Mineral Wells Fossil Park, TX

[Peat Burns]

Hello, 

 

I am hoping someone familiar with the brachiopods of the Mineral Wells Fossil Park, TX (Late Pennsylvanian) and vicinity, might recognize this taxon.  It looks to me like an Athyrididae.  Perhaps Cleiothyridina sp.?.  @BobWill  ?

 

 I also have some Punctospirifer cf. P. kentuckiensis from the same site.

 

Here's the specimen in question.  Thanks for any help.

 

[BobWill]

Yes, Cleiothyridina orbicularis can be found at Mineral Wells Fossil Park in the Keechi Creek Shale and this could be one. I don't have one for comparison but I see a clear photo of a specimen from there in Mark McKinzie's new Pennsylvanian guidebook for North Texas. A posterior view may help confirm this.

[Peat Burns]

11 hours ago, BobWill said:

Yes, Cleiothyridina orbicularis can be found at Mineral Wells Fossil Park in the Keechi Creek Shale and this could be one. I don't have one for comparison but I see a clear photo of a specimen from there in Mark McKinzie's new Pennsylvanian guidebook for North Texas. A posterior view may help confirm this.

Thanks very much.  I'll take a look and see if sending photos of the posterior will be helpful (I'm not at my work area at the moment), but I'm afraid the beak and interarea have been deformed and are bent around the margin (visible in photo above, right).

 

These were given to me, so I have never been to Mineral Wells FP.  Do you know what formations are exposed there?

 

Thanks again for your help.

[BobWill]

The fossil park is a landfill borrow area that exposes the contact between the Strawn Group below, which is the Keechi Creek Shale of the Mineral Wells Formation and the Wynn Limestone of the Palo Pinto Formation, Canyon Group above.

 

The pedicle beaks on these are small and incurved back over the hinge line. Yours may be too crushed to tell about the profile but they are strongly convex, more-so on the brachial valve. It's mostly the ornamentation that resembles Cleiothyridina.

[Peat Burns]

7 hours ago, BobWill said:

The fossil park is a landfill borrow area that exposes the contact between the Strawn Group below, which is the Keechi Creek Shale of the Mineral Wells Formation and the Wynn Limestone of the Palo Pinto Formation, Canyon Group above.

 

The pedicle beaks on these are small and incurved back over the hinge line. Yours may be too crushed to tell about the profile but they are strongly convex, more-so on the brachial valve. It's mostly the ornamentation that resembles Cleiothyridina.

Thanks very much for the information.  Here is "hinge view" of the brachiopod in question.  As you can see it appears to have undergone significant deformation and is not at all inflated.  All of the Punctospirifer in my assemblage from that site are heavily deformed as well.  

 

 

Perhaps it is best to label it Athyrididae, cf. Cleiothyridina sp.

 

On to the batch of material from Union Hill...   Thanks again for your help.