Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A Scolecodont Natural Assemblage from the Kansas Permian

1964; Kansas Academy of Science; Volume: 67; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3626793

1938-5420

Paul Tasch, Jerry R. Stude,

Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

The literature on scolecodont natural assemblages in the fossil record is restricted. Such assemblages have been described by: Hinde (1896), Zebera [1935, 1962 (in Howell)], Eller (1936), Roger (1946), Lange (1947, 1949), Kozlowski (1956), Martinsson (1960), Kielan-Jaworowska (1961, 1962). While reviewing the large Permian scolecodont collections from the Fort Riley limestone of Kansas (Tasch and Stude, 1960; 1964), Stude discovered the natural assemblage that is described in this paper. Tasch had speculated that two Arabellites species in the Fort Riley collections were likely to belong to the same jaw apparatus. This speculation was based on three observations: first, the distance between denticles in both A. falciformis and A. comis followed the dental formula, n.(0.032); second, both of these species have been found together in the Devonian (Stauffer, 1939), Mississippian (Sylvester, 1959), and Permian beds (this paper, and Tasch and Stude, 1964); third, specimens of A. falciformis and A. comis that have been reported are Maxilla I and II respectively. These three observations taken together appeared to denote that the two species were part of a single jaw apparatus and hence, components of one species. Proof of the accuracy of this inference is given in this paper. The assemblage consists of three components: A. falciformis, A. comis, and Eunicites sp. However, other components not available to us may have been associated with this particular jaw assemblage.