Conularia formosa

Classification
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Conulariida
Family: Conulariidae
Genus: Conularia
Species: Conularia formosa (Miller & Dyer, 1878)

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Stratigraphic Occurrences

C.formosa_strat

Geographic Occurrences

Map point data provided by iDigBio.
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Sequences (Formations)

  • C5 Sequence (Lower Whitewater, Liberty, Waynesville)
  • C3 Sequence (Mount Auburn, Corryville)
  • C2 Sequence (Bellevue, Fairview: Fairmount, Mount Hope)

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Identification in Hand Sample

  • Five to seven ridges/cm
  • Curved transverse striations
  • General form is pyramidal, somewhat quadrangular
  • Angles furrowed and sides somewhat rounded
  • Tubercles on the transverse ridges

Conularia formosa from the Waynesville Formation of Butler County, Ohio (MUGM 7534)

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Richardson & Babcock (2002):

  • Specimens referred to as Thing 3 by Clark et al. (1999) are here referred to Conularia formosa Miller and Dyer, 1878 (Fig. 1.4, 1.5). In terms of characters recognizable from small exoskeletal pieces, this species has five to seven ridges/cm, one adapertural spine/mm, and one node/mm. Adapical spines are absent. Articulated specimens of C. formosa have been reported from Maysvillian and Richmondian strata of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario.

Davis (1998):

  • Conularid (scyphozoan coelenterate). Note fine, curved transverse striations, which disappear at the junction of two sides. Maysvillian and Richmondian.

Caster, Dalve, & Pope (1961):

  • Class Scyphozoa includes the true medusae or jellyfish. Most corals have a jellyfish-stage in their cycle of generations, but the scyphozoan medusae have no restive stage. All modern scyphozoans lack hard parts, but an extinct group found from the Cambrian to Triassic possessed a pyramidal, hard cover to the jellyfish-bell. This group occurs, although rare, throughout the Maysville and Richmond represented by the species, Conularia formosa.

Cumings (1908):

  • This species in general form is pyramidal, somewhat quadrangular, angles furrowed, and sides somewhat rounded as in C. trentonensis. The surface is marked by rounded furrows, separated by obliquely transverse ridges, extending from each angle of the shell diagonally towards the mouth, and meeting those from the opposite angle in the middle of each side. These ridges are ornamented with small nodes or tubercles at the junction with the striae, which cross the furrow on the side toward the apex of the shell. The rounded furrows are crossed by striae, which are about twice as numerous as the transverse ridges, and which terminate on the ridge toward the mouth of the shell in a small tubercle. The longitudinal striae do not cross the transverse ridges, nor are they continued in straight lines on the opposite sides (the magnified view is erroneous in this respect), but on the contrary the striae which cross the furrows, commence at the ridge toward the apex, at a point between the tubercles, and crossing the furrow toward the mouth terminate at the tubercles.
  • This species is readily distinguished from C. trentonensis, which it most resembles in general form, by the tubercles on the transverse ridges. Even badly exfoliated specimens may be distinguished by the aid of a pocket magnifier.

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