The Great Fossil Enigma (62 page)

30.
C. R. Barnes and L. E. FÃ¥hræus, “Provinces, communities and the nektobenthic habit of Ordovician conodontophorids,”
Lethaia
8 (1975): 133–49.

31.
C. R. Barnes (ed.),
Conodont Paleoecology
, Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 15, vii.

32.
L. Jeppsson, “Autecology of Late Silurian conodonts,” in C. R. Barnes (ed.),
Conodont Paleoecology
, Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 15, 105–18. The inspiration was B. Kurtén, “On the variation and population dynamics of fossil and recent mammal populations,”
Acta Zoologica Fennica 6
(1953): 122; Jeppsson interview.

33.
R. J. Aldridge, “Comparison of macrofossil communities and conodont distribution in the British Silurian,” in C. R. Barnes (ed.),
Conodont Paleoecology
, Geological Society of Canada Special Paper 15, 91–104, 92.

34.
K. Weddige and W. Ziegler, “The significance of
Icriodus: Polygnathus
ratios in limestones from the type Eifelian,” in C. R. Barnes (ed.),
Conodont Paleoecology
, Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 15, 187–99.

35.
L. E. FÃ¥hræus and C. R. Barnes, “Conodonts as indicators of palaeogeographic regimes,”
Nature
258 (1975): 515–18.

36.
M. A. Buzas, in
Paleobiology
3 (1977): 330–32.

37.
D. Raup and S. M. Stanley,
Principles of Paleontology
, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1978), x; J. W. Hedgpeth, “Review: Structure and classification of paleocommunities,”
Paleobiology
3 (1977): 110–14.

38.
G. Klapper and J. E. Barrick, “Conodont ecology; pelagic versus benthic,”
Lethaia
11 (1978): 15–23.

39.
S. M. L. Pohler and C. R. Barnes, “Conceptual models in conodont paleoecology,”
Courier Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg
118 (1990): 409–40; G. Klapper and J. G. Johnson, “Endemism and dispersal of Devonian conodonts,”
J. Paleont.
54 (1980): 400–455; C. A. Sandberg and R. Dreesen, “Late Devonian icriodontid biofacies models and alternate shallow-water conodont zonation,” in D. L. Clark (ed.),
Conodont Biofacies and Provincialism
,
GSA
Special Paper 196, 143–69.

10. THE WITNESS

1.
McPhee,
Suspect Terrain
, 6–7, 45–46 (see ch. 9, n. 26); Sweet, pers. comm., 21 April 2005.

2.
A. G. Epstein, J. B. Epstein, and L. D. Harris, “Conodont color alteration – an index to organic metamorphism,”
U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap.
995 (1977): 4; A. G. Epstein, J. B. Epstein, and L. D. Harris, “Incipient metamorphism, structural anomalies, and oil and gas potential in the Appalachian basin determined from conodont color,”
GSA
Abstracts with Programs
6 (1974): 723–24; A. G. Epstein, J. B. Epstein, and L. D. Harris, “Conodont color alteration – an index to diagenesis of organic matter,”
AAPG
and
SEPM
,
Ann. Mtg. Abstracts
2 (1975): 21–22.

3.
W. Alvarez,
T.rex and the Crater of Doom
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997); L. Alvarez et al., “Extrater restrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction,”
Science
208 (1980): 1095–1108.

4.
D. M. Raup,
The Nemesis Affair
(New York: Norton, 1986), 64, 112; W. Glen (ed.),
The Mass-Extinction Debate
(Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994).

5.
Walliser interview; O. Schindewolf, “Neokatastrophismus?”
Deutsch Geologische Gesellschaft Zeitschrift Jahrgang
114 (1962): 430–45; N. D. Newell, “Paleontological gaps and geochronology,”
J. Paleont.
36 (1962): 592–610; N. D. Newell, “Crisis in the history of life,”
Scientific American
208, no. 2 (1963): 1–16; F. H. T. Rhodes, “Permo-Triassic extinction,” in W. B. Harland et al. (eds.),
The Fossil Record
(London: Geological Society of London, 1967), 57–76; D. J. McLaren, “Time, life and boundaries,”
J. Paleont.
44 (1970): 801–15.

6.
O. H. Walliser, “Pleading for a natural D / C boundary,”
Cour. Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg
67 (1984): 241–46.

7.
O. H. Walliser, “Natural boundaries and commission boundaries in the Devonian,”
Cour. Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg
75 (1985): 401–408. This was part of his Moscow presentation.

8.
McLaren, “Time,” 812–13; D. J. McLaren, “Bolides and biostratigraphy,”
GSA
Bull.
94 (1987): 313–24; R. S. Dietz, “Astroblemes,”
Sci. Am.
(August 1961): 50–58.

