New Name for Palaeosabella prisca (McCoy), a Devonian Worm-Boring, and Its PreservedProbable BorerAuthor(s): Barry CameronSource: Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 189-192Published by: SEPM Society for Sedimentary GeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1302362 .

Accessed: 07/11/2014 10:26

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toJournal of Paleontology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 206.246.22.157 on Fri, 7 Nov 2014 10:26:37 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY, V. 43, NO. 1, P. 189-192, 2 TEXT-FIGS., JANUARY 1969

NEW NAME FOR PALAEOSABELLA PRISCA (MCCOY), A DEVONIAN WORM-BORING, AND ITS PRESERVED PROBABLE BORER

BARRY CAMERON Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

ABSTRACT-The name Palaeosabella prisca (McCoy) was mistakenly applied to North Ameri- can Devonian worm-borings by Clarke. The generic name is a junior subjective synonym of the Paleozoic sponge-boring Topsentia Clarke because the type species of Palaeosabella (type by monotypy) is considered to be a sponge-boring assigned to the genus Topsentia. The name Vermiforichnus clarkei Cameron gen. et sp. nov. is proposed for these trace fossils.

A preserved specimen of the probable shell-boring annelid (Polychaetia) that may have made these borings has been reported. Although the suggestion that this specimen was one of the borers is well-founded, enough doubt still remains to warrant giving the only preserved specimen of the worm a different name. Vermiforafacta rollinsi Cameron gen. et sp. nov. is proposed. Introducing two names is warranted because of the questionable relationship be- tween the worm and the boring and because the criteria for defining and recognizing species of trace fossils is somewhat different from that of body fossils.

INTRODUCTION

VW ORM-BORINGS are unusually abundant in thick-shelled pelecypods and brachiopods

at many exposures of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group in central New York. These trace fossils have been the subject of renewed study: Buehler (1967) has been studying these and associated epizooites, Cameron (1967a, 1967b) reported a preserved soft-bodied worm in a worm-boring, and Cameron (1968) re- ported commensal(?) serpulid worms in worm- borings. The purpose of this paper is to review the nomenclatural problems associated with the name Palaeosabella prisca (McCoy), which has been incorrectly applied to these Devonian worm-borings, and to give the worm-borings and the preserved annelid valid names.

The abbreviation AMNH is used throughout for the American Museum of Natural History.

NOMENCLATURAL PROBLEMS

Devonian worm borings.-A review of the nomenclatural problems associated with Clarke's (1921, p. 91, figs. 77-83, 95-103) well illus- trated but sketchy description of Palaeosabella prisca (McCoy) was made by Fenton & Fenton (1932, p. 42-43, 48-51) and Teichert (1945, p. 199-203, 209). A summary of the problem about the spelling of this name follows:

1. Clarke (1921, p. 91) first spelled this ge- neric name as PaleosabeUa, but in his subse- quent figure legends he used the spelling Pa- laeosabella. Fenton & Fenton (1932) used the first spelling.

2. Solle (1938) spelled his name Paliosabella. 3. Teichert (1945, p. 200), denoting himself

as first revisor, adopted the second spelling. Hantzschel (1962, p. 230), de Laubenfels (1955, p. 41), Hecker (1965, p. 40, pl. 3, fig. 2), and

Voigt (1965, p. 199) also used PalaeosabeUa, which has been used most often and more re- cently, except in Cameron (1967a).

A summary of the problem about the validity of the name Palaeosabella follows:

1. McCoy (1855, p. 260, pl. 1B, Figs. 1-la) named and described a Silurian sponge-boring, Vioa prisca, from England which he believed was related to the modern boring sponge Cliona.

2. Clarke in 1908 (p. 168) affirmed that V. prisca McCoy was a sponge-boring, but he pro- posed the genus Clionolithes to replace Vioa, which was preoccupied. However, Clarke illus- trated (pl. 8, fig. 1) part of McCoy's original figure and some North American Devonian worm-borings (pl. 8, figs. 2-8; pl. 9, fig. 1) under the name Clionolithes priscus (McCoy).

3. Clarke in 1921 decided that Clionolithes priscus (McCoy) (sponge- and worm-borings) were made by shell-boring annelids. Because Vioa was a preoccupied name and because he (1908, 1921) limited Clionolithes to sponge-bor- ings, Clarke (1921, p. 91) proposed Palaeosa- bella for these borings, which included both sponge- and worm-borings, with P. prisca (McCoy) as its only species. Again he illus- trated (fig. 94) part of McCoy's original figure of the Silurian sponge-borings and many North American worm-borings (figs. 77-83, 95-103).

