Johnny A. Waters

Appalachian State University | ASU · Department of Geology

Les eublastoïdes sont des échinodermes répertoriés sur tous les continents (sauf l’Antarctique) et sont connus dans les milieux marins du Silurien moyen au Permien moyen (Waters et al., 1990 ; Bauer et al., 2019). Leur calice se caractérise par un nombre réduit de plaques majeures (3 basales, 5 radiales, 4 deltoïdes et 5 lancets sous les ambulacres...

Brooding of young is a reproductive strategy observed in many extant echinoderms, but the evolutionary history of this behaviour is largely unknown due to the scarcity of examples preserved in the fossil record. Here, synchrotron x‐ray tomography is used to describe an exceptionally preserved specimen of the Devonian blastoid echinoderm Hyperoblast...

The extraxial-axial theory (EAT) and universal elemental homology (UEH) are often portrayed as mutually exclusive hypotheses of homology within pentaradiate Echinodermata. EAT describes homology upon the echinoderm bauplan, interpreted through early post-metamorphic growth and growth zones, dividing it into axial regions generally associated with e...

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Álvarez-Armada, N., Bauer, J. E., Waters, J. A. and Rahman, I. A. 2023. The oldest evidence of brooding in a Devonian blastoid reveals the evolution of new reproductive strategies in early echinoderms. Papers in Palaeontology, 9, e1493, which has been published in final form at https:/...

An early Famennian trilobite fauna represented by phacopids is recorded and illustrated from the lower member of the Hongguleleng Formation (crepida conodont Zone) near the Bulongguoer Reservoir in northwestern Xinjiang, northwestern China. In this area, the Hongguleleng Formation is rich in diverse faunas and exposes bioclastic argillaceous limest...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/172912/2/Contributions 34 - Baumiller Sp. Volume Lo Res.pdf

Understanding the phylogenetic relationship among derived blastozoans has been a goal of researchers since phylogenetic methodologies were first applied to Paleozoic echinoderms. Paul (2021) proposed a new “pan-dichoporites” group to circumscribe early Paleozoic blastozoans. Unfortunately, this work includes many inaccuracies, non-reproducible anal...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/171302/2/Contributions Vol 34 No 4 LoRes.pdf

Gennaeocrinus tariatensis new species is an Emsian (Devonian) monobathrid crinoid described from the Tarvagatay Terrane of Mongolia and part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The Tarvagatay Terrane is an arc terrane that accreted to the southern margin of the Siberian Craton. Gennaeocrinus tariatensis was collected from the Emsian Tariat Formatio...

The Bayankhoshuu Ruins section in southern Mongolia is characterized by strongly thrusted and folded sequences. Overall, three sections ranging from Ordovician to Carboniferous rocks were studied. Facies analysis combined with stratigraphic data provide improved lithostratigraphic descriptions of Palaeozoic successions in the Mushgai region. The ov...

A Late Devonian to (?)Early Mississippian section at Hushoot Shiveetiin gol in the Baruunhuurai Terrane of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) exposes large parts of cyclic Famennian shallow-water siliciclastic shelf deposits composed of siltstones, sandstones, shales, volcaniclastics, and intercalated autochthonous carbonates. The youngest part...

A Late Devonian to (?)Early Mississippian section at Hushoot Shiveetiin gol in the Baruunhuurai Terrane of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) exposes large parts of cyclic Famennian shallow-water siliciclastic shelf deposits composed of siltstones, sandstones, shales, volcaniclastics, and intercalated autochthonous carbonates. The youngest part...

An Upper Devonian to (?)Lower Mississippian section at Hushoot Shiveetiin gol in the Baruunhuurai Terrane of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) was investigated. A generally well-preserved and diverse ostracod fauna was collected from the Late Devonian (Famennian) Samnuuruul Formation in western Mongolia. It is the first rich assemblage describ...

Herein we report on the most abundant and diverse fauna of Palaeozoic crinoids and blastoids collected from Mongolia to date. The fauna is from the Late Devonian (Famennian) Samnuuruul Formation in western Mongolia. The fauna consists of two genera of blastoids and twelve genera of crinoids-four genera of camerates, three genera of flexibles, one d...

The early Famennian phacopid trilobites Feistops mongoliensis gen. nov. sp. nov., Feistops khovdensis gen. nov. sp. nov., ?Feistops sp. A, and ?Houseops olonbulagensis sp. nov. are recorded and illustrated from the western Mongolia Hushoot Shiveetiin gol section from the Baruunhuurai Terrane of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). In this sectio...

