A. INDEX FOSSILS

• dominant fauna of the Mississippian
• blastoids
1. expanded to their maximum abundance and distribution (45 genera)
• crinoids
1. extremely abundant and important in correlation of strata, most diverse at this time
2. many small, others with 60' stalks
3. high-tier organisms of the Paleozoic
4. major contributor to limestones

• fusulinids appeared and became very abundant and of great stratigraphic importance
• Range: Mississippian-Permian
• fusulinds and other foraminifera offer great strtigraphic resolution in Carboniferous

• particularly important are productids (Dev.-Permian)
• Spirifers in decline (Ordo.-Triassic)
• protuctids were spined, anchoring and maintainence above mud surface
• some Permian protuctids were very abundant + cone-shaped (lower valve) with a small lid (upper valve)

• lacy, sheetlike bryozoans (fenestrate) very abundant.
• A major contributor of skeletal material for limestones

B. OTHER INVERTEBRATES

a. ammonites-

• expanding and diversifying
• goniatites evolved rapidly
b. nautiloids
• heavy-shelled nautiloids declined

a. rugose corals recover from Late Devonian extinctions and rediversify to former levels
b. tabulate corals never recover from late Devonian extincations and linger on to the end of the Permian

3. insects- no known fossils

C. REEF FORMERS

• Rugose corals still near peak diversity

D. VERTEBRATES

• radiation of amphibians to 10 families
• first family of reptiles

E. LAND PLANTS

• Very similar to those of the Devonian.
• Cordaites (gymnosperm with strap-like leaves) appeared

F. SOME MAJOR GENERA TO BE SEEN ON TENN.- KY.-IND. FIELD TRIP

• Bryozoans
1. Rhombopora (cryptostome) (p. 168)
2. Schuchertella (p. 246)
3. Fenestella
4. Archimedes kentuckyensis (p. 171, 177, 182)
• Tabulate Corals
1. Favosites (honey-comb) (p. 116, 131)
2. Cladochonus (creeping corals)
3. Triplophyllites
• Rugose Corals
1. Amplexis (p. 139)
2. Cyathaxonia (dog-tooth)
3. Lithostration (p. 133, 138)
• Gastropods
1. Bembexia (p.302)
2. Sinuitina
3. Bucanella
4. Laxonema
5. Platyceras (p. 304)
• Pelecypods
1. Myalina (p. 420, 425)
2. Nuculopsis (p. 420)
3. Conocardium (p. 416)
• Brachiopods
1. Rhynchopora (p. 241, 243)
2. Punctospirifer (p. 262)
3. Spiriferina
4. Dielasma (p. 234)
5. Rhipidomella (p. 233)
6. Productus (p. 249)
7. Chonetes (p. 248, 250)
8. Dictyoclostus (p. 217, 218, 250)
9. Schuchertella (p. 247)
10. Athyris
11. Syringpthyris textus
12. Orthotetes keokuk
13. Spirifera ((p. 216)
14. Eumetria (p. 262)
• Porifera
1. Palaeacis
• Arthropods
• Trilobites
1. Griffithides
2. Phillibole
• Cephalopods
1. "Merocanites"- goniatite
2. Pericyclus- goniatite
• echinoderms
1. crinoids
• Taxocrinus (p. 643)
• Synbathocrinus (p. 616, 643, 645)
• Wachsmuthicrinus
• Platycrinus (p. 628, 633)
• Synbathocrinus (p. 616, 641, 643)
• Talarocrinus (p. 645)
• Dizygocrinus (p. 645)
• Batocrinus (p. 645)
• Pentremites(p. 594-596)
2. blastoids
• Pentremites (p.594-596)
• Globoblastus
• Hadroblastus

A. INDEX FOSSILS

• particularly important are productids
1. were spined, anchoring and maintainence above mud surface
2. protuctids were most abundant type
• cone-shaped (lower valve) with a small lid (upper valve)
• some quite large and abudant forming "reefs"

• fusulinids diversified greatly in Penn. and Permian
• important in stratigraphy

B. OTHER INVERTEBRATES

• Pelecypods
• abundant for first time
• Gastropods
• abundant and diverse
• first land snails
• Bryozoans
• lacy variety locally very abundant
• Insects
• first flying insects
• dragonflies with 18' wingspans
• first insects with foldable wings
• explosive evolutionary radiation
• cockroaches 3-4", "Age of Cockroaches"
• Declining Groups
• graptolites almost gone
• trilobites scarse
• acritarchs were virtually gone
• blastoids

C. REEF FORMERS

• framework reef formers still rare (stromatoporoids, tabulates, and rugose corals)
• carbonate banks and mounds formed by bryozoans, sponges, calcareous algae
• rugose corals begin decline toward Permian extinction
• regression of Mississippian eperic sea and more clastic sediment supply
• rapid fluctuations between carbonate and clastic sediment
• decline in importance of filter feeders ( corals, crinoids, blastoids, bryozoans) because of muddy deltaic environments
• increase in mud-dwelling molluscs (particularly clams and gastropods) and productid brachiopods

D. VERTEBRATES

• first reptiles appeared near the beginning of the period (Nova Scotia)
• amphibians were the largest animals of the Penn. coal swamps

Amphibian expanison

• Amphibians rapidly expanded & diversified in Carboniferous and remained abundant through the Early Permian, known as "Age of Amphibians".
• During the Carboniferous, large amphibians were more reptile-like in appearance - fat, stub-nosed, "alligators".
• Some of these amphibians were several hundred pounds and up to 10 feet long.