4. Fenton & Fenton (1932, p. 42-43, 48-51) reaffirmed that Vioa prisca McCoy was a sponge-boring and decided that this species ought to be placed in the morphologically simi- lar genus Topsentia Clarke, 1921, which has priority by pagination over Palaeosabella; they designated it as Topsentia(?) prisca (McCoy) because they were not able to examine the orig- inal material. (I have also not been able to ex- amine McCoy's original material.) Valid species

189

This content downloaded from 206.246.22.157 on Fri, 7 Nov 2014 10:26:37 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BARRY CAMERON

of Clionolithes are morphologically distinct and different from V. prisca McCoy.

5. This reversal might have left the genus Palaeosabella unoccupied except that its type, by monotypy, is V. prisca, a sponge-boring. I have examined Clarke's North American Devo- nian borings (New York State Museum nos. 7832-7846) and agree that he incorrectly iden- tified these worm-borings as V. prisca. Fenton & Fenton (1932, p. 51) stated, concerning the name PalaeosabeUa, ". . . that if used at all (and it seems to be useful) it should be based upon borings comparable to those in Clarke's Fig. 77, p. 92... ." They also suggested that Pa- laeosabella could be used as "P. prisca Clarke" (p. 51), but no such species exists (Teichert, 1945, p. 202). Voigt (1965, p. 199, Abb. 1), ap- parently not having seen Teichert's paper, used this designation.

6. In conclusion, PalaeosabeUa is a junior subjective synonym of Topsentia because its type species has been referred to the genus Top- sentia.

For the worm-borings (identified by me as worm-borings) designated by Clarke as Cliono- lithes priscus (McCoy) (1908, pl. 8, figs. 2-8, non 1 & pl. 9, fig. 1; 1913, pl. 11, figs. 11-12, pl.

16, fig. 18) and Palaeosabella prisca (McCoy) (1921, figs. 77-83, non 94, 95-103) and those described by Cameron (1967a, 1967b) a new name is required. Vermiforichnus clarkei gen. et sp. nov. is proposed for these boring traces. Because Clarke (1921) did not erect and de- scribe a new species, I am designating his speci- men no. 7843 (New York State Museum) from the Oriskany Sandstone at Knox, New York, as the holotype. This is illustrated in his figure 81 (1921, p. 96). His other figured specimens are designated paratypes (New York State Museum nos. 7832-7839, 7841-7846).

Preserved soft-bodied worm.-A replaced specimen of a soft-bodied, polychaete worm that probably excavated one of these borings has been reported from the Hamilton Group (Mid- dle Devonian) of New York (Cameron, 1967a, 1967b). It resembles anatomically some extant shell-boring polychaetes (family Spionidae), and it was found entombed within an arena- ceous tube-lined worm-boring in a clam shell. Agglutinated tubes are also found lining shell- borings of the living spionid Polydora (Galt- soff, 1964). The suggestion that this fossil worm was one of the borers seems well founded because of its similarity to modern shell-borers

:~z ~ ;?:ii'i.: .. . Z~V' TEXT-FIG. 1-Ventral view of the oldest known fossil spionid(?) worm, Vermiforafacta rollisi Cameron,

whose soft-tissued body may have been originally replaced by pyrite (now it is composed of limonite). This Devonian polychaete was discovered entombed in a nearly straight boring, Vermiforichnus clarkei Cameron, that it may have excavated in the thick shell of the clam Cornellites ftabellum (Hall). The boring is lined by an agglutinated tube of indurated mud and silt grains that was probably constructed by the worm. AMNH type no. 28471, from Cardiff shale member of Marcellus Formation (Middle Devonian) near Morrisville, New York, X15.

190

This content downloaded from 206.246.22.157 on Fri, 7 Nov 2014 10:26:37 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A DEVONIAN WORM-BORING

TEXT-FIG. 2-Close-up view of the broken umbonal region of the left valve of the clam Cornellites flabellum (Hall), X10. The sediment-filling boring of the worm Vermiforichnus clarkei Cameron changes direction where it approaches the outer surface of the shell; agglutinated tube not preserved. AMNH type no. 28471, from Cardiff shale member of Marcellus Formation (Middle Devonian) near Morrisville, New York.

and its association with a tube-lined worm-bor- ing.

However, one worm could have made the bor- ing, and, after its demise, another worm could have occupied the boring where it eventually became fossilized (Meredith L. Jones, written communication, 1968). Such doubt warrants giving the only preserved specimen a name dif- ferent from that of the worm-borings. In addi- tion, two different types of fossils are involved, trace fossils and body fossils, and the basis for defining and recognizing species of them is some- what different (Hantzschel, 1962, p. 180-182).