9.
McLaren, “Time,” 812; D. J. McLaren, “Frasnian-Famennian extinctions,” in L. T. Silver and P. H. Schultz (eds.),
Geological Implications of Impacts of Large Asteroids and Comets on the Earth
,
GSA
Special Paper 190, 477–89, 482.

10.
Müller and Hinz, “Upper Cambrian,” 4; J. F. Miller, “Conodont fauna of the Notch Peak Limestone (Cambro-Ordovician) House Range, Utah,”
J. Paleont.
43 (1969): 413–39; D. L. Clark and R. A. Robison, “Oldest conodonts in North American,”
J. Paleont.
43 (1969): 1044; Clark, “Early Permian Crisis.”

11.
D. L. Clark, “Extinction of conodonts,”
J. Paleont.
57 (1983): 652–61, was stimulated by the debate surrounding Leigh Van Valen's evolutionary law. L. Van Valen, “A new evolutionary law,”
Evolutionary Theory
1 (1973): 1–30; D. L. Clark, “Conodonts: The final fifty million years,” in R. J. Aldridge (ed.),
Conodont Palaeobiology
(Chichester, UK: Horwood, 1987), 165–73.

12.
FÃ¥hræus, “Conodontophorid” (see ch. 9, n. 29).

13.
O. H. Walliser, “International Palaeontological Association General Assembly, Paris, 10th July 1980,”
Lethaia
13 (1980): 288; O. H. Walliser (ed.),
Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic
(Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1996), 7.

14.
A body setup by the IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences) and
UNESCO
in 1972; O. H. Walliser, “Global events and evolution: First
IPA
research programme,”
Lethaia
15 (1982): 198.

15.
McLaren, “Bolides”; A. Boucot, “Does evolution take place in an ecological vacuum?”
J. Paleont.
57 (1983): 1–30; O. H. Walliser, “Geologic processes and global events,”
Terra Cognita
4 (1984): 17–20; J. J. Sepkoski Jr., “Mass extinctions in the Phanerozoic oceans: A review,” in J. J. Sepkoski (ed.),
Geological Implications of Impacts of Large Asteroids and Comets on the Earth
,
GSA
Special Paper 190, 283–90; Glen,
Mass Extinction
, 50–53.

16.
Walliser, “Patterns,” 16; P. E. Play-ford et al., “Iridium anomaly in the Upper Devonian of the Canning Basin, Western Australia,”
Science
226 (1984): 437–39.

17.
Walliser, “Natural,” 402, 405; C. A. Sandberg, J. R. Morrow, and W. Ziegler, “Late Devonian sea-level changes, catastrophic events and mass extinctions,” in C. Koeberl and K. G. MacLeod (eds.),
Catastrophic Events and Mass Extinctions: Impacts and Beyond
,
GSA
Special Paper 356, 473–87, 475.

18.
Walliser, “Natural,” 406.

19.
C. W. Sandberg, W. Ziegler, and R. Dreesen, “Abrupt conodont biofacies changes redate and delimit the Frasnian (Late Devonian) extinction even in Euramerica (abstract),”
Terra Cognita
7 (1987): 209–10.

20.
W. Ziegler and H. R. Lane, “Cycles in conodont evolution and Devonian to mid-Carboniferous,” in R. J. Aldridge (ed.),
Conodont Palaeobiology
(Chichester, UK: Horwood, 1987), 147–63.

21.
C. W. Sandberg et al., “Late Frasnian mass extinction: Conodont event stratigraphy, global changes and possible causes,”
Cour. Forsch-Inst. Senckenberg
102 (1988): 263–307; C. W. Sandberg, W. Ziegler, and R. Dreesen, “Late Frasnian mass extinction: Associated sea-level changes reflected by conodont faunas and biofacies,”
Cour. Forsch-Inst. Senckenberg
102 (1988): 253–54.

22.
O. H. Walliser et al., “On the Upper Kellwasser Horizon (boundary Frasnian/ Famennian),”
Cour. Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg
110 (1989): 247–56.

23.
L. Jeppsson, “Aspects of Late Silurian conodonts,”
Fossils and Strata 6
(1974): 1–54.

24.
For example, L. Jeppsson, D. Fredholm, and B. Mattiasson, “Acetic acid and phosphate fossils – a warning,”
J. Paleont.
59 (1985): 952–56.

25.
L. Jeppsson, “Sudden appearances of Silurian conodont lineages – provincialism or special biofacies?” in D. L. Clark (ed.),
Conodont Biofacies and Provincialism
,
GSA
Special Paper 196, 103–12.

