Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) Stromatoporoidea from the Manlius Formation of New York

Abstract

Stromatoporoids are found in all five members of the Manlius Formation of New York and are abundant at many localities. The fauna is dominated by two closely related species, Habrostroma microporum (Girty) and H. centrotum (Girty). Present in lesser numbers are Intexodictyon manliusense n. sp., Plectostroma micum (Bogoyavlenskaya), Actinostromella vaiverensis Nestor, Densastroma pexisum (Yavorsky), Habrostroma cf. H. centrotum (Girty), and ?Parallelostroma sp. The assemblage displays both Silurian and Devonian affinities.

The stromatoporoidHabrostromain the upper Silurian (uppermost Pridoli)–Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of North America, and the paleobiogeographic significance ofH.centrotum(Girty, 1895)

“…Disagreement persists as to which genus the species described in this paper belong. Stearn (1990) placed his specimens from Bathurst Island in Parallelostroma microporum (Girty); Stock (1988) had questionably assigned this species to Parallelostroma , but later reassigned it to Habrostroma (Stock, 1991). Stearn (2001) changed his species assignment of the Bathurst Island specimens to Parallelostroma centrotum (Girty).…”

“…4.7, 4.8, 5.1–5.3.1990 Parallelostroma microporum ; Stearn, p. 506, figs. 4.8, 7.1–7.4, 8.4.1991 Habrostroma centrotum ; Stock, p. 905, fig. 5.1–5.7.1997 Habrostroma centrotum ; Stock, p. 545, fig.…”

“…For additional photomicrographs of Habrostroma centrotum , the reader is referred to the work of Stock and Holmes (1986), Stock (1988, 1991, 1997), and Stearn (1990).…”

“…Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) stromatoporoids have been described from several areas of North America, where in many cases they are highly abundant. These include those from New York (Stock, 1991, 1997), Virginia (Stock and Holmes, 1986), and Bathurst Island, Arctic Canada (Stearn, 1990). Additional previously undescribed stromatoporoid faunas are also present in Maine and Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada.…”

Treatise Online, no. 11, Part E, Revised, Volume 4, Chapter 15A: Techniques of study: Collection, preparation, and analysis of the Paleozoic Stromatoporoidea

“…Stearn (1989) recorded the intraspecific variability of stromatoporoids and related organisms in terms of Simpson's coefficient of variability. The most extensive use of statistics to distinguish between species has been by StoCK and burry-StoCK (StoCK & burry-StoCK, 1998StoCK, 1991StoCK, , 1997) who have applied multivariate procedures to separate species in large collections from the Lower Devonian of New York. They used cluster analysis in an exhaustive study of 103 specimens of Habrostroma to distinguish the two species, H. centrotum and H. consimile, and to rate by canonical correlation analysis which of the skeletal features were most useful in distinguishing them (StoCK & burry-StoCK, 2001).…”