Paper No. 30-3
Presentation Time: 8:30 AM-5:30 PM
ADDITIONAL VERTEBRATES FROM THE WREFORD LIMESTONE (PERMIAN: CISURALIAN, SAKMARIAN) OF SOUTHERN KANSAS
The Cisuralian Epoch of the Permian Period contains relatively few marine vertebrate faunas. Currently (as of spring 2020) the total number of published marine faunas from this time with 4 species or more present number less than 10 globally. Outcrops of the Wreford Formation, near Arkansas City, Kansas. Have been known to produce microremains of an unknown elasmobranch and the petalodontiform genus Jansassa. In this study, we return to this locality and recover 8 additional taxa of marine vertebrate: Glickmanius, Cooleyella, Cobelodus, and Denaea, as well as unidentifiable members of the Paleonisciformes, Platysomidae, Acanthodii, and Lonchidiidae. This effectively increases the alpha diversity at this locality by a factor 5, and helps to illustrate this Cisuarlian ecosystem as one rich in chondrichthyans, with multiple niches available to predatory, filter feeding, and durophagous vertebrates.