8 p., 4 pl.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Conkin, Barbara M.

Conkin, James E.

English

KU ScholarWorks

Scalarituba missouriensis and its stratigraphic distribution

Clear evidence for assignment of Scalarituba spoor to a worm or wormlike organism is presented and the genus is considered to be monotypic inasmuch as no distinct morpho-logical trend has been discerned throughout its known stratigraphic range. S. rnissouriensis has wide geographic distribution in North America and stratigraphically it occurs in Ordo-vician, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian sediments; undoubtedly Scalarituba has wider stratigraphic range (perhaps throughout the Paleozoic), but it is recognizable only where scalariform ridges are associated with the fossils. These distinctive ridges commonly are excellently preserved in siltstones and fine-grained sandstones, but they are very poorly preserved (or not at all) in finer-grained and coarser-grained sediments. The genus may range into the Mesozoic for KUENEN (1961) has reported structures in Cretaceous sedi-ments of Germany which we tentatively refer to Scalarituba. S. missouriensis is interpreted as having lived (commonly in prolific numbers) in a tidal-flat environment. Tops and bottoms of Scalarituba-bearing siltstone beds are readily differentiated in instances in which there is an alternating sequence of distinct shale and siltstone beds

James E. Conkin

Barbara M. Conkin

CiteSeerX

SCALARITUBA MISSOURIENSIS AND ITS STRATIGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/3699/3/paleo.paper.031op.pdf

Scalarituba missouriensis and its stratigraphic distribution

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

KU ScholarWorks

CiteSeerX