E. LAND PLANTS

1. (Phylum Sphenophyta) Sphenopsids - dominant trees of Pennsylvanian

• joint stemmed plants (scouring rushes)
• Calamites - common in Carboniferous
1. a sphenopsid (branches that radiate from discrete nodes along the stem and horizontal underground stems that bear roots)
• scouring rushes (up to 30' tall)
1. favored higher ground
2. Equisetum (horsetail) - only living representative
• Seedless trees overshadowed in Late Carboniferous and Permian by gymnosperms.
• see fossil Sphenophyta

• Huge trees in Carboniferous
• survivors small
• over 10,000 living species
• scale trees up to 100'
• Lepidodendron
• spiral arrangement of diamond-shaped leaf scars
• Sigillaria
• columns of round or oval leaf scars
• shallow roots
• lived in moist environments
• major contributors to coal

Phylm Cycadophyta (primitive seed plants, gymnosperms)

A. (Class Pteridospermales) Seed ferns
1. seed-bearing plants with fernlike foliage
   
   
B. (Class Cordaitophyta) Cordaites

1. primitive conifers gave rise to true conifers
2. up to 100'
3. gymnosperms (naked seed plants)
4. strap-like leaves
5. lived on drier ground
   
   
Phylum Coniferophyta (cone-bearing gymnosperms, includes pines, spruces, and firs)
1. first true conifers appeared

A. INDEX FOSSILS

• Spiny productid brachiopods reached their climax
1. richthofenids: ice cream cones on stilts
• Fusulinid foraminifera: underwent great evolutionary expansion, abundant and very important index fossils.

B. OTHER INVERTEBRATES

• rugose corals no longer important reef builders
• tabulate corals were in great decline (few or absent in most sections)

C. REEF FORMERS

• productids brachiopods
• sponges
• calcareous algae
• fusulinids
• bryozoans were important reefal organisms (fenestrellids dominant)

D. VERTEBRATES

• great diversity of both reptiles an Synapsids (mammal-like reptiles)
• 170 Late Permian synapsid genera and 15 reptiles

E. LAND PLANTS

• Cordaites (gymnosperm with strap-like leaves) gave rise to ginkgoes an cycads
• Prior to the Middle Permian, the landscape of the Carboniferous had been dominated by psilophytes, lycopsids, sphenopsids, and seed ferns.
• During the Middle to Late Permian, drier conditions accelerated a replacement of Carboniferous floras by gymnosperms and true ferns in the under-canopy.

F. Extinctions- The Mother of All Extinctions

The Late Permian extinction was the largest in Earth history (90% of all marine species extinct or greatly reduced) and marks the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary. The extinctions were spread over the last two stages of the Permian (~7 m.y.)

Nature of the the Paleozoic/Mesozoic boundary:

1. unconformable in most sections (emergence)
2. or in continental red beds (what are red beds?)
3. few continuous or near continuous marine boundaries, mostly bordering the Tethys Sea
• Indonesia
• Salt Range in Pakistan
  
  
The Victims:
1. trilobites
2. rugose corals
3. tabulate corals
4. productid brachiopods
5. orthid brachiopods
6. fenestrate, trepostome, cryptostome, cystoporate bryozoans (lacy, lumpy, and branched)
7. indunate, flexible, and camerate crinoids
8. eurypterids
9. fusulinid foraminifera
   
   
Reductions of other groups:
1. 8 families of ostracods
2. 10 superfamilies of ammonoids
3. 1 suborder of echinoids
4. 5 families of sharks
5. 8 families of bony fish
6. spirifer brachiopods
7. crinoids (1 family left)
8. ammonites (2-3 genera left)
9. clams and gastropods (30% reduction)
   
   
Terrestrial Plant and Animal Extinctions:
1. Animals
• Therapsid reptiles: reduction of ~20 families, otherwise little impact
• Archaic amphibians (primitive reptiles): 6 families extinct
• Synapsid reptiles: 15 familes extinct
• 75% of vertebrate familes became extinct in Late Permian to Early Triassic
  
  
2. Plants
• continuity, except disappearance of cordaites
• former large sphenopsids and lycopsids reduced to shrub-like plants
  
  
Cause(s) of extinction:
1. Changes in ocean chemistry
• Permian time of major evaporite formation
• could such excessive salt formation have reduced oceanic salinity enough to cause mass extinction?.... No.
2. Depletion of atmospheric oxygen
• oxidation of organic carbon may have reduced atmospheric oxygen from 30 to 15%
3. Depletion of oceanic nutrients
• by oxidation of enormous amounts of previously buried organic carbon exposed by low-stand conditions.
4. Bolide impact
• no evidence
5. Change in ocean temperature and climate
• Glaciation: Permian glacial deposits are found throughout Gondwana, however, main phase was in the middle Permian
• Also Middle Permian glaciation in Antarctica
• Upper Permian fossil wood in Antractica, warm, mildly seasonal conditions
• Latest Permian global warming
• climatic instability
6. Pangaean Effect
• reduction of ecospace, but most shelf destruction by Middle Permian
7. Extreme continental aridity
• Upper Permian dune sands and evaporites
8. Massive volcanism
• China and Siberia
• Siberian volcanism (basaltic, sulfate gases) <1 m.y. before boundary
• Chinese erutptions (silicic, ash)