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Ctenacanthus and Other Chondrichthyan Spines and Denticles from the Minturn Formation (Pennsylvanian) of Colorado

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Ctenacanthus and Other Chondrichthyan Spines and Denticles from the Minturn Formation (Pennsylvanian) of Colorado See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228601686 Ctenacanthus and other chondrichthyan spines and denticles from the Minturn Formation (Pennsylvanian) of Colorado Article in Journal of Paleontology · May 2003 Impact Factor: 1.28 · DOI: 10.1666/0022-3360(2003)077<0524:CAOCSA>2.0.CO;2 CITATIONS READS 9 110 3 authors, including: Wayne Itano National Institute of Standards and Technolo… 357 PUBLICATIONS 23,785 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: Wayne Itano Retrieved on: 10 May 2016 J. Paleont., 77(3), 2003, pp. 524±535 Copyright q 2003, The Paleontological Society 0022-3360/03/0077-524$03.00 CTENACANTHUS AND OTHER CHONDRICHTHYAN SPINES AND DENTICLES FROM THE MINTURN FORMATION (PENNSYLVANIAN) OF COLORADO WAYNE M. ITANO,1 KAREN J. HOUCK,2 AND MARTIN G. LOCKLEY2 11995 Dartmouth Ave., Boulder, Colorado 80305, ,[email protected]. and 2Dept. of Geography, Geology, and Environmental Science, University of Colorado, Denver 80217 ABSTRACTÐChondrichthyan spines and dermal denticles are reported from the Middle Pennsylvanian Minturn Formation, Eagle County, Colorado. The most common element is a dorsal ®nspine referred to Ctenacanthus buttersi St. John and Worthen, 1883. Some of the specimens are more complete distally than the holotype and only previously ®gured specimen of C. buttersi. Less common remains include a dorsal ®nspine referred to Acondylacanthus nuperus St. John and Worthen, 1883, a smooth-ribbed dorsal ®nspine close to ``Ctenacanthus'' furicarinatus Newberry, 1875, a spine fragment probably referrable to Physonemus sp., and two large-noded dorsal ®nspines probably referrable to two different species of Bythiacanthus. Dermal denticles are referred to Petrodus patelliformis M'Coy, 1848. Ctenacanthus buttersi ®nspines and some large cladodont teeth, referred to ``Symmorium'' occidentalis (Leidy), 1859, may belong to the same species. This conjecture is based mainly on the relative abundances of chondrichthyan teeth found at the same locality. INTRODUCTION (McNulty, 1963; Dalquest et al., 1993), Oklahoma (Zidek, 1978, DIVERSE marine chondrichthyan assemblage has been found 1993; Hansen, 1980), Nebraska (Ossian, 1974; Maisey, 1983; A in the Minturn Formation (middle Pennsylvanian) of Eagle Johnson, 1984), and Kansas (Miller, 1957; Chorn and Frailey, and Routt Counties, Colorado, near the town of McCoy (Fig. 1). 1978; Maisey, 1989; Robb, 1992; Schultze and West, 1996). The remains consist of isolated teeth, spines, and dermal denticles. Much of the modern research has concentrated on a few un- Six distinct spines and one dermal denticle are described and ®g- usual localities, such as the late Mississippian Bear Gulch Lime- ured in this report. The teeth will be described in a future pub- stone of Montana (Lund, 1999) and the Pennsylvanian black lication. Many of the specimens discussed here were found at a shales of Indiana, Illinois, and neighboring states (Zangerl and single locality, associated with a prominent limestone bed. All of Richardson, 1963; Williams, 1985), where articulated chondri- the specimens were found within a radius of a few kilometers of chthyan skeletons are sometimes preserved. Other marine chon- McCoy, Eagle County, Colorado, in marine shales and limestones, drichthyan assemblages have not been studied to the same degree, associated with invertebrate fossils including crinoids, brachio- largely because the remains nearly always consist of isolated pods, molluscs, and corals. A preliminary report on the vertebrate teeth, spines, and dermal denticles. Still, it may be possible to assemblage appeared in an informal publication, which included obtain a fairly complete inventory of the species present at a given a faunal list and sketches of specimens (Lockley, 1984). Since locality from such isolated remains. An example is Hansen's that report appeared, several new taxa have been identi®ed. (1986) comprehensive study of the microscopic and macroscopic The published record of Carboniferous chondrichthyans from chondrichthyan remains from the Pennsylvanian marine carbonate Colorado is rather sparse. The ®rst record appears to be the de- formations of Ohio. The Minturn Formation assemblage, which scription of Cladodus girtyi by Hay (1900), based on a tooth from includes six distinct spine taxa, is unusually diverse for this geo- ``the Coal Measures of Colorado.'' Eastman (1903) believed Cla- graphic region and time period. dodus girtyi to be ``scarcely distinct'' from Cladodus occidentalis STRATIGRAPHIC SETTING Leidy. C. girtyi is the only Paleozoic ®sh from Colorado listed in The Pennsylvanian Minturn Formation consists of a