Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-06T18:09:01.335Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new Middle Pennsylvanian (Westphalian) amphibian trackway from the Cross Mountain Formation, East Tennessee Cumberlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Martin S. Kohl  and
Jonathan R. Bryan
Martin S. Kohl
Affiliation:
Tennessee Division of Geology, 2700 Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville 37921
Jonathan R. Bryan
Affiliation:
Okaloosa-Walton Community College, Niceville, Florida 32578
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An amphibian trackway collected in minespoil from the Cross Mountain Formation in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee represents the first known Middle Pennsylvanian (Westphalian) amphibian trackway from the southeastern United States. The tracks are impressed onto the upper surface of a bed of fine-grained, cross-laminated sandstone and siltstone, deposited in an upper delta plain environment.

The trackway was made by an amphibian with a long glenoacetabular distance and low pace-angulation. The imprints show five digits on the pes and four on the manus. Average measurements for the trackway are: stride, 8.4 cm; pace angulation, 76.1° (manus), 63.1° (pes); track width, 5.5 cm (manus), 6.7 cm (pes); glenoacetabular distance, 16.7 cm. The manus impression averages 2.8 cm long by 3.1 cm wide, and the pes averages 3.8 cm long by 3.1 cm wide. A tail drag is conspicuous along the entire length of the trackway and has a minimum radius of curvature of 9 mm.

The trackway is assigned to Matthewichnus caudifer n. ichnosp. on the basis of similarities to published material. The trackmaker was probably a temnospondyl labyrinthodont, considering the size of the animal (thus excluding lepospondyls) and the fact that it had a four-digit manus (thus excluding reptiles and anthracosaurian labyrinthodonts).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , May 1994 , pp. 655 - 663
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldrich, T. H., and Jones, W. B. 1930. Footprints from the coal measures of Alabama. Alabama Museum of Natural History, Museum Paper 9, Geological Survey of Alabama, 64 p.Google Scholar
Baird, D. 1952. Revision of the Pennsylvanian and Permian footprints Limnopus, Allopus, and Baropus. Journal of Paleontology, 25:832–840.Google Scholar
Baird, D. 1979. Lithology and fossil distribution, Francis Creek Shale in northeastern Illinois, p. 41–67. In Niteki, M. H. (ed.), Mazon Creek Fossils. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Barlow, J. A. 1969. Stratigraphy and paleobotany of the youngest Pennsylvanian strata in the Caryville, Tennessee area. Unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 342 p.Google Scholar
Branson, E. B., and Mehl, M. G. 1932. Footprint records from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic of Missouri, Kansas and Wyoming. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 43:383–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carman, J. E. 1927. Fossil footprints from the Pennsylvanian System in Ohio. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 38:385–396.Google Scholar
Carroll, R. L. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 698 p.Google Scholar
Englund, K. J. 1968. Geology and coal resources of the Elk Valley area Tennessee and Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 572, 59 p.Google Scholar
Foreman, B. C., and Martin, L. D. 1988. A review of Paleozoic tetrapod localities of Kansas and Nebraska, p. 133–145. In Mapes, G. and Mapes, R. H. (eds.), Regional Geology and Paleontology of Upper Paleozoic Hamilton Quarry Area in Southeastern Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Guidebook Series 6.Google Scholar
Godfrey, S., Holmes, R. B., and Laurin, M. 1991. Articulated remains of a Pennsylvanian embolomere (Amphibia: Anthracosauria) from Joggins, Nova Scotia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 11:213–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haubold, H. 1970. Versuch einer Revision der Amphibien-Fährten des Karbon und Perm. Freiberger Forschungshefte, 260:83–117.Google Scholar
Haubold, H. 1971. Ichnia amphibiorum et reptiliorum fossilium. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Pt. 18. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, 124 p.Google Scholar
Hook, R. W., and Baird, D. 1986. The Diamond Coal Mine of Linton, Ohio and its Pennsylvanian-age vertebrates. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 6:174–190.Google Scholar
Hook, R. W., and Hower, J. C. 1988. Petrography and taphonomic significance of the vertebrate bearing cannel coal of Linton, Ohio (Westphalian D, Upper Carboniferous). Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 58:72–80.Google Scholar
King, A. T. 1845. Description of fossil footmarks, found in the Carboniferous Series in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. American Journal of Science, Series 1, 48:343–352.Google Scholar
