The Great Fossil Enigma
Page 45
10. This limestone was something of an enigma: It occurred in the relatively young glacial drift of northern Germany; its true source remained unknown.
11. H.-P. Schultze, “Walter R. Gross, a palaeontologist in the turmoil of 20th century Europe,” Modern Geology 20 (1996): 209–33.
12. W. R. Gross, “Zur Conodonten-Frage,” Senckenbergiana Lethaea 35 (1954): 73–85.
13. W. R. Gross, “Uber die Basis der Conodonten,” Palaeont. Z. 31 (1957): 78–91; Lindström, “Lowermost Ordovician,” 537 (see ch. 5, n. 13); M. Lindström, “Om conodonter,” Svensk Faunistisk Revy 3 (1955): 1–4; G. A. Stewart and W. C. Sweet, “Conodonts from the Middle Devonian bone beds of central and west-central Ohio,” J. Paleont. 30 (1956): 261–73, 262.
14. W. R. Gross, “Uber die Basis bei den Gattungen Palmatolepis und Polygnatthus (Conodontida),” Palaeont. Z. 34 (1960): 40–58.
15. Müller, “Taxonomy, nomenclature,” (see ch. 4, n. 14).
16. Lindström, “Lowermost,” 539; Müller, “Taxonomy, nomenclature,” 1330.
17. Beckmann, “Conodonten,” 167 (see ch. 4, n. 11); Bischoff and Ziegler, “Conodontenchronologie,” 7; Hass, “Conodonts,” in Moore, Treatise, W 40.
18. K. Weddige, “Willi Ziegler,” Pander Society Newsletter 35 (2003): 1; Bischoff and Ziegler, “Conodontenchronologie,” 11; D. Sannemann, “Oberdevonische Conodonten (to II a),” Senckenbergiana Lethaea 36 (1955): 123–56.
19. G. Bischoff, “Die Conodonten – Stratigraphie des rheno-herzynischen Unterkarbons mit Berücksichtigung der Wocklumeria-Stufe und der Devon/ Karbon-Grenze,” Abh. Hess. Landesamtes Bodenforsch. 19 (1957): 1–64, 7.
20. Walliser interview, 25 April 2007, and Müller interview.
21. K. J. Müller and D. Walossek, “Morphology, ontogeny and life habit of Agnostuspisiformis from the Upper Cambrian of Sweden,” Fossils and Strata 19 (1987): 1–124. This interpretation remains contested, and most trilobite workers believe Müller wrong.
22. Lindström interview, 22 March 2007.
23. The discovery was first made by A. K. Ghosh and A. Bose, “Occurrence of microfossils in the Salt Pseudomorph beds of the Punjab Salt Range,” Nature 160 (1947): 796. A number of other papers by this duo extended the belief that vascular plants existed in the Cambrian. There had been a similar, but similarly disbelieved, discovery in Sweden in 1937: W. C. Darrah, “Spores of Cambrian plants,” Science 86 (1937): 154–55.
24. Remarks made by Ziegler in 1996 on the award of the Pander Society medal to Maurits Lindström, Pander Society Newsletter (1997).
25. S. C. Matthew, “Conodonts,” Nature 206 (1965): 646.
26. Sweet interview.
7. DIARY OF A FOSSIL FRUIT FLY
1. D. M. Raup, and R. E. Crick, “Evolution of single characters in the Jurassic ammonite Kosmoceras,” Paleobiology 7 (1981): 200–215.
2. E. J. Larson, Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (New York: Modern Library, 2004), 224; G. G. Simpson, Concession to the Improbable: An Unconventional Autobiography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), 114. Simpson, Concession, 115, believed Otto Schindewolf's 1936 synthesis “entirely unacceptable.” See also G. G. Simpson, The Major Features of Evolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1953).
3. On implications of utilitarian stratigraphy in the United States, Simpson, Concession, 114, and contributions by Rhodes, 41, and Newell, 64, to P. C. Sylvester-Bradley, ed., The Species Concept in Palaeontology (London: Systematics Association, 1956); N. L. Thomas, “The use of evolutionary changes in geologic correlation,” J. Paleont. 1 (1927): 135–39, 135; R. W. Harris and R. V. Hollingsworth, “New Pennsylvanian conodonts from Oklahoma,” Am. J. Sci. 25 (1933): 193–204; Branson and Mehl, “New and little known,” 103 (see ch. 2, n. 58).