The Late Devonian (383-359 Ma) was a time of prolonged climate instability with catastrophic perturbation of global marine ecosystems at the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) and the Devonian-Carboniferous (D-C) boundaries. The causes and mechanisms of anoxia and extinction at the F-F interval are not clearly delineated, and alternative explanations for vir...

Eublastoids are a large clade of blastoids; stemmed blastozoan echinoderms diagnosed by their conservative body plan (three basals, four deltoid plates and five radial plates), lancet plate supporting the ambulacra, and hydrospire respiratory structures. Although Eublastoidea was a highly successful clade in the middle and late Palaeozoic it is abs...

Upper Devonian marine deposits of the Baruunhuurai Terrane in western Mongolia represent island arc settings, which yielded a diverse conodont assemblage of 30 taxa, including species of Ancyrognathus (as well as one new species), Icriodus, Mehlina, Polygnathus and Palmatolepis. Biodiversity analysis of Ancyrognathus, Pelekysgnathus, Mehlina and Ic...

The Devonian-Carboniferous transition (359 Ma) was a time of extreme climate and faunal change and is associated with the end-Devonian biodiversity crisis. The transition is characterized by transgressive/regressive cycles, which culminated in the onset of widespread ocean anoxia (the Hangenberg Black Shale event) and a remarkable sea-level fall cl...

Two Emsian species of crinoids, Kroppocrinus garamdouaraensis n. sp. and Elicrinus? weyeri, and two species of blastoids, Pentremitidea pailleti (Emsian) and Hyperoblastus clavatus (Givetian), are described herein from the Tafilalt of Morocco. The crinoid records expand the sparse record of Devonian crinoids within Morocco; the blastoids represent...

Trombonicrinus (col.) hanshessi gen. et sp. nov. is a crinoid species of unusual morphology and is based solely on the stem. It comes from the (probably Lower) Devonian of Tafraoute, Anti Atlas Mountains, Morocco. It is a long crinoid stem of circular section, tapering distally throughout, with a tight curvature through 180º between the mesistele a...

The Devonian-Carboniferous (D-C) transition is a period of mass extinction and rapid global faunal changes that affected both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Although the paleontology and carbon and oxygen isotopes across of the D-C boundary have been studied in detail, there is very little continuous 87Sr/86Sr isotope data for this time iterati...

Discussions of evolutionary theory in paleontology include the topics of overall diversity through time, the tempo and mode of evolution, and the consequences of the parallel between ontogeny and phylogeny. The first of these topics – diversity through time and the significance of major echinoderm radiations and extinctions – is the subject of othe...

The external expression of hydrospires in blastoids has provided a basis for major and minor group classification in the clade for over a century. Unfortunately, the complete anatomy of the hydrospires has never been comprehensively studied. This study examined and described the internal hydrospires of six spiraculate species by digitally extractin...

Hydrospires are internal structures in blastoids that primarily served a respiratory function. Historically, hydrospires have been modeled as passive-flow respiratory structures with a vertical orientation. This project constructed virtual 3D models of blastoids from legacy acetate peel collections at the Naturalis Museum in the Netherlands. Comput...

Recent study of Middle to Upper Devonian deposits in the Dong Van area, northeast Vietnam, has revealed new, more detailed information of both the stratigraphic record of the Si Phai section and global Devonian bioevents. Four possible equivalents of well-known Devonian events of different magnitude were found in Vietnam, an area which is underrepr...

Recent study of Middle to Upper Devonian deposits in the Dong Van area, northeast Vietnam, has revealed new, more detailed information of both the stratigraphic record of the Si Phai section and global Devonian bioevents. Four possible equivalents of well-known Devonian events of different magnitude were found in Vietnam, an area which is underrepr...

The content of this abstract is now out of date, as we have reanalyzed our samples using a different methodlogy. Please see our updated research on this topic at at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.01.021.

The Zefreh section in central Iran represents a carbonate ramp succession with a general shallow-marine palaeoenvironment. This section represents most of the Bahram Formation (Givetian to at least Middle falsiovalis Zone) and consists of a very heterogeneous succession of medium- to coarse-grained sandstones, skeletal pack- to grainstones with loc...

In north-west Europe, the Permian is limited to the New Red Sandstone and the restricted marine facies of the Zechstein, yet elsewhere it is constituted of thick marine deposits with an abundant shelly fauna. One of the most notable sites for the marine Permian is the island of Timor in south-east Asia, where thick, olistostromic blocks of limeston...

