University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History
Volume 12, No. 10, pp. 475-501, 7 figs.
October 25, 1963
University of Kansas
Lawrence
1963
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,
Theodore H. Eaton, Jr.
Volume 12, No. 10, pp. 475-501, 7 figs.
Published October 25, 1963
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED BY
JEAN M. NEIBARGER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1963
In 1931 and 1932, H. H. Lane, C. W. Hibbard and W. K. McNown collectedthe specimens that Hibbard (1933) described and made the basis of twonew species. These were from the Rock Lake shale member of the Stantonformation, six miles northwest of Garnett, Anderson County, Kansas. In1954, from a locality (KAn-1/D, see page 480) approximately one fourthmile southwest of the first locality, specimens were quarried by F. E.Peabody, R. W. Wilson and R. Weeks. In 1955 R. R. Camp collectedadditional blocks of Rock Lake shale from this second locality. Study ofall of the materials from the above mentioned localities reveals theexistence of an hitherto unrecognized genus of coelacanth. It is namedand described below.
I wish to thank Prof. Theodore H. Eaton, Jr., for suggesting the projectand for much helpful advice. I am indebted to Dr. E. I. White of theBritish Museum (Natural History) for furnishing a cast of theendocranium of Rhabdoderma elegans (Newberry) for comparison, and toDrs. Donald Baird (Princeton University), Bobb Schaeffer (AmericanMuseum of Natural History) and R. H. Denison (Chicago Natural HistoryMuseum) for loans and exchanges of specimens for comparison. I amgrateful to Dr. Bobb Schaeffer for advice on the manuscript. Mr. MertonC. Bowman assisted with the illustrations. The study here reported onwas made while I was a Research Assistant supported by National ScienceFoundation Grant G-14013.[Pg 478]
Suborder DIPLOCERCIDOIDEI
Family Diplocercidae
Subfamily Rhabdodermatinae, new subfamily
Type genus.—Rhabdoderma Reis, 1888, Paleontographica,vol. 35, p. 71.
Referred genus.—Synaptotylus new, described below.
Horizon.—Carboniferous.
Diagnosis.—Sphenethmoid region partly ossified, andconsisting of basisphenoid, parasphenoid, and ethmoidossifications; paired basipterygoid process and pairedantotic process on basisphenoid; parasphenoid of normalsize, and closely associated with, or fused to,basisphenoid; ethmoids paired in Rhabdoderma (unknown inSynaptotylus).
Discussion.—Because of the great differences in endocranial structurebetween the Devonian and Pennsylvanian coelacanths, they are here placedin new subfamilies. The two proposed subfamilies of the familyDiplocercidae are the Diplocercinae and the Rhabdodermatinae. TheDiplocercinae include those coelaca