4. Ellison, “Conodonts” (see ch. 2, n. 38); C. B. Rexroad, “The conodont homeomorphs Taphrognathus and Streptognathodus,” J. Paleont. 32 (1958): 1158–59.
5. G. G. Simpson, Tempo and Mode in Evolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), xv. See also Simpson, Concession, 12, 128.
6. Simpson, Concession, 115–16; G. G. Simpson, “Types in modern taxonomy,” Am. J. Sci. 238 (1940): 413–31: Dunbar, “Symposium on fifty years,” 911.
7. Sylvester-Bradley, Species Concept, 4, and contributions by I. Parker (9) and Frank Rhodes (37).
8. Austin interview; A. J. Scott and C. W. Collinson, “Intraspecific variability in conodonts: Palmatolepis glabra,” J. Paleont. 33 (1959): 550–65; Klapper, pers. comm., 16 October 2005.
9. J. Helms, “Die ‘nodocostata-Gruppe’ der Gattung Polygnathus,” Geologie 10, no. 6 (1961): 674–711, 674–75; Müller interview; K. J. Müller, “Zur Kenntnis der Conodonten-Fauna des europäischen Devons, 1; Die Gattung Palmatolepis,” Abh. der Senckenbergischen Naturfors. Gesellschaft 494 (1956).
10. T. H. Morgan, Evolution and Genetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1925), 140–41.
11. Walliser and Müller interviews; W. Ziegler, “Conodontenfeinstratigraphische Untersuchungen an der Grenze Mittledevon/Oberdevon und in der Adorfstufe,” Notizbl. Hess. L,-Amt Bodenforsch 87 (1958): 7–77; W. Ziegler, “Phylogenetische Entwicklung stratigraphisch wichtiger Conodonten-Gattungenin der Manticoceras-Stufe (Oberdevon, Deutschland),” Neues Jahrb. Geol. und Paläontol. Abh 114 (1962): 142–68; W. Ziegler, “Taxonomie und Phylogenie Oberdevonischer conodonten und ihre stratigraphische Bedeutung,” Abh. Hess. Landes. Bodenforsch. 38 (1962): 1–166, 6.
12. J. Helms, “Zur ‘Phylogenese’ und Taxionomie von Palmatolepis (Conodontida, Oberdevon),” Geologie 12 (1963): 449–85.
13. Gould, Wonderful Life, 60.
14. Klapper, pers. comm., 16 October 2005; G. Klapper and W. M. Furnish, “Conodont zonation of the early Upper Devonian in eastern Iowa,” Iowa Acad. Sci. Proc. 69 (1963): 400–410.
15. B. F. Glenister and G. Klapper, “Upper Devonian conodonts from the Canning Basin, Western Australia,” J. Paleont. 40 (1966): 777–842; W. Ziegler, “Conodont stratigraphy of the European Devonian,” in W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström (eds.), Symposium on Conodont Stratigraphy, GSA Memoir 127, 227–84, 265.
16. Klapper, pers. comm., 16 October 2005.
17. Pander Society Newsletter 7 (January 1974); R. J. Aldridge and P. von Bitter, “The Pander Society (1967–2007): Abrief history at forty,” Paleontographica Americana 62 (2009): 11–21.
18. F. H. T. Rhodes, “Conodont research: Programs, progress and priorities,” in F. H. T. Rhodes (ed.), Conodont Paleozoology, GSA Special Paper 141, 277–86, 277; Soviet group established in December 1966, Pander Society Newsletter 4 (1970): 3; Pander Society Newsletter 7 (1974).
19. Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy formed in 1973.
20. Hass, “Conodonts,” in Moore, Treatise, W 42; K. J. Müller, “Taxonomy, evolution, and ecology of conodonts,” in Raymond. C. Moore (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part W Miscellanea (Lawrence: GSA/University of Kansas Press, 1962), W83–W91; K. J. Müller, “Wert and Grenzen der Condonten-Stratigraphie,” Geol. Rundschau 49 (1960): 83–92.
