Ireland, H. A. (1956). Upper Pennsylvanian Arenaceous Foraminifera from Kansas. Journal of Paleontology. 30(4): 831-864.

280612

Ireland, H. A.

1956

30(4): 831-864

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Several thousand arenaceous Foraminifera have been derived from insoluble residues of limestones in the Shawnee and Wabaunsee groups of the Virgilian series. From these 50 species and 16 genera have been identified, of which 2 genera and 26 species are new. Many forms have been found in central Texas previously, but nearly all of the Kansas forms are much smaller in size. Solution of the limestone destroyed the calcareous forms but the liberation of clean, unweathered, well-preserved specimens offsets the loss of forms which probably could not be extracted. Forms found in shale are likely to be somewhat imperfect due to weathering, solution, alteration or damage in extraction; especially thin, long, or tubular forms and delicate spherical forms. The collection shows the difference between Tolypammina and Ammovertella, for a large number of perfect specimens and hundreds of well-preserved fragments were available for study. Many species of Ammobaculites formerly transferred to the calcareous genus Endothyranella are restored to their true classification as arenaceous forms, based on evidence from the Kansas samples. The evolutionary relationships of Ammodiscus and Ammovertella are shown by attached forms of the new genus Ammodiscella, and by gradations among the large numbers of Ammovertella studied. Specimens of what are probably the earliest Astrorhiza and the earliest Vernueilina are described. The species show such a large stratigraphic range that none can be considered as index fossils for subdivision of the Virgilian, but the assemblages are more distinctive. The insoluble residues show that even the pure limestones in the Virgilian have an ample supply of quartz silt to provide material for agglutinization into tests. Foraminifera appear to favor the environment of a regressive unit of a cyclothem, but have a tolerance for the deeper water environment marked by an abundance of fusulinids. There is also a relation to the cyclothem sequences in the megacycles of the Upper Pennsylvanian of Kansas.

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