Type material of Paraconularia planicostata (Dawson) from the Upper Mississippian of Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada

Paraconularia planicostata (Dawson, 1868) is one of two species in this genus (Sinclair, 1940) of conulariid cnidarian currently known from Mississippian strata in the Maritimes Basin in Atlantic Canada (Babcock and Feldmann, 1986). A salient characteristic of the species is the presence of a low an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Paleontology
Main Authors: Van Iten, Heyo, Snyder, Mo, Tollerton, Victor P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2023.86
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022336023000860
Description
Summary:Paraconularia planicostata (Dawson, 1868) is one of two species in this genus (Sinclair, 1940) of conulariid cnidarian currently known from Mississippian strata in the Maritimes Basin in Atlantic Canada (Babcock and Feldmann, 1986). A salient characteristic of the species is the presence of a low and narrow internal carina at or near the longitudinal midline of each of the four faces of the gently tapered periderm (Van Iten et al., 2020). Paraconularia planicostata occurs in marine carbonates in the Upper Mississippian lower Windsor and lower Codroy groups in Nova Scotia and western Newfoundland, respectively (e.g., Bell, 1929; Stacy, 1953; Dix and James, 1988; Boehner et al., 1989; Boehner and Prime, 1993; Lavoie and Sami, 1998; Jutras et al., 2006; Ryan and Giles, 2017; Van Iten et al., 2020). The species is exceptionally abundant, with richly fossiliferous biohermal limestones containing up to approximately 20 specimens per 1000 cm 3 of host rock (Van Iten, unpublished observations)—a volumetric density matched by few other conulariid-bearing rock units.