21. Müller, “Taxonomy, nomenclature,” 1335 (see ch. 4, n. 14).
22. K. J. Müller, “Kambrische Conodonten,” Zeitschr. Deutsch. Geol. Gesell. 111 (1959): 434–85; K. J. Müller, “Cambrian conodont faunas,” in W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström (eds.), Symposium on Conodont Biostratigraphy, GSA Memoir 127, 5–20; K. J. Müller and I. Hinz, “Upper Cambrian conodonts from Sweden,” Fossils and Strata 28 (1991): 4; Bergström (pers. comm.): “The history of Westergaardodina goes all the way back to 1893 and 1903 when Wiman illustrated this fossil as a ‘ganz rätselhafter Organismus’ (totally enigmatic organism).”
23. D. Ager, Principles of Paleoecology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), 97.
24. K. J. Müller, “Supplement to systematics of conodonts,” in Raymond. C. Moore (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part W Miscellanea (Lawrence: GSA/University of Kansas Press, 1962), W246–49; W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström, “Conodonts from the Pratt Ferry Formation
(Middle Ordovician) of Alabama,” J. Paleont. 36 (1962): 1214–52, 1250; Lindström, Conodonts 31 (see ch. 6, n. 5); Allison R. (Pete) Palmer.
25. Müller, “Cambrian conodont faunas,” 6; V. Poulsen, “Early Cambrian distacodontid conodonts from Bornholm,” Biol. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. 23 (1966): 1–10.
26. W. Youngquist, “Triassic conodonts from southeastern Idaho, J. Paleont. 26 (1952): 650–55; W. C. Sweet et al., “Conodont biostratigraphy of the Triassic,” in W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström (eds.), Symposium on Conodont Biostratigraphy, GSA Memoir 127, 441–70, 443; U. Tatge, “Conodonten aus dem germanischen Muschelkalk,” Palaeont. Z. 30 (1956), 108–27. However, Müller was also publishing information on Triassic conodonts at this time and claimed priority of discovery.
27. C. R. Stauffer, “Conodonts from the Devonian and associated clays of Minnesota,” J. Paleont. 14 (1940): 417–35; R. Huckriede, “Die Conodonten der meditteranen Trias und ihr stratigra-phischer Wert,” Palaeont. Z. 32 (1958): 141–75; K. Diebel, “Conodonten in der Oberkreide von Kamerun,” Geologie 5 (1956): 424–50; Huckriede, “Conodonten,” 165.
28. Hass, “Conodonts,” in Moore, Treatise, W39.
29. Lindström, Conodonts, 9, 65, 124.
30. K. J. Müller, “Some remarks on the youngest conodonts,” Proceedings of the Second West African Micropaleontological Colloquium, Ibadan, 1965 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), 137–41; L. C. Mosher, “Are there post-Triassic conodonts?” J. Paleont. 41 (1967): 1554–55.
31. S. Nohda and T. Steoguchi, “An occurrence of Jurassic conodonts from Japan,” Mem. Coll. Sci. Kyoto Univ., ser. B, 33 (1967): 227–37.
32. K. J. Müller and L. C. Mosher, “Post-Triassic conodonts,” in W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström (eds.), Symposium on Conodont Biostratigraphy, GSA Memoir 127, 467–70. Mosher spent ten months under Müller's guidance, but Müller himself did not really work on this problem (Müller interview). L. C. Mosher, “Evolution of Triassic platform conodonts,” J. Paleont. 42 (1968): 947–54.
33. D. Raup and S. M. Stanley, Principles of Paleontology (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1978), x.
34. Harvard Gazette, 20 May 2002; Guardian, 22 May 2002.
35. N. Eldredge and S. J. Gould, “Punctuated equilibria: An alternative to phyletic gradualism,” in T. J. M. Schopf (ed.), Models of Paleobiology (San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82–115; N. Eldredge, “The allopatric model of phylogeny in Paleozoic invertebrates,” Evolution 25 (1971): 156–67; S. J. Gould, “Evolutionary palaeontology and the science of form,” Earth-Science Reviews 6 (1970): 77–119; N. Eldredge and S. J. Gould, “Morphological transformation, the fossil record, and the mechanisms of evolution: A debate. Part II the reply,” in T. Dobzhansky et al. (eds.), Evolutionary Biology, vol. 7 (New York: Plenum, 1975), 303–308; M. K. Hecht, N. Eldredge, and S. J. Gould, “Morphological transformation, the fossil record, and the mechanisms of evolution: A debate,” Evolutionary Biology 7 (1974): 295–308.