26.
A. G. Fischer, “Climatic oscillations in the biosphere,” in M. H. Nitecki (ed.),
Biotic Crises in Ecological and Evolutionary Time
(San Diego: Academic Press, 1981), 103–31, 105,127; A. G. Fischer and M. A. Arthur, “Secular Variations in the Pelagic Realm,” in H. E. Cook and P. Enos (eds.),
Deep-Water Carbonate Environments
(Tulsa:
SEPM
Special Publication 25, 1977), 19–50.

27.
P. Wilde and W. B. N. Berry, “Destabilization of the oceanic density structure and its significance to marine “extinction' events,”
Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimat., Palaeoecol.
48 (1984): 143–62.

28.
L. Jeppsson, “Lithological and conodont distributional evidence for episodes of anomalous oceanic conditions during the Silurian,” in R. J. Aldridge (ed.),
Conodont Palaeobiology
(Chichester, UK: Horwood, 1987), 129–45.

29.
L. Jeppsson, “An oceanic model for lithological and faunal changes tested on the Silurian record,”
J. Geol. Soc. Lond.
147 (1990): 663–74; R. J. Aldridge, L. Jeppsson, and K. J. Dorning, “Early Silurian oceanic episodes and events,”
J. Geol. Soc. Lond.
150 (1993): 501–13.

30.
Jeppsson's many publications record the progressive elaboration of his model. He gives his best summary in L. Jeppsson, “Silurian oceanic events: Summary of general characteristics,” in E. Landing, andM. E. Johnson (eds.),
Silurian Cycles
, New York State Museum Bulletin 491, 239–57 (1998). See also L. Jeppsson, “The anatomy of the Mid-Early Silurian Ireviken Event and a scenario for P-S events,” in C. E. Brett and G. C. Baird (eds.),
Paleontological Events
(New York: Columbia University Press 1997), 451–92.

11. THE BEAST OF BEAR GULCH

1.
Lindström,
Conodonts
, 117.

2.
H. W. Scott, “Discoveries bearing on the nature of the conodont animal,”
Micropaleontology
51 (1969): 420–26. On disappointing the audience,
Pander Society Letterz
(July 1968): 11.

3.
Scott in 1969 reflecting on his recent discoveries in an unpublished lecture, “Concerning Devonian conodont assemblages from Germany,” Box 1, Un published MSS Folder, Scott Papers.

4.
Scott, “Discoveries,” 423.

5.
Scott, “Concerning”; F.-G. Lange, “Conodonten-Gruppenfunde aus Kalken des tieferen Oberdevon,”
Geol. et Palaeontol.
2 (1968): 37–57; Scott, “Aconodontacanthodian association,” c. 1969, Unpublished MSS Folder, Scott Papers.

6.
W. G. Melton Jr., “The Bear Gulch Limestone and the first conodont bearing animals,” 21st Annual Field Conference, Montana Geological Society, September 1972, 65–68; H. W. Scott, “New specimens of Conodontochordata, Cycloidea and associated animals from the Bear Gulch Formation, Montana,” n.d., Box 1, Unpublished MSS Folder, Scott Papers.

7.
Melton, “Bear Gulch,”
66.

8.
Ibid.;
Pander Society Letter
3 (September 1969): 9; Scott to Norbert Cygen, 8 September 1969, Box 1, Correspondence Re: Conodont Animal, Scott Papers. The Correspondence Re: Conodont Animal archive folder holds an almost complete record of the correspondence surrounding the discovery of the Bear Gulch animals. I have mentioned key actors in the main text and maintain the narrative timings in these copious letters for the most part. For this reason I do not give specific reference to each letter here. All unreferenced remarks and story elements come from this correspondence. S. J. Gould, “Nature's great era of experiments,”
Natural History
July (1983): 12–22, 12. See also
Pander Society Letter
3 (1970):7 and W. G. Melton Jr., “The Bear Gulch fauna from central Montana,”
Proceedings of the North American Paleontological Convention
, vol.1 (Lawrence, Kans.: Allen Press, 1970), 1202–1207.

9.
E. L. Yochelson, “Introduction,” in
Proceedings of the North American Paleontological Convention
, vol.1 (Lawrence, Kans.: Allen Press, 1970). Thanks to Derek Briggs and Dick Aldridge for this important source.

10.
Austin (pers. comm.) recalled this rumor, though he did not subscribe to it himself. Rhodes, pers. comm., 29 October 2010.

11.
William G. Melton died on December 25, 1991. He was sixty-eight. He was the preparator of vertebrate paleontology under Claude W. Hibbard from March 1957 to August 1966 and worked with him for many summers in Meade, Kansas.
Geoscience News
, University of Michigan alumni news letter, December 1992,
http://www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/geonews/archive/9212.pdf/
.

12.
Pander Society Letter
2 (October 1969).