Locality KF (Middle Vale Formation) (Permian of the United States)

Also known as three-channel hill, "fish quarry"

Where: Knox County, Texas (33.7° N, 99.6° W: paleocoordinates 2.4° N, 29.0° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Vale Formation (Clear Fork Group), Kungurian (279.3 - 272.3 Ma)

• "The locality [...] KF, was assigned to the upper Vale in an earlier paper. More recent field work has shown that it comprises beds that must be assigned to the middle rather than the upper part of the Vale." (Olson, 1954 p. 213)

•the base and top of the Clear Fork Group (i.e., Arroyo, Vale, and Choza formations) are both within the Kungurian: see Wardlaw 2005 (Permophiles) for the base, and DiMichele et al. 2001 (J Paleont) for the top

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: "channel"; pebbly, green, red conglomerate and fine-grained, green siliciclastic

• "The channels are evidence that a rather large, braided stream passed north or south over the area in a valley of considerable width. The region must have had a moderately high annual rainfall to support the fauna and flora. The total rainfall was perhaps not greatly different from what it is today, and the temperature may have been quite similar, with possibly less seasonal variation. The rains, however appear to have been periodic and torrential [...] " Olson (1948, p. 192)
• "The channel fill is largely clay pebble conglomerate, with pebbles ranging from a few millimeters to about 8 cm. in diameter. Rounding of the pebbles is uniformly high, but sphericity is varied. [...] The coarsest material tend to lie at the center of the channel, whereas the marginal parts are predominantly sand or clay with fine scattered pebbles." Olson (1948, p. 191);

•specimen "was preserved in a nodule that had weathered from a conglomeratic deposit of channel origin." (Olson, 1951 p. 89) other specimens are from a quarry in fine-grained, green channel deposits

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: concretion

Collected by E. C. Olson in 1946-1948; reposited in the FMNH

Primary reference: E. C. Olson. 1948. A Preliminary Report on Vertebrates from the Permian Vale Formation of Texas. Journal of Geology 56:186-198 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 27704: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Robin Whatley on 20.12.2002, edited by Matthew Carrano, Torsten Liebrecht and Emma Dunne

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Chondrichthyes
 Xenacanthiformes - Xenacanthidae
Xenacanthus sp. Beyrich 1848 elasmobranch
Osteichthyes
 Dipnoi - Gnathorhizidae
Gnathorhiza dikeloda n. sp.1 Olson 1951 lungfish
? = "Dipnoi indet." in Olson (1948)
Amphibia
 Temnospondyli - Trimerorhachidae
Trimerorhachis cf. insignis4 Cope 1878 tetrapod
FMNH UR 40, 42, 44-48, 50, 52, 55, 62, 64, 67
 Nectridea - Diplocaulidae
Diplocaulus sp. Cope 1877 tetrapod
Diplocaulus recurvatus5 Olson 1952 tetrapod
Osteichthyes
 Synapsida - Edaphosauridae
? Edaphosaurus sp. Cope 1882 synapsid
 Synapsida - Sphenacodontidae
"Dimetrodon gigashomogenes" = Dimetrodon giganhomogenes3
"Dimetrodon gigashomogenes" = Dimetrodon giganhomogenes3 Case 1907 synapsid
CMNH UR 30
 Recumbirostra - Gymnarthridae
Gymnarthridae indet. Case 1910 amniote
 Recumbirostra - Molgophidae
"Lysorophus sp." = Brachydectes
"Lysorophus sp." = Brachydectes Cope 1868 amniote
Reptilia
 Eureptilia - Captorhinidae
Captorhinikos valensis2 Olson 1954 eureptile
CMNH UR 107
Captorhinoides valensis n. gen. n. sp.1 Olson 1951 eureptile
CNHM UR 13 (type)
Osteichthyes
 Seymouriamorpha - Waggoneriidae
Waggoneria knoxensis n. gen. n. sp.1
Waggoneria knoxensis n. gen. n. sp.1 Olson 1951 tetrapod
CNHM UR 14 (type), 15