Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:23:53.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evaluation of geological age and environmental factors in changing aspects of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna during the Carboniferous

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Robert L. Carroll
Affiliation:
Biology Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H3A 2T5

Abstract

Of all the localities that have yielded a diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods, the fossil assemblage at East Kirkton most closely resembles that of the Joggins locality in Nova Scotia. Both assemblages are dominated by dendrerpetontid temnospondyls and a smaller number of small anthracosaurs, which are thought to have been primarily terrestrial in habits. Both localities lack adelogyrinids and lysorophids, and such presumably deep water genera as Crassigyrinusand large embolomeres. The East Kirkton Limestone differs in the presence of aïstopods and a possible nectridean, which are associated with a shallow-water environment in other localities. The absence of amniotes and microsaurs may be explained by the later evolution of these groups, their limited geographical distribution, or the lack of any aspects of the depositional environment that would preferentially select primarily terrestrial animals.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1993

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

Andrews, S. M. & Carroll, R. L. 1991. The Order Adelospondyli: Carboniferous lepospondyl amphibians. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 82, 239–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baird, G. C., Shabica, C. W., Anderson, J. L. & Richardson, E. S. Jr. 1985. Biota of a Pennsylvanian muddy coast: Habitats within the Mazonian delta complex, northeast Illinois. J PALEONTOL 59, 253–81.Google Scholar
Bolt, J. R. 1990. Mississippian vertebrates from Iowa. NAT GEO RES 6, 339–54.Google Scholar
Boy, J. A. 1977. Typen und Genese jungpaläozoischer Tetrapoden-Lagerstätten. PALAEONTOGRAPHICA Abt A, 156, 111–67.Google Scholar
Boyd, M. J. 1980. A lysorophid amphibian from the Coal Measures of northern England. PALAEONTOLOGY 23, 925–29.Google Scholar
Carroll, R. L. 1992. The primary radiation of terrestrial vertebrates. ANNU REV EARTH PLANET SCI 20, 4584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, R. L., Belt, E. S., Dineley, D. L., Baird, D. & McGregor, D. C. 1972. 24TH INT GEOL CONGR MONTREAL 1113.Google Scholar
Carroll, R. L. & Gaskill, P. 1978. The Order Microsaura. MEM AM PHILOS SOC 126, 1211.Google Scholar
Clack, J. A. 1994. Silvanerpeton miripedes, a new anthracosauroid from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 84, 369376.Google Scholar
Coates, M. 1994. Actinopterygian and acanthodian fishes from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 84, 317327.Google Scholar
DiMichele, W. A., & Hook, R. W. 1992. Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems. In Behrensmeyer, A. K., Damuth, J. D., DiMichele, W. A., Potts, R., Sues, H.-D. & Wing, S. L. (Eds) Terrestrial ecosystems through time, 204325. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hook, R. W. & Baird, D. 1986. The Diamond Coal Mine of Linton, Ohio, and its Pennsylvanian-age vertebrates. J VERT PALEONTOL 6, 174–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hook, R. W. & Ferm, J. C. 1988. Paleoenviromental controls on vertebrate-bearing abandoned channels in the Upper Car-boniferous. PALEOGEO PALAEOCLIM PALAEOECOL 63, 159–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, A. C. 1980. A review of the Nectridea (Amphibia). In Panchen, A. L. (Ed.) The terrestrial environment and the origin of land vertebrates, 377405. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Milner, A. R. 1980a. The temnospondyl amphibian Dendrerpeton from the Upper Carboniferous of Ireland. PALAEONTOLOGY 23, 125–41.Google Scholar
Milner, A. R. 1980b. The tetrapod assemblage from Nýřany, Czechoslovakia. In Panchen, A. L. (Ed) The terrestrial environment and the origin of land vertebrates, 439–96. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Milner, A. R. 1987. The Westphalian tetrapod fauna; some aspects of its geography and ecology. J GEOL SOC LONDON 144, 495506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, A. R., & Sequeira, , 1994. The temnospondyl amphibians from East Kirkton. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 84, 331361.Google Scholar
Panchen, A. L. 1970. Part 5A. Anthracosauria. In Kuhn, O. (Ed.) Handbuch der Paläontologie 184. Stuttgart: Fischer.Google Scholar
Rolfe, W. D. I., Durant, G. P., Fallick, A. E., Hall, A. J., Large, D. J., Scott, A. C., Smithson, T. R. & Walkden, G. M. 1990. An early terrestrial biota preserved by Viséan vulcanicity in Scotland. In Lockley, M. G. & Rice, A. (Eds) Volcanism and fossil biotas. GEOL SOC AM SPEC PAP 244, 1324.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. & Bolt, J. R. 1994. The lungfish Tranodis and a new tetrapod locality, in the Upper Mississippian of North America. PALAEONTOLOGY (in press).Google Scholar
Smithson, T. R. 1980. An early tetrapod fauna from the Namurian of Scotland. In Panchen, A. L. (Ed.) The terrestrial environment and the origin of land vertebrates, 407–38. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Smithson, T. R. 1985. Scottish Carboniferous amphibian localities. SCOTT J GEOL 21, 123–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithson, T. R. 1986. A new anthracosaur amphibian from the Carboniferous of Scotland. PALAEONTOLOGY 29, 603–28.Google Scholar
Smithson, T. R., Carroll, R. L., Panchen, A. L. & Andrews, S. M. 1994. Westlothiana lizziae from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 84, 383412.Google Scholar
Wellstead, C. F. 1982. A Lower Carboniferous aïstopod amphibian from Scotland. PALAEONTOL 25, 193208.Google Scholar
Wellstead, C. F. 1991. Taxonomic revision of the Lysorophia, Permo-Carboniferous lepospondyl amphibians. BULL AM MUS NAT HIST 209, 190.Google Scholar