Vermiforafacta roUinsi gen. et sp. nov. is pro- posed for this preserved soft-bodied polychaete described by Cameron (1967a; 1967b, figs. 1-2). The holotype (AMNH type no. 28471) is from the Middle Devonian (Erian Series, Ca- zenovia Stage) Cardiff shale member of the Marcellus Formation of the Hamilton Group in a hillside quarry 2.2 miles north of Morrisville, N.Y. (Cameron, 1967b, fig. 1). Text-figure 1 il- lustrates the holotype within an agglutinated tube lining the boring, Vermiforichnus clarkei, that it may have made in one of the valves of the clam Cornellites flabeUum (Hall). On the opposite valve of this clam, there is another worm-boring referable to Vermiforichnus clar- kei which is sediment-filled and does not have the agglutinated tube preserved (text-fig. 2).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to Roger Batten of the Ameri- can Museum of Natural History and Columbia University for helpful discussions and for criti- cally reading the original manuscript. Meredith L. Jones of the Smithsonian Institution reviewed the manuscript and kindly offered constructive criticism. The preserved Devonian soft-bodied worm is named in honor of Harold B. Rollins, who found the specimen. The frequently found Devonian worm-borings are named in honor of John M. Clarke, who discovered them. G. Rob- ert Adlington of the American Museum of Nat- ural History photographed the specimens. Re- search was supported by Boston University.

REFERENCES

BUEHLER, E. J., 1967, Epizooites from the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) of New York (abs.): Geol. Assoc. of Canada, International Meeting, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

CAMERON, BARRY, 1967a, Polychaetous shell-borer (middle Devonian) possibly replaced by limonite (abs.): Geol. Soc. America, Northeastern Section Meeting 1967 (Boston, Mass.).

, 1967b, Fossilization of an ancient (Devonian) soft-bodied worm: Science, v. 155, no. 3767, p. 1246-1248, 2 figs.

,1968, Commensalism of new serpulid worm from the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) of New York: Jour. Paleontology, v. 42, p. 850-852, 1 text-fig.

191

This content downloaded from 206.246.22.157 on Fri, 7 Nov 2014 10:26:37 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BARRY CAMERON

CLARKE, J. M., 1908, The beginnings of dependent life: N. Y. State Mus. Bull. 121, p. 146-196.

--, 1913, Fosseis Devonianos do Parana: Serv. Geol. Miner. Brasil, 333 p., 27 pls.

--, 1921, Organic dependence and disease, their ori- gin and significance: N. Y. State Mus. Bull. nos. 221-222, 113 p.

DE LAUBENFELS, M. W., 1955, Porifera, n Moore, R. C., ed., Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, pt. E, Archaeocyatha and Porifera: Lawrence, Kan- sas, Geol. Soc. America & Univ. Kansas Press, p. 21-122.

FENTON, C. L., & FENTON, M. A., 1932, Boring sponges in the Devonian of Iowa: Am. Midland Naturalist, v. 13, no. 2, p. 42-53, pls. 6-9.

HXNTZSCHEL, W., 1962, Trace fossils and problemat- ica, in Moore, R. C., ed., Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, pt. W, Miscellanea: Lawrence, Kan-

sas, Geol. Soc. America & Univ. Kansas Press, p. 177-245.

HECKER, R. F., 1965, Introduction to paleoecology: Am. Elsevier Publ. Co., Inc., New York, 166 p., 31 figs., 17 pls.

McCoY, FREDERICK, 1855, British Paleozoic Fossils: London and Cambridge, p. 260, pl. 1B, figs. 1-la.

SOLLE, G., 1938, Die ersten Bohr-Spongien im euro- paischen Devon und einige andere Spuren: Senc- kenbergiana, v. 20, p. 154-178.

TEICHERT, CURT, 1945, Parasitic worms in Permian brachiopod and pelecypod shells in Western Aus- tralia: Am. Jour. Sci., v. 243, no. 4, p. 197-209, 3 pls.

VOIGT, EHRHARD, 1965, tber parasitische Polychaeten in Kreide-Austern sowie einige andere in Muschel- schalen bohrende Wiirmer: Paliont. Zeitschr., v. 39, p. 193-211, 3 figs., 3 pls.

MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED MAY 2, 1968

192

This content downloaded from 206.246.22.157 on Fri, 7 Nov 2014 10:26:37 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions