Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone and Systemic Boundaries Blossburg, Pennsylvania 1830-1900

1992 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Leviton ◽  
Michele Aldrich
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Upper Devonian ◽  
Boundary Problems ◽  
Lower Carboniferous ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Survey Report ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Floodplain Sediments

During the Late Devonian, in what is now northcentral Pennsylvania, slow moving streams meandered across the plain of the "Catskill" Delta. A varied fish fauna lived in these streams, and their remains are entombed in the ancient stream channel and floodplain sediments. In the 1830's, English railroad engineer Richard Cowling Taylor visited the coal mining community of Blossburg and remarked on the analogy between the Old Red Sandstone of England and that found near Blossburg. Not long afterwards, James Hall (1811-1898), best known for his work on Paleozoic invertebrates of New York, also visited Blossburg to clear up vexing boundary problems in the New York formations. He obtained fish scales from the red sandstones, many of which he identified as scales of Holoptychus nobilissimus, a crossopterygian fish described by Louis Agassiz in 1839. In his annual report for 1839 to the New York Legislature, Hall also took note of some large scales, which were unlike any previously described. Under pressure from the Governor, Hall, like the other survey scientists, had to submit timely reports even if studies were incomplete, and he hurriedly described the new scales, referring them to a new genus and species, Sauritolepis taylori. In his final survey report (1843). Hall dealt more fully with the new fish, renaming it Sauripteris taylori based on the fin structure, the significance of which he had not earlier recognized. The Blossburg fishes did not languish in obscurity; James DeKay referred to them in his checklist of fishes of New York, as did Charles Lyell in his 1845 Travels in North America. In 1890 John Strong Newberry placed the fish fossils in the Lower Carboniferous; he also described several new species. Hall's handling of the fossil fish he had before him and, indeed, the reasons for entering Pennsylvania in the first place, are emblematic of the way much science was practiced in the first half of the 19th century. Further, recent field work in the Blossburg area shows Hall's astuteness as a field geologist for he correctly placed the fish in the Upper Devonian, although in this region the Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous boundary is not well defined.

XXVIII.—On the Presence of Tetrads of Resistant Spores in the Tissue of Sporocarpon furcatum Dawson from the Upper Devonian of America

1925 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kidston ◽  
W. H. Lang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Black Shale ◽  
Black Shales ◽  
Upper Devonian ◽  
The South ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Lower Carboniferous ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Western Border

The deposits of the Devonian period over a large area in the interior of North America to the south of the great lakes are known to be wholly of marine type and to have continued those of the Silurian period. They were formed in a great gulf open to the south. Along the western border of this gulf shore-deposits and, during Upper Devonian times, deposits of Old Red Sandstone type were accumulated, while in the middle of the gulf the resulting rocks were limestones and shales. In Ohio, following on a narrow band of what is regarded as Oriskany Sandstone (Lower Devonian), the Corniferous limestone and some local representatives of the Hamilton formation represent the Middle Devonian. Above this comes a great mass of black shale, which here represents the whole Upper Devonian and may continue up into black shales of the Lower Carboniferous. A black shale at the base of the Upper Devonian rocks has an extensive range in the central region of North America, being represented by the Huron shale in Canada and the Genessee shale in New York. Drifted land plants from the coast of the gulf, or from islands in it, have been found in the black shale and also in the underlying Corniferous limestone, and some other fossils are commonly spoken of as Algæ but have afforded little or no botanical information.

