Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian vertebrates of the Pittsburgh-West-Virginia region

Abstract

Pennsylvanian and Permian Vertebrates 49 bony fishes, amphibians, reptiles and miscellaneous remains. It must be understood that many of the identifications are tentative and open to doubt because of the fragmentary nature of the material. Mr. Moran, in his accompanying paper, has listed the various localities visited by the Carnegie Museum parties as a numbered series and has referred alphabetically to localities from which others have obtained tetrapod remains. I have used these numbers and letters throughout and have given more detailed citations only in the case of localities for marine fishes, footprints, etc., with which Moran has not concerned himself. Specimen numbers (unless otherwise specified) refer to the catalogue of vertebrate fossils in the Carnegie Museum. Acanthodes cf. marshi At locality 26 several spines were found, flattened ovate in section, with one or both marginal areas thinned and set off from the main portion (no. 8529). These appear to be acanthodian in nature (cf. Watson 1937, pi. 13) and presumably belong to the typically Permian genus Acanthodes [Acanthoessus]. This is the first identification of an acanthodian in the American Permian and, except for the Upper Pennsylvanian of Mazon Creek, the only identified find of any acanthodian in this continent later than the Devonian. There is no feature visible in these spines by which they can be distinguished from A. marshi from Mazon Creek (Eastman 1902: 93-94, pis. 6, 1)} Cladodus occidentalis Raymond (1910: 156) reports this marine shark tooth type from the Ames limestone of the Conemaugh group in the Pittsburgh region. Teeth of this sort are known to occur in a variety of primitive sharks of the cladoselachian and hybodontoid groups, ranging from Upper Devonian to Lower Permian. Agassizodus variabiiis Raymond (1910: 156) reported teeth of this hybodont shark from the Ames limestone of the Conemaugh group. The present collections contain a tooth of this type from locality 1 (no. 8520) and a damaged tooth (no. 8615), which may be Agassizodus, from locality 2 in the Conemaugh group. A fragment of a hybodont spine (no. 8580) from locality 1 may well belong to this genus. ^ A. newberryi from the same locality may well be based on young individuals of A. marshi.