Abstract: In the Eifel area (western Rheinisches Schiefergebirge), a shallow- to deep-subtidal sequence of mixed carbonates and siltstones around the Kacak Event Interval close to the Eifelian– Givetian stage boundary was studied. An overall transgressive trend is inferred by the microfacies evolution. The stratigraphic variations of magnetic susce...

Crinoids have the ability to regenerate their crowns when arms are autotomized or bitten off by predators. The evidence of predation is visible in many populations of crinoids, including the deep water stalked crinoid Democrinus off the coast of Roatán, Honduras. Throughout the videos taken in a submersible, many individuals displayed arms that are...

Reevaluation of the type specimens provides evidence that M. uniplicatus is lacking several distinct blastoid characteristics. Macurdablastus uniplicatus possesses the conservative peristomal plating configuration similar to other derived blastozoans (e.g., rhombiferans, parablastoids, blastoids, coronoids, Lysocystites). The lancet plate of M. uni...

The Late Devonian was a time of significant climate change and extinction, associated with intervals of severe oceanic anoxia. Although Late Devonian anoxia is often associated with basinal black shales, these shales are not present in all locations in which anoxia can be demonstrated by other means. In recent years, anoxia has been recognized in s...

The Hangenberg Event at the Devonian-Carboniferous (D-C) transition is a period of mass extinction and rapid global faunal changes characterized by carbon-rich black shale deposits in many locations throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Conodont biostratigraphy indicates that the D-C boundary is present within the Pho Han Formation on Cat Ba...

Inferring the development of the earliest echinoderms is critical to uncovering the evolutionary assembly of the phylum-level body plan but has long proven problematic because early ontogenetic stages are rarely preserved as fossils. Here, we use synchrotron tomography to describe a new early post-metamorphic blastoid echinoderm from the Carbonifer...

Sedimentary petrology and trace element geochemistry indicate that the Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous Heishantou Formation near Boulongour Reservoir (NW Xinjiang, China) was deposited on a steep slope, mid-latitude accreting island arc complex in an open oceanic system. Bulk 87Sr/86Sr ratios show excursion patterns that are consistent with ex...

The Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction event devastated tropical marine ecosystems and ranks in the top six in taxonomic and ecological severity. The close stratigraphic association between the extinction and the Kellwasser Anoxia Events support a link between oceanographic anoxia and extinction. The Upper and Lower Kellwasser horizons have been id...

We describe a new species of the unusual crinoid Tiaracrinus, T. jeanlemenni sp. nov. from the latest Emsian of the famous mudmound locality Hamar Laghdad, Morocco. It differs from the previously known species in the higher number of ribs and the vaulted rib-fields, which is corroborated by the comparison of simple quantitative characters and ratio...

Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous stratigraphic units within the ‘Zhulumute’ Formation, Hongguleleng Formation (stratotype), ‘Hebukehe’ Formation and the Heishantou Formation near the Boulongour Reservoir in northwestern Xinjiang are fossil-rich. The Hongguleleng and ‘Hebukehe’ formations are biostratigraphically well constrained by microfossils...

Permian rocks from the Indonesian island of Timor contain an abundant and diverse pelmatozoan echinoderm fauna that was extensively monographed in the first half of the twentieth century. Recent collections have produced specimens of Corrugatoblastus savilli, n. gen. n. sp., the first new genus of blastoid described from Timor in 70 years. Corrugat...

IGCP 596 (2011-2015) has a primary focus on climate change and biodiversity patterns in the Mid-Paleozoic (Early Devonian to Late Carboniferous). As a part of this project, we conducted a field workshop in western Mongolia in the summer of 2012. The goal was to locate fossiliferous sections that expose the stage boundaries from the Eifelian / Givet...

The Devonian was a time of dynamic long-term climate change and substantial changes in biodiversity. The rapid rise of land plants during the Middle Devonian was coupled with rapidly decreasing atmospheric CO2 values. Changing environmental conditions resulted in widespread anoxia and extinction that characterize many Events throughout the Devonian...

The Late Paleozoic, specifically the Late Devonian, was a time of notable changes in earth history due to the colonization of terrestrial environments by land plants, their rapid evolution, and the subsequent reductions in atmospheric CO2. These environmental fluxes resulted in a series of ocean anoxia and extinction events that eliminated 21% of f...

Blastoids (Echinodermata) are the longest-lived and most diverse members of Blastozoa, a major component of the great Ordovician biodiversification event. There is significant potential for understanding the phylogeny of this reasonably well-constrained clade, but this potential is diminished because many of their key functional systems, located in...