36. S. J. Gould and N. Eldredge, “Punctuated equilibria: The tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered,” Paleobiology 3 (1977): 115–51, 117,125.
37. A. B. Shaw, “Adam and Eve, paleontology, and the non-objective arts,” J. Paleont. 43 (1969): 1085–98, 1094–95; Eldredge and Gould, “Punctuated equilibria: An alternative,” 92.
38. Gould and Eldredge, “Punctuated equilibria: The tempo,” 124–25; G. Klapper and D. B. Johnson, “Sequence in conodont genus Polygnathus in Lower Devonian at Lone Mountain, Nevada,” Geol. et Paleont. 9 (1975): 65–83; Klapper, pers. comm., 16 October 2005.
39. N. Eldredge and S. J. Gould, “Evolutionary models and biostratigraphic strategies,” in E. G. Kauffman and J. E. Hazel (eds.), Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy (Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 1977), 25–40, 31–33; Eldredge, “Allopatric model.”
40. Eldredge and Gould, “Punctuated equilibria: The tempo,” 31.
8. FEARS OF CIVIL WAR
1. At the time, Rhodes had no idea if the rumors of Triassic conodonts were actually true. Rhodes, “Zoological affinities.” Rhodes's reimagined assemblages were published in Moore's first Treatise just eleven pages after Hass's reprinting of Scott's.
2. Müller, “Taxonomy, nomenclature.”
3. H. Schmidt and K. J. Müller, “Weitere Funde von Conodonten-Gruppen aus dem oberen Karbon des Sauerlandes,” Palaeont. Z. 38 (1964): 105–35, 106.
4. Ibid., 108, 133.
5. Lindström, Conodonts, 124; C. L. Cooper, “Conodont assemblage from the lower Kinderhook black shales (abstract),” GSA Bull. 56 (1945): 1153 simply states, “Five pairs of denticulated bars are recognized, with one complete Hibbardella unpaired.” M. Lindström, “Conodonts from the Crug limestone (Ordovician, Wales),” Micropaleontology 5 (1959): 427–52, 431; Lindström, Conodonts, 124 (see ch. 6, n. 2); H. R. Lane, “Symmetry in conodont element-pairs,” J. Paleont. 42 (1968): 1258–63; A. Voges, “Conodonten aus dem Unterkarbon I und II (Gattendorfia – und Pericyclus-Stufe) des Sauerlandes,” Palaeont. Z. 33 (1959): 266–314; W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström, “Conodonts from the Pratt Ferry Formation (Middle Ordovician) of Alabama,” J. Paleont. 36 (1962): 1214–52.
6. Walliser interview; Huckriede, “Die Conodonten”; O. H. Walliser, “Conodonten des Silurs,” Abh. Hess. Landesamtes Bodenforsch. 41 (1964): 1–106.
7. Sweet and Bergström, “Pratt Ferry”; Sweet interview: “And, by golly, we hit it right, we got it right on the nose as far as its age is concerned. We were so pleased with that because it was a good European or Scandinavian fauna.”
8. Lindström, Conodonts, 77ff, 129.
9. C. B. Rexroad and R. S. Nicoll, “A Silurian conodont with tetanus?” J. Paleont. 26 (1964): 771–73.
10. Sweet, pers. comm., 16 July 2010; Sweet interview. The details of their work together is explored more fully in the next chapter
11. S. M. Bergström and W. C. Sweet, “Conodonts from the Lexington Limestone (Middle Ordovician) of Kentucky and its lateral equivalents in Ohio and Indiana,” Bull. Am. Paleont. 50, no. 229 (1966): 271–424, 280.
