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My Linton Collection and Recollections

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My Linton Collection and Recollections The cannel coal of the Diamond Mine near the former town of Linton, Jefferson County, Ohio contains one of the finest Upper Carboniferous vertebrate assemblages in the world. The cannel, underlying the Upper Freeport Coal (Pennsylvanian, Upper Allegheny Formation, Westphalian D), is postulated, with good evidence, to have formed in an oxbow (cut-off meander) of a meandering, river system. Other similar, cannel buildups in apparently the same river system are also present in the local area. The site is slightly younger (geologically) than the Upper Pennsylvanian deposits of Mazon Creek in Illinois, USA and slightly older than those of Nyrany in the Czech Republic, EU. More information on the Linton site can be found in the following articles available for download from the Internet: For a general history of the Linton area see: Coal Swamp Vertebrates from Linton, Ohio. Ohio Geology Newsletter (Spring 1984) http://www2.ohiodnr.com/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/Newsletter/Spring84.pdf For a good reference to the deposits and faunal associations at Linton, refer to: Hook, Robert W. and Baird, Donald. An Overview of the Upper Carboniferous Fossil Deposit at Linton, Ohio. The Ohio Journal of Science. 88 (1): 55-60, 1988 http://hdl.handle.net/1811/23240 Many more articles exist on Linton and quite a few of the other Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) vertebrate localities. I hope to post my references at some future date, once I’ve been able to gather them together. The localities will include among others: Linton, Five Points, Ohio; Joggins, Grand Étang and Florence, Nova Scotia; Nyrany, Czechoslovakia; Mazon Creek, Illinois; Cannelton Pennsylvania; and Newsham in Northumberland and Longton in Staffordshire, England. Back in the 1980s, I accumulated a very large collection of Linton vertebrates and invertebrates. I spent many days over many months digging and mass collecting the cannel coal from the mine dumps. The collected cannel was brought home, split, and weathered over about a five-year period on the flat roof (about 40 x 100 ft.) of a commercial building. As weathering ensued, cannel pieces were re-split, flipped, and spread out on the roof many times over. Additions and removals were constantly made and cleaning and preparation were ongoing throughout the five-year period. All of the split and weathered cannel was prepared using a muriatic acid (HCl) solution in 5-gallon buckets (up to 10 at a time) for periods of up to seven days. The material was then scrubbed in water to remove any residue and loose fragments. The acid treated cannel was neutralized in a very weak sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution (too strong a solution can result in damage to your specimen so, keep it weak) in 5-gallon buckets for up to three days and then dried. The surface (top and bottom) of every piece of cannel was examined under a dissecting microscope for fossil evidence. An estimate of the total surface area of the cannel microscopically examined came to an amazing 1.2 acres (just over 44, 270 ft2)! Many hundreds of vertebrate specimens were recovered including fishes, amphibians and reptiles. Also, hundreds of invertebrates, some excellently and some poorly preserved, were recovered including six species of diplopods (one an arthropleurid), syncarids, eucarids, branchiopods, podocopinid ostracods, and microchonchids. Plant material included some poorly preserved fern impressions, mediocre plant stems and branch sections, and surprisingly, quite a few well- preserved lepidostrobopsid sporangia with trilete megaspores. Trace elements in the cannel included coprolites, gastric boli and some evidences of predation. Fossils, both whole and partial, exceeded 2000 specimens. Specimens collected by me and also by my good friends Greg and Melissa McComas were identified with the guidance of Dr. Robert Hook and the late Dr. Donald Baird, both of whom we accompanied many times into the field. Having examined so many specimens, it