Locality KB (Upper Vale Fm.) (Permian of the United States)

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: "Bullwagon" Member (Vale Formation), Kungurian (279.3 - 272.3 Ma)

• "Robert Roth, of the Humble Oil and Refining Company of Wichita Falls, Texas, believes that surface and subsurface data show that the beds in question are part of the 'Bullwagon' member of the Vale formation. This places the section high in the Vale, just below the Choza." Olson (1948 p. 190);

•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: coarse channel fill; pebbly, green, red conglomerate

• "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)

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by E. C. Olson in 1946-1953; 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 85551: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 08.01.2009, edited by Emma Dunne

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• “Although Olson (1956:331) stated that FMNH UR 29 was collected from locality ‘KC’ (also in the upper part of the Clear Fork Formation; Olson, 1958: table 1), this is likely a lapsus calami, judging from his statement that this specimen was preserved in association with Captorhinus, and from his faunal lists for localities KB and KC in Olson (1958:430), which list Captorhinus and ‘Edaphosaurid, n. gen., unnamed’ for the locality KB, whereas neither taxon is listed for KC in the 1958 publication.” (Modesto et al, 2016).
Show authors, comments, and common names
Chondrichthyes
 Xenacanthiformes - Xenacanthidae
Xenacanthus sp.
Xenacanthus sp. Beyrich 1848 elasmobranch
Amphibia
 Nectridea - Diplocaulidae
Diplocaulus recurvatus3
Diplocaulus recurvatus3 Olson 1952 tetrapod
Osteichthyes
 Synapsida - Sphenacodontidae
Dimetrodon sp.
Dimetrodon sp. Cope 1878 synapsid
Reptilia
 Eureptilia - Captorhinidae
Captorhinus sp., Moradisaurinae indet.1, Captorhinikos valensis2
Captorhinus sp. Cope 1896 eureptile
Moradisaurinae indet.1 de Ricqlès and Taquet 1982 eureptile
probably the same specimen and taxon as described and figured as "Edaphosauridae, Genus nov., unnamed" in Olson (1956:331; catalogue no. CNHM UR 29, erroneously(?) stated to come from Locality KC therein, cf. comments on taxonomic list), and listed as "Edaphosaurid n.gen., unnamed" in Olson (1958:430)
Captorhinikos valensis2 Olson 1954 eureptile
CNHM UR 106
1Modesto et al. 2016; 2Olson 1954; 3Olson 1958