Phoebodus, St. John and Worthen, 1875
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.26879/583 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/ED189025-6069-FF85-FCAC-FA936D0A9023 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Phoebodus |
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Genus PHOEBODUS St. John and Worthen, 1875
Type Species. Phoebodus sophiae St. John and Worthen, 1875
Figure 3.5-7 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 View FIGURE 5 View FIGURE 6 View FIGURE 7
Material. One tooth from sample OH-4, Gumhole Formation, Oscar Hill, Famennian.
Description. Tooth with incomplete crown, comprising a single medial cusp flanked by two mesio-distally diverging lateral cusps ( Figure 3.5-6 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 View FIGURE 5 View FIGURE 6 ). The central cusp is broken with a faint sub ovoid basal outline ( Figure 3.5 View FIGURE 3 ). The lateral cusps are rounded along the lingual margins and flattened on the labial face. Faint vertical striations are preserved on the basolabial face of one cusp ( Figure 3.6 View FIGURE 3 ). The base is sub-rectangular in outline with well-rounded margins ( Figure 3.7 View FIGURE 3 ). A large lenticular button, with a single medially located canal, is positioned centrally on the lingual face of the base and extends between the mesial margins of the lateral cusps ( Figure 3.5 View FIGURE 3 ). The labial face of the base is thickened and borders a well-developed concave under-surface.
Remarks. This tooth resembles Phoebodus turnerae Ginter and Ivanov, 1992 in having a rounded, lingually extended base and hemispherical button perforated by a large canal along its lingual face. The thin, sub-parallel cristae diagnostic of this species are not clearly recognisable on this tooth; however, faint ornament is present on the baso-labial face of the broken lateral cusp ( Figure 3.6 View FIGURE 3 ). The rounded nature of the tooth and low relief of the button may be due to abrasion consistent with the high energy shoal facies from which this tooth was recovered. The current upper age range for Ph. turnerae is from the lower (crepida CZ) to middle (marginifera CZ) Famennian (Ginter et al., 2010) whereas the Oscar Hill area is dated as latest Famennian ( Nicoll and Druce, 1979), and suggests either the tooth does not belong to Ph. turnerae , or the range of Ph. turnerae extends into the late Famennian in the Canning Basin. Further phoebodont teeth need to be recovered, along with more precise age constraints, before the taxonomy of this tooth can be resolved.
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.