An Early Devonian lake and its associated biota in the Midland Valley of Scotland

1995 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. H. Trewin ◽  
R. G. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
Early Devonian ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Drainage Patterns ◽  
Terrestrial Environments ◽  
Climatic Regime ◽  
Lake Floor ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Green Clay

ABSTRACTThe Tillywhandland fish bed of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in the Strathmore area of the Scottish Midland Valley accumulated in a lake, here called Lake Forfar, which was created suddenly following a period of fluvial deposition. Lake creation may have been due to basin faulting or the disruption of drainage patterns by contemporaneous volcanic activity. The fish bed laminites accumulated in a hydrologically open lake under a seasonal climatic regime. When fully developed, laminites comprise repeated quadruplets of clastic silt/carbonate/organic/green clay–shale laminae averaging 0·5 mm in thickness. Following 2000 years of laminite deposition an increasingly silty succession with thin current-rippled sandstones provided the lake-fill.The fish fauna is dominated by Mesacanthus and Ischnacanthus with rare Euthacanthus, Parexus, Climatius, Vernicomacanthus and Cephalaspis. Most fish carcasses were partially decayed before deposition in the laminites on the poorly oxygenated lake floor. Abundant coprolites are the result of predation on Mesacanthus and small Ischnacanthus, probably by larger Ischnacanthus. Arthropods present include eurypterids (Pterygotus), washed in as near complete exuviae and fragments, and millipeds which were washed in from surrounding terrestrial environments along with plants, of which Parka and Zosterophyllum are common. Bioturbation indicates that conditions were not permanently anoxic during deposition of the laminites.Comparison of our collections with the Mitchell Collection accumulated in the 19th century indicates that Tillywhandland Quarry was the main source of specimens in laminite lithologies labelled ‘Turin Hill’.

scholarly journals An examination of the Devonian fishes of Michigan

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5636
Author(s):  
Jack Stack ◽  
Lauren Sallan
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle Devonian ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Fish Diversity ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Accessible Region ◽  
Recent Collection ◽  
Reef Fauna

We surveyed the taxa, ecosystems, and localities of the Devonian fishes of Michigan to provide a framework for renewed study, to learn about the diversity and number of these fishes, and to investigate their connection to other North American faunas. Nineteen genera of fishes have been found in the Middle and Late Devonian deposits of Michigan, of which thirteen are ‘placoderms’ represented by material ranging from articulated head shields to ichthyoliths. As expected from the marine nature of these deposits, ‘placoderms’ are overwhelmingly arthrodire in nature, but two genera of ptyctodonts have been reported along with less common petalichthyid material. The remaining fish fauna consists of fin-spines attributed to ‘acanthodians’, two genera of potential crown chondrichthyans, an isolated dipnoan, and onychodont teeth/jaw material. There was an apparent drop in fish diversity and fossil abundance between Middle and Late Devonian sediments. This pattern may be attributed to a paucity of Late Devonian sites, along with a relative lack of recent collection efforts at existing outcrops. It may also be due to a shift towards open water pelagic environments at Late Devonian localities, as opposed to the nearshore reef fauna preserved in the more numerous Middle Devonian localities. The Middle Devonian vertebrate fauna in Michigan shows strong connections with same-age assemblages from Ohio and New York. Finally, we document the presence of partially articulated vertebrate remains associated with benthic invertebrates, an uncommon occurrence in Devonian strata outside of North America. We anticipate this new survey will guide future field work efforts in an undersampled yet highly accessible region that preserves an abundance of fishes from a critical interval in marine vertebrate evolution.

The Silurian-Devonian fossil record of the Myriapoda

1985 ◽  
Vol 309 (1138) ◽  
pp. 227-237 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Discrete Group ◽  
Lower Devonian ◽  
New York State ◽  
Upper Devonian ◽  
York State ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Terrestrial Invertebrates ◽  
Terrestrial Invertebrate

The oldest recorded terrestrial invertebrates are various small Diplopods (millepedes) from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Britain which were probably preserved preferentially due to their robust calcified exoskeleton. While the myriapod affinities and terrestrial habits of the earliest, pre-Prídolí, claims are highly questionable, true diplopods are known from the latest Silurian (Stonehaven Group) and Lower Devonian of Scotland. In addition, a variety of enigmatic myriapod-like arthropods occur sporadically in the late Silurian-Lower Devonian freshwater facies of the M idland Valley of Scotland and Welsh Borderlands. Among these, the kampecarids ss. constitute a discrete group of short-bodied, diplopodous uniramian arthropods, possibly with myriapod affinities and aquatic habits. In contrast to the diversity of chelicerate groups represented in the later terrestrial invertebrate faunas of Rhynie, Aiken and Gilboa, the Middle to Upper Devonian fossil record of the Myriapoda is very sparse. While true diplopods are notably absent, a variety of fragmentary chilopods (centipedes) are now known from the Gilboa Fauna (Givetian) of New York State.

