PBDB Collection

Mazon Creek (Carboniferous of the United States)

Also known as Mazon Creek Vertebrate Fauna, Braidwood Fauna, pit 11

Where: Grundy/Will County, Illinois (41.3° N, 88.1° W)

• Paleocoordinates: 5.1° S, 23.3° W (Wright 2013)

• coordinate based on political unit

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Francis Creek Shale Member (Carbondale Formation), Westphalian D (309.8 - 307.4 Ma)

• "Francis Creek Shale above Morris (no. 2) Coal, Carbondale Formation, Westphalian D, Middle Pennsylvanian" (Carroll & Baird, 1972)

•Baird et al. (1985) refer to the no. 2 coal as Colchester or Croweburg Coal Member.

Environment/lithology: deltaic; silty mudstone and nodular siderite

• "...these indicate rapid and often episodic mud deposition in interdistributary bay and prodelta settings." (Baird et al., 1985 p.90)

• "Concretions occur typically in laminated to weakly rippled, silty mudstone deposits which typically show little or no evidence of bioturbation. Small-scale sedimentary structures in nodule-bearing sequences include climbing ripple drift, and soft-sediment load-failure..." (Baird et al., 1985 p.90). Note that this is a general description of the fossil bearing strata of the Francis Creek Shale Member which does not refer specifically to the occurences in the Mazon Creek area proper.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, concretion, soft parts, replaced with other

Collected by R. L. Moodie, P. Turnbull, among others in 1871, 1953; reposited in the FMNH, MCZ, USNM, YPM

Collection methods: mechanical,

Primary reference: R. L. Carroll and D. Baird. 1972. Carboniferous Stem-Reptiles of the Family Romeriidae. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 143(5):321-363 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 79598: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Jana Dummasch on 14.03.2008, edited by Torsten Liebrecht, Mark Uhen, Matthew Carrano and Emma Dunne

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names

Osteichthyes
Aistopoda - Pseudophlegethontiidae	Pseudophlegethontia turnbullorum n. gen. n. sp.¹ Pseudophlegethontia turnbullorum n. gen. n. sp.¹ Anderson 2003 tetrapod FMNH PR 281
Aistopoda - Phlegethontiidae	"Phlegethontia mazonensis n. sp." = Phlegethontia longissima⁴ "Phlegethontia mazonensis n. sp." = Phlegethontia longissima⁴ Fritsch 1875 tetrapod USNM 17097 (type); MCZ 2204; FMNH MCP 501, PR 400, PR 624, PR 831, PR 1145, PR 1358; asterisks mark specimens reported from Mazon Creek by either McGinnis (1967; as P. cf. P. longissima) or Lund (1978, Ann. Carnegie Mus.; as A. mazonense) but not at all mentioned by Anderson (2002, J. Paleont.); FMNH specimens without asterisk are reported by Anderson (2002) only
Amphibia
Temnospondyli - Eobrachyopidae	Isodectes obtusus¹¹ Isodectes obtusus¹¹ Cope 1868 tetrapod FMNH PR1036
Temnospondyli - Branchiosauridae	Eumicrerpeton parvum n. gen. n. sp.⁸ Eumicrerpeton parvum n. gen. n. sp.⁸ Moodie 1910 tetrapod YPM 803 (Holotype: skull (length 0.5cm) in ventral view)
Temnospondyli - Amphibamidae	"Amphibamus grandiceps n. gen. n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps³, "Micrerpeton caudatum n. gen. n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps⁷, "Mazonerpeton longicaudatum n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps¹¹ "Amphibamus grandiceps n. gen. n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps³ Cope 1865 tetrapod YPM 794 (Neotype: almost complete skeleton in part and counter part. Holotype was destroyed in a fire) "Micrerpeton caudatum n. gen. n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps⁷ Cope 1865 tetrapod "Mazonerpeton longicaudatum n. sp." = Amphibamus grandiceps¹¹ Cope 1865 tetrapod YPM 795 (Holotype)
Temnospondyli -	Miobatrachus romeri n. gen. n. sp.¹¹ Miobatrachus romeri n. gen. n. sp.¹¹ Watson 1941 tetrapod FMNH UC2000 (Holotype)
Osteichthyes
Embolomera - Archeriidae	Spondylerpeton spinatum n. gen. n. sp.⁹ Spondylerpeton spinatum n. gen. n. sp.⁹ Moodie 1912 tetrapod Yale U. Mus. No. 793 (126) (Not 26 as in Moodie, 1912)
Reptilia
Eureptilia - Protorothyrididae	Cephalerpeton ventriarmatum n. gen. n. sp. Cephalerpeton ventriarmatum n. gen. n. sp. Moodie 1912 eureptile YPM 796 (type)
Osteichthyes
Recumbirostra - Molgophidae	Brachydectes newberryi², Infernovenator steenae n. gen. n. sp.⁶ Brachydectes newberryi² Cope 1868 amniote USNM 4313 Infernovenator steenae n. gen. n. sp.⁶ Mann et al. 2019 amniote Holotype: FMNH PR 4203, a single part concretion containing a nearly complete cranial and postcranial skeleton, preserved as a mould of the dorsal aspect, anterior limbs poorly developed, posterior limbs only represented by single left femur, tail incompletely preserved posteriorly
Recumbirostra -	Joermungandr bolti n. gen. n. sp.⁵ Joermungandr bolti n. gen. n. sp.⁵ Mann et al. 2021 amniote Holotype: FMNH 1309, part and counterpart of a siderite concretion containing a virtually complete skeleton and soft body impression in dorsal and ventral views
Enoplea
Chromadorida - Nemavermidae	Tullimonstrum gregarius n. gen. n. sp.¹⁰ Tullimonstrum gregarius n. gen. n. sp.¹⁰

¹Anderson 2003; ²Carroll et al. 1998; ³Cope 1865; ⁴Gregory 1948; ⁵Mann et al. 2021; ⁶Mann et al. 2019; ⁷Moodie 1909; ⁸Moodie 1910; ⁹Moodie 1912; ¹⁰Richardson 1966; ¹¹Schoch and Milner 2014