Leonardi, G. (ed.). 1987. Glossary and Manual of Tetrapod Footprint Palaeoichnology. Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Brazília, 117 p.Google Scholar
Lull, R. S. 1920. An Upper Carboniferous footprint from Attleboro, Massachusetts, American Journal of Science, Series 4, 50:234–236.Google Scholar
Luther, E. T. 1967. Geologic map and mineral resources summary of the Block quadrangle, Tennessee, Tennessee Division of Geology, Geologic Quadrangle Map GM 128-SE, scale 1:24,000.Google Scholar
Maples, C. G., and Schultze, H.-P. 1988. Preliminary comparison of the Pennsylvanian assemblage of Hamilton, Kansas, with marine and nonmarine contemporaneous assemblages, p. 253–273. In Mapes, G. and Mapes, R. H. (eds.), Regional geology and paleontology of upper Paleozoic Hamilton quarry area in southeastern Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Guidebook Series 6.Google Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1894. Footprints of vertebrates in the Coal Measures of Kansas. American Journal of Science, Series 3, 48:81–84.Google Scholar
Martino, R. L. 1991. Limnopus trackways from the Conemaugh Group (Late Pennsylvanian), southern West Virginia. Journal of Paleontology, 65:957–972.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1903. An attempt to classify Paleozoic batrachian footprints. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 2, 9 (sect. IV):109–121.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1905. New species and a new genus of batrachian footprints of the Carboniferous System in eastern Canada. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 2, 10:77–144.Google Scholar
Meyer, H. V. 1842. Labyrinthodontia. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie, und Paläontologie, 301–304.Google Scholar
Morse, W. C. 1931. Pennsylvanian invertebrate fauna of Kentucky. Kentucky Geological Survey, Series 6, 36:293–348.Google Scholar
Outerbridge, W. F. 1976. The Magoffin Member of the Breathitt Formation, p. A64–A65. In Cohee, G. V. and Wright, W. B. (eds.), Changes in Stratigraphic Nomenclature by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1975. U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 1422-A.Google Scholar
Patchen, D. G., Avery, K. L., and Erwin, R. B. (coordinators). 1984. Correlation of stratigraphic units in North America, southern Appalachian region correlation chart. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Correlation Chart Series.Google Scholar
Rice, C. L. 1980. Kendrick Shale Member of the Breathitt Formation in eastern Kentucky, p. A117–A122. In Sohl, N. F. and Wright, W. B. (eds.), Changes in Stratigraphic Nomenclature by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1979, U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 1502-A.Google Scholar
Rice, C. L. 1984. Stratigraphic framework and nomenclatural problems in the Pennsylvanian of the Cumberland overthrust sheet, Kentucky and Tennessee. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 95:1475–1481.Google Scholar
Roberts, T. A. 1978. Transitional lower delta plain–upper delta plain sediments in the Middle Pennsylvanian coal-bearing strata eastern Wartburg basin, Tennessee. Unpubl. , , Knoxville, 272 p.Google Scholar
Romer, A. S. 1966. Vertebrate Paleontology, Third Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 468 p.Google Scholar
Sarjeant, W. A. S. 1975. Fossil tracks and impressions of vertebrates, p. 283–324. In Frey, R. W. (ed.), The Study of Trace Fossils. Springer Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Sarjeant, W. A. S., and Mossman, D. J. 1978. Vertebrate footprints from the Carboniferous sediments of Nova Scotia: a historical review and description of newly discovered forms. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 23:279–306.Google Scholar
Schneck, W. M., and Fritz, W. J. 1985. An amphibian trackway (Cincosaurus cobbi) from the Lower Pennsylvanian (“Pottsville”) of Lookout Mountain, Georgia: a first occurrence. Journal of Paleontology, 59:1243–1250.Google Scholar
Van Eysinga, F. W. B. (ed.). 1975. Geological Timetable, 3rd edition. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Willard, B., and Cleaves, A. B. 1930. Amphibian footprints from the Pennsylvanian of the Narragansett Basin. Geological Society of American Bulletin, 41:321–327.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. W., Jewell, J. W., and Luther, E. T. 1956. Pennsylvanian Geology of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Division of Geology Folio, 21 p.Google Scholar
Woodworth, J. B. 1900. Vertebrate footprints on Carboniferous shales of Plainville, Massachusetts. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 11:449–454.Google Scholar
Zittel, K. V. 1887–1890. Handbuch der Paleontologie. I Abteilung, Band III. Vertebrata (Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves). R. Oldenbourg, München und Leipzig.Google Scholar