VI.—Note on the Occurrence of a Species of Onychodus in the Lower Old Red Sandstone Passage Beds of Ledbury, Herefordshire

1888 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 500-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Smith Woodward
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
Upper Devonian ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Natural Size ◽  
Delaware County ◽  
University Museum ◽  
The University

During a recent visit to the University Museum at Oxford, I observed in the Grindrod Collection an interesting small fossil apparently adding to the known fauna of the Ledbury Passage Beds a remarkable type of fish, hitherto only met with in the Middle and Upper Devonian of the United States. Through the kindness of Professor Green, I have since had the opportunity of studying this specimen in London; and it is shown, of twice the natural size, in the accompanying Woodcut. It may be regarded as an imperfect example of the so-called “intermandibular arch” of the extinct ganoid, Onychodus, described by Prof. Newberry from the Corniferous Limestone of Ohio, and the Chemung Group of Delaware County, New York.

The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players: The Origins of Professional Baseball and the American Identity

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Identity ◽  
National Association ◽  
American Values ◽  
Primary Documents ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
Formative Experience ◽  
The 19Th Century

Baseball has been proudly coined “the national pastime” for nearly its entire existence. The sport evolved from several English bat and ball games and quickly became part of the American identity in the 19th century. Only a few decades after the first baseball club formed in New York City, amateur clubs began to organize into loose confederations as competition and glory entered a game originally associated with fraternal leisure. Soon after, clubs with enough fans and capital began to pay players for their services and by 1871 and league of solely professionals emerged. Known as The National Professional Base Ball Players Association, this league would only last five seasons but would lay the groundwork for the American tradition of professional sports that exists today. In this paper, I analyze the development of the sport of baseball into a professional industry alongside the concurrent industrialization and urbanization of the United States. I used primary documents from the era describing the growing popularity of the sport as well as modern historians’ accounts of early baseball. In addition, I rely on sources focusing on the changing American identity during this period known as The Gilded Age, which many attribute to be the beginnings of the modern understanding of American values. Ultimately, I conclude that baseball’s progression into a professional league from grassroots origins compared to a broader trend of the ideal American being viewed as urban, skilled, and affluent despite the majority not able to fit this characterization. How certain attributes become inherent to a group identity and the types of individuals able to communicate these messages are also explored. My analysis of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players provides insight on the formative experience of the modern collective American identity and baseball’s place in it as our national pastime.

Die Konstruktion von Natur – Central Park neu besichtigt | The Construction of Nature – Central Park Revisited

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (8) ◽  
pp. 288-296
Author(s):  
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Hudson River ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Housing Developments ◽  
Hudson River School ◽  
The North ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship

In the first half of the 19th century scientific philosophers in the United States, such as Emerson and Thoreau, began to pursue the relationship between man and nature. Painters from the Hudson River School discovered the rural spaces to the north of New York and began to celebrate the American landscape in their paintings. In many places at this time garden societies were founded, which generated widespread support for the creation of park enclosures While the first such were cemeteries with the character of parks, housing developments on the peripheries of towns were later set in generous park landscapes. However, the centres of the growing American cities also need green spaces and the so-called «park movement»reached a first high point with New York's Central Park. It was not only an experimental field for modern urban elements, but even today is a force of social cohesion.

HIGH FRASNIAN CONODONTS FROM THE CANASERAGA SANDSTONE, JAVA GROUP, UPPER DEVONIAN, WESTERN NEW YORK

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezekiel McGinn ◽  
◽  
D. Jeffrey Over ◽  
Mary Elizabeth Kosloski ◽  
Jed Day
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Upper Devonian
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