soon became fairly easy to discern the features necessary to identify most of the various taxa. Eventually, we became “Linton experts” in our own right. The problem with the Linton vertebrates is that of a three- dimensional fossil being preserved in a two-dimensional aspect as an imprint of the original animal (i.e., no bone material). As most vertebrate material is usually three-dimensional, most vertebrate paleontologists have problems discerning the morphological details of the Linton material. To aid in this respect, latex peels made through a fairly long and somewhat arduous process, are used to invert the imprints to a positive expression making recognition of these characteristics easier to see. Linton researchers routinely use the latex peel process to study and photograph the fauna for confident identifications and for publication. Every Linton specimen, peel, and cast that I ever had now resides in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (as of about 2002). It will probably be many years or even decades before all the material is cataloged, though some of it already has (go to https://www.idigbio.org/home and “search the portal” enter “hamilla” as collector and “linton” as locality). I somewhat regret not having held back at least a specimen of each taxon for future study and exhibition. I also regret not having owned a camera at that time. The only pictures I have are a few taken of some of the Linton invertebrates for a GSA presentation in 1984 (by a good friend and photographer, MKlockner, TFF Member) and a few scans made of vertebrate and invertebrate specimens I fortuitously happened to have with me at work one day. I’ve lost count of how many specimens of each species I have collected. The following is a list of most of the species I collected from Linton that are now in the CMNH. VERTEBRATES INVERTEBRATES Pisces Phylum Arthropoda Phylum Chondrichthyes Class Myriapoda Subphylum Orthacanthus compressus (Newberry) Diplopoda Class Xenacanthus gracilis (Newberry) Acantherpestid (undescribed) Sarcopterygii Class Amynilyspedid (undescribed) Actinistia Subclass Diplopod (undescribed) Coelacanthidae Family Xyloiulus bairdi Hoffman Rhabdoderma elegans (Newberry) Plagiascetus lateralis Hoffman Dipnoi Subclass Arthropleurid (undescribed) Conchopomidae Family Crustacea Subphylum Conchopoma exanthematicum (Cope) Ostracoda Class Sagenodontidae Family Podocopinid Ostracods Sagenodus serratus (Newberry) Malacostraca Class Gnathorhizidae Family Eucarida Superorder Decapoda Order Palaeophichthys cf. parvulus Eastman Pygocephalus dubius (Milne-Edwards) Actinopterygii Class Syncarida Superorder Palaeocaridacea Order Palaeonisciformes Order Palaeocaris aff. P. typus Meek & Worthen Elonychthyidae Family Branchiopoda Class Elonichthys peltigerus Newberry Diplostraca Order Haplolepidae Family Estherid Branchiopods Haplolepis corrugata (Newberry) Mollusca Phylum Microhaplolepis ovoidea (Newberry) Tentaculita Class Microhaplolepis serrata (Newberry) Microconchids (Spirorbids) Parahaplolepis tuberculata (Newberry) Pyritocephalus lineatus (Newberry) Plant Material Haplolepid (undescribed) Pecopterid ferns (poorly preserved) Amphibia Phylum Plant stems and branch sections Aistopoda Order Lepidostrobolid sporangia Ophiderpeton amphiuminum (Cope) Triletes aff. T. auritus Zernt Phlegethontia linearis Cope Trace Fossils Nectridea Order coprolites Ctenerpeton remex (Cope) gastric boli Ptyonius marshii (Cope) predation marks Sauropleura pectinata Cope Diceratosaurus brevirostris (Cope) Microsauria Order Brachydectes newberryi Cope Molgophis macrurus Cope Tuditanus punctulatus Cope Odonterpeton triangulare Moodie Temnospondyli Order Colosteus scutellatus (Newberry) Erpetosaurus radiatus (Cope) Saurerpeton obtusum (Cope) Amphibamus lyelli (Wyman) Stegops newberryi (Cope) Embolomeri Order Archeriidae Family Fearon's Embolomere Eogyrinidae Family Leptophractus obsoletus Cope Anthracosauria Order Gephyrostegidae Family Gephyrostegus (Eusauropleura) digitata (Cope) Reptilia Phylum Captorhinomorpha Suborder Protothyrididae Family Anthracodromeus longipes (Cope) Cephalerpeton aff. C. ventriarmatum Moodie .
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