12. Sweet interview.
13. G. F. Webers, T. J. M. Schopf, and W. C. Sweet, “Multielement Ordovician conodont species (abstract),” GSA Program for 1965, 180–81; G. F. Webers, The Middle and Upper Ordovician Conodont Faunas of Minnesota, Minnesota Geological Survey Special Publication SP-4 (1966).
14. T. J. M. Schopf, “Conodonts of the Trenton Group (Ordovician) in New York, southern Ontario, and Quebec,” New York State Mus. Sci. Serv. Bull. 405 (1966): 105.
15. Bergström and Sweet, “Lexington Limestone.”
16. Sweet, pers. comm., 16 July 2010.
17. Sweet, Conodonta, 38, 6.
18. Bergström and Sweet, “Lexington Limestone,” 302.
19. Sweet, pers. comm., 16 July 2010.
20. C. R. Barnes, “A questionable natural conodont assemblage from Middle Ordovician limestone, Ottawa, Canada,” J. Paleont. 41 (1967): 1557–60; R. L. Austin and F. H. T. Rhodes, “A conodont assemblage from the Carboniferous of the Avon Gorge, Bristol,” Palaeont. 12 (1969): 400–405.
21. F.-G. Lange, “Conodonten-gruppenfunde aus Kalken des Oberdevon,” Geol. Palaeontol. 2 (1968): 37–57. Also Bergström, pers. comm.
22. C. A. Pollock, “Fused Silurian conodont clusters from Indiana,” J. Paleont. 43 (1969): 929–35, submitted for publication in April 1968; T. Mashkova, “Ozarkodina steinhornensis (Ziegler) apparatus, its conodonts and biozone,” Geol. Palaeontol. 1 (1972): 81–90; Walliser interview.
23. Lane, “Symmetry.”
24. Sweet and Bergström later claimed that this partly resulted from misidentification. At the time, sorting and breakage were considered the main impediments. The term “multi-element species” was introduced to distinguish these new, hopefully biological, species.
25. Sweet interview.
26. J. J. Kohut, “Determination, statistical analysis, and interpretation of recurrent conodont groups in Middle and Upper Ordovician strata of the Cincinnati Region (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana),�
� J. Paleont. 43 (1969): 392–412, 412; J. J. Kohut and W. C. Sweet “The American Upper Ordovician standard. X. Upper Maysville and Richmond conodonts from the Cincinnati region of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana,” J. Paleont. 42 (1968): 1457–77. Although both papers were submitted on the same day in 1967, Kohut's single-authored account of his methods did not appear until March 1969. Also Pander Society Newsletter 2 (6 July 1968).
27. Huddle reporting in Pander Society Newsletter 2:10.
28. Huddle, “Historical introduction,” 8 (see ch. 4, n. 9) 1972. A large number of authors followed Kohut's lead. For example, in September 1969, Ronald Austin was working on the “application of information analysis techniques to conodonts” and Willi Ziegler was working on a statistical analysis of Devonian conodonts. Pander Society Newsletter 3. Sweet, Conodonta, 38, says these authors used slightly different clustering techniques.
29. W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström (eds.), Symposium on Conodont Biostratigraphy, GSA Memoir 127 (1970). This publication was not distributed until 1971.
30. Sweet interview.
31. Rhodes, “Conodont research,” 285; also Pander Society Newsletter 4:9.
32. Jeppsson interview; Huddle in Pander Society Newsletter 5:10; W. C. Sweet and S. M. Bergström, “Multielement taxonomy and Ordovician conodonts,” Geol. Palaeontol. 1 (1972): 29–42, 32 on strength of interpretations and size of collections.
33. M. Lindström and W. Ziegler, “Marburg symposium on conodont taxonamy, 1971,” Geol. Palaeontol. 1 (1972): 1–2, 1.
34. D. L. Clark, “Early Permian crisis and its bearing on Permo-Triassic conodont taxonomy,” Geol. Palaeontol. 1 (1972): 147–58, 147; Lindström and Ziegler, “Marburg,” 1.
35. Rhodes to “Colleagues,” 4 January 1972, Conodont File, Scott Papers.
36. R. Melville, “Further proposed amendments to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature,” Bull. Zool. Nomen. 36:11–14, and Melville's continuing debate in this journal.