MARINE PLATYSOMID FISHES FROM THE EARLY PERMIAN OF KANSAS AND TEXAS

Fishes belonging to the family Platysomidae are small to medium sized paleonisciform fishes with teeth packed into tooth plates as an adaption for a durophagous, (hard object feeding) life-style. Most of the marine forms of these fishes are generally referred to the genus Schaefferichthys, which was described from a fairly near shore marine facies deposited during the Cisularian Epoch (Permian) of Texas, or to Platysomus which is known from a number of marine localities in the Cisularian (Permian) of Kansas. The epicontinental seaway that covered the North American craton during this time contains some of the most complex, speciose marine vertebrate sites to be discussed in early Permian literature so far. In Texas we report marine platysomid remains from the Lueders Limestone Quarry (Shackleford County, Texas), extending the range of this group approximately 100km seaward in the Permian Basin. In Kansas, we report similar remains from road cuts along Interstate 70 (Wabaunsee County, Kansas). The fossils found at the I-70 site extend the temporal range of this group into the Asselian Stage (Cisularian: Permian). This indicates that marine platysomids were widespread in this seaway both spatially and temporally.