyp colony of clones with a common skeleton, which may be up to several metres in diameter or height according to species.
The Rugosa, also called the Tetracorallia, rugose corals, or horn corals, are an extinct order of solitary and colonial corals that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas.
The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and covering every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant invertebrate animals. The prehistoric invertebrates are described as to their taxonomy, morphology, paleoecology, stratigraphic and paleogeographic range. However, taxa with no fossil record whatsoever have just a very brief listing.
Dorothy Hill, was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.
Bambiraptor is a Late Cretaceous, 72-million-year-old, bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur described by scientists at the University of Kansas, Yale University, and the University of New Orleans.
Tabulata, commonly known as tabulate corals, are an order of extinct forms of coral. They are almost always colonial, forming colonies of individual hexagonal cells known as corallites defined by a skeleton of calcite, similar in appearance to a honeycomb. Adjacent cells are joined by small pores. Their distinguishing feature is their well-developed horizontal internal partitions (tabulae) within each cell, but reduced or absent vertical internal partitions. They are usually smaller than rugose corals, but vary considerably in shape, from flat to conical to spherical.
Tribrachidium heraldicum is a tri-radially symmetric fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran (Vendian) seas. In life, it was hemispherical in form. T. heraldicum is the best known member of the extinct group Trilobozoa.
Platyceramus was a genus of Cretaceous bivalve molluscs belonging to the extinct inoceramid lineage. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of Inoceramus.
Desmatochelys is an extinct genus of sea turtles belonging to the family Protostegidae. This genus contains two known species, D. lowii and D. padillai. D. lowii was first discovered in 1895, followed by D. padillai in 2015. Having been estimated at over 120 million years old, D. padillai is currently the oldest known species of sea turtle.
Dakotasuchus is a genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. Its fossils have been recovered from the Cenomanian-age Upper Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone of Kansas. The type specimen was found in an iron-cemented sandstone concretion near Salina. This concretion was broken into two large pieces; more of the specimen was probably present originally, but by the time it was found only the torso and short portions of the neck and tail remained. Twenty pairs of bony scutes ran down the midline of the back. The vertebrae lacked the procoelous articulation of more derived crocodyliforms. Dakotasuchus had short broad shoulder blades, suggesting it had stout powerful forelimbs and perhaps terrestrial habits. M. G. Mehl, who described the genus, estimated the length of the type individual when complete to have been 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft). The type species is D. kingi, named for Professor King, a former dean of Kansas Wesleyan University. Mehl did not classify his new genus to a more inclusive group than Mesosuchia. Robert Carroll assigned Dakotasuchus to Goniopholididae in 1988. In 2017, fossils of Dakotasuchus kingi which consisted of a coracoid, scutes, a dorsal vertebrate and postcranial bones were found in Utah, specifically in the Cedar Mountain Formation's Mussentuchit Member.
Okmulgee Park is a city park in Okmulgee, Oklahoma in the United States. The park contains 1,075 acres (435 ha) and sits at an elevation of 758 feet (231 m). The park is adjacent to Dripping Springs Park and is located on Okmulgee Lake. Okmulgee Park, a municipal park established in 1963, is open for year-round recreation including camping, fishing, swimming and hiking.
Sarahsaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now northeastern Arizona, United States.
John West Wells was an American paleontologist, biologist and geologist who focused his research on corals.
Paleontology in Missouri refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Missouri. The geologic column of Missouri spans all of geologic history from the Precambrian to present with the exception of the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic. Brachiopods are probably the most common fossils in Missouri.
Paleontology in Iowa refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Iowa. The paleozoic fossil record of Iowa spans from the Cambrian to Mississippian. During the early Paleozoic Iowa was covered by a shallow sea that would later be home to creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, corals, fishes, and trilobites. Later in the Paleozoic, this sea left the state, but a new one covered Iowa during the early Mesozoic. As this sea began to withdraw a new subtropical coastal plain environment which was home to duck-billed dinosaurs spread across the state. Later this plain was submerged by the rise of the Western Interior Seaway, where plesiosaurs lived. The early Cenozoic is missing from the local rock record, but during the Ice Age evidence indicates that glaciers entered the state, which was home to mammoths and mastodons.
Paleontology in South Dakota refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of South Dakota. South Dakota is an excellent source of fossils as finds have been widespread throughout the state. During the early Paleozoic era South Dakota was submerged by a shallow sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, cephalopods, corals, and ostracoderms. Local sea levels rose and fall during the Carboniferous and the sea left completely during the Permian. During the Triassic, the state became a coastal plain, but by the Jurassic it was under a sea where ammonites lived. Cretaceous South Dakota was also covered by a sea that was home to mosasaurs. The sea remained in place after the start of the Cenozoic before giving way to a terrestrial mammal fauna including the camel Poebrotherium, three-toed horses, rhinoceroses, saber-toothed cat, and titanotheres. During the Ice Age glaciers entered the state, which was home to mammoths and mastodons. Local Native Americans interpreted fossils as the remains of the water monster Unktehi and used bits of Baculites shells in magic rituals to summon buffalo herds. Local fossils came to the attention of formally trained scientists with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Cretaceous horned dinosaur Triceratops horridus is the South Dakota state fossil.
Argyrotheca is a genus of very small to minute lampshells. All species share a large pedicel opening, one ridge on the inside of the pedunculate valve, pits in a diamond pattern on the inside of both valves, and without radial ridges that end in tubercles. It occurs in depths between 6 and 1300 m. It is known since the latest Cretaceous.
Zaphriphyllum is an extinct genus of horn coral belonging to the suborder Stariidae and family Ekvasophyllidae. Specimens have been found in Mississippian beds in North America and Turkey. It is the characteristic coral of the Kelly Limestone of New Mexico, US.