ABSTRACT—Universal elemental homology (UEH) is used to establish homology of thecal plates and elements of the ambulacral system among clades of stemmed echinoderms by placing these structures into a testable hypothesis of homology. Here UEH is used to explore hypotheses of homology in blastoids, coronoids, Lysocystites, hemicosmitoids, and glyptoc...

Historically, Pennsylvanian crinoid and blastoid paleogeography has been poorly constrained. Recent discoveries of Pennsylvanian faunas from Queensland (eastern Australia), Algeria, Western China, and Iran contribute to a worldwide data set that permits a more complete analysis of Pennsylvanian echinoderm paleogeography. Cluster analysis of generic...

Here, we document a new species of the enigmatic arm-less crinoid Tiaracrinus from the Early Devonian of Morocco.

In this paper we redescribe and reassign two genera of Chinese blastoids previously described by Mu (1955) and Chi (1943) based on our own new collections and those of other Chinese geologists. Mesoblastus tushanensis is reassigned to the Schizoblastidae from the Granatocrinidae based on the presence of ten spiracles and a separate anus and to the...

New echinoderm faunas are reported from the lower part of the Absheni Formation, Early Pennsylvanian, early Bashkirian, of central–eastern Iran. Southeastern localities near Howz-e-Dorah (southwestern side of the Shotori Range) are part of a carbonate-shelf deposit, and a northwestern locality near Shir Gesht is located within a marine bed within a...

The few Pennsylvanian echinoderm faunas reported from the Paleotethys are from China, Japan, and Australia. The Japanese and Chinese faunas contain camerates that are rare in Pennsylvanian faunas worldwide.Genera of one monobathrid camerate, two disparids, five cladids, one flexible, one blastoid, and one archaeocidarid are reported from the late M...

In 1993, Chen and Yao described the first major Paleozoic echinoderm faunas reported from China. Restudy of these Middle and Late Devonian, Early Carboniferous, and Early Permian faunas collected from the Basoshan tectonic block of western Yunnan resulted in some systematic and paleogeographic revisions. The Baoshan block originated on the northern...

Critical to understanding long-term trends in diversity is a dataset that is both worldwide in scope and based on a sound taxonomic foundation. In this paper we re-evaluate the Famennian (Late Devonian) echinoderm dataset, which has changed radically in the past decade, and reinterpret patterns of Late Devonian echinoderm extinction and rebound bas...

The Late Devonian, Famennian, Hongguleleng Formation of northwestern China has yielded one of the most diverse echinoderm faunas known from China. New collections and re-evaluation of earlier collections results in recognition of new taxa, increases the known diversity, provides new morphological information on some of the previously reported taxa,...

New collections and revision of previously collected Moscovian crinoids from the Qijiagou Formation of the Taoshigo Valley near Turpan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China, add to the generic diversity of the fauna. This camerate-rich echinoderm fauna is now recognized as containing at least one blastoid, five camerate, and ten cladid...

Review of the phylogeny of the blastoids suggests that the spiraculate condition is an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. Fissiculate blastoids evolved into spiraculates in at least five separate lineages. Four origins are given ordinal status based on thecal shapes and spiracular, deltoidal, and ambulacral morphologies. The fifth order is rec...

The Otter Formation of the Big Snowy Group of central Montana has yielded relatively few invertebrate fossils, although ostracodes and bryozoans are quite abundant in some parts of the unit. In 1893 Peale recognized the age of sediments later recognized as the Otter Formation as Carboniferous. Subsequently study of the sedimentology and new fossil...

Echinoderm faunas are described from 18 stratigraphic horizons of Viséan into Moscovian age from the Béchar Basin of northwestern Algeria. Two of these faunas are the first Bashkirian camerate-dominated faunas recognized when Pennsylvanian crinoid faunas worldwide are dominated by advanced cladids. Additional results of this study include: 1. Emend...

The crinoids and blastoids from the Pilton (Beds) Formation of the type Devonian of north Devonshire are revised. These fossils were monographed by the Rev. G. F. Whidborne in 1898, but have not been studied since that time. Recent studies on various groups of fossils from the Pilton and related rocks in North Devon confirm that the great majority...

Chen and Yao (1993) described diverse echinoderm communities from Ordovician through Upper Carboniferous rocks in western Yunnan, China—the first monographic treatment of Chinese echinoderms in almost 70 years. This paper is the first in a series of studies re-describing echinoderm taxa from these biogeographically important Paleozoic assemblages....