complex a review of the ®shes (fossil and extant) of the Rocky Mountain sequence of conglomerates, sandstones, shales, and marine lime- region (Cockerell, 1907). Some chondrichthyan teeth from the stones, deposited at the eastern margin of the Central Colorado Minturn Formation of Colorado, referred to Petalodus ohioensis Basin, adjacent to the Ancestral Front Range (De Voto, 1980). Safford are reposited in the University of Colorado Museum. Ste- The Minturn Formation was originally described by Tweto (1949) vens (1958) ®gured teeth referred to Petalodus destructor New- in the vicinity of Minturn and Pando, Eagle County, Colorado. berry and Worthen (probably a junior synonym of P. ohioensis) The fossiliferous Pennsylvanian deposits in the vicinity of Mc- and to Cladodus sp. and a fragment of a dorsal ®nspine, referred Coy, Eagle County, Colorado, were studied by Roth and Skinner to Ctenacanthus sp., all from the Minturn Formation near McCoy, (1930), who named these beds the McCoy Formation. Stevens Colorado. Bass and Northrop (1963) noted the presence of Penn- (1958) and Chronic and Stevens (1958) recognized their equiva- sylvanian chondrichthyans in the Glenwood Springs, Colorado lence with those at Minturn, and designated them as the Minturn area, including Peripristis semicircularis Newberry and Worthen, Formation. They also designated 19 numbered stratigraphic units, in the Belden Formation, and Petalodus ohioensis in the Paradox containing both marine and nonmarine sediments (Fig. 2). Houck Formation. (1997) was able to correlate several of the marine transgressions The record of Carbonifererous chondrichthyans in neighboring with the fusulinid biozones of Ross and Ross (1987) and show states is only slightly better. Eastman (1903) provided a survey that the middle part of the Minturn Formation (units 3 through 7 for the central western United States. Reviews covering individual of Stevens, 1958) ranges from the late Atokan age to the Des- states have been given for New Mexico (Zidek and Kietzke, moinesian age of the Pennsylvanian Period. 1993), Utah (Sumida et al., 1999), and Oklahoma (Zidek, 1973, 1976, 1977). In addition to the occurrences noted in these reviews, SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY there have been reports of isolated teeth and spines, a few de- Other than for Ctenacanthus, which is known from articulated scriptions of articulated remains, and a few extensive faunal re- specimens, the taxonomic groupings within the Chondrichthyes ports from particular localities from Arizona (Elliott and Bounds, to which the following spines and denticles are assigned are high- 1987), New Mexico (Zidek, 1992; Lucas and Estep, 2000), Utah ly uncertain, even when they can be assigned to nominal genera (Miller, 1981), Wyoming (Branson, 1916; Santucci, 1998), Texas or even species. For that reason, their assignment to families, 524 ITANO ET AL.ÐCHONDRICHTHYAN SPINES FROM COLORADO 525 orders, and even subclasses is kept to a minimum. We follow Zangerl (1981) for the classi®cation of Ctenacanthus. All speci- mens collected for this study are reposited in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNH) or the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). All of these specimens are from the Minturn Formation, Eagle and Routt Counties, Colorado, near the towns of Bond and McCoy. Precise locations of individual spec- imens are on ®le at the respositories. DMNH specimens for which names of collectors are not noted were found by Martin Lockley, Karen Houck, and students of the University of Colorado at Den- ver. Where known, the units are given in terms of the named members of the Minturn Formation (Tweto, 1949), the numbered units of Stevens (1958) and Houck (1997), and the ages within the Pennsylvanian Period (Atokan or Desmoinesian). In addition, some specimens at the University of Colorado Museum (UCM), the United States National Museum of Natural History (USNM), and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNH) were examined. Class CHONDRICHTHYES Huxley, 1880 Subclass ELASMOBRANCHII Bonaparte, 1838 Order EUSELACHII Hay, 1902 Superfamily CTENACANTHOIDEA Zangerl, 1981 Family CTENACANTHIDAE Dean, 1909 Genus CTENACANTHUS Agassiz, 1837 Type species.Ctenacanthus major AGASSIZ, 1837. Discussion.The type species, Ctenacanthus major, is founded on an isolated Lower Carboniferous ®nspine having ornament consisting of numerous closely spaced longitudinal ribs pectinated with minute tuberculations. Spines of C. major have never been found associated with other remains, such as teeth. However, ar- ticulated specimens of Ctenacanthus compressus Newberry, 1889 and Ctenacanthus clarkii Newberry, 1889 (now considered to be a junior synonym of C. compressus) are known from the upper Devonian Cleveland Shale. These specimens have ®nspines con- forming closely to C. major. Maisey (1981, 1982, 1984) reeval- uated the nominal species
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