| Top to bottom photos--Fusulinids (an extinct single-celled animal that secreted roughly wheat grain to American football-shaped shells) that invertebrate paleontologists have assigned to the genus Kansanella; from the upper Pennsylvanian Island Creek Shale. Bottom: Fusulinids assigned to the genera Kansanella, preserved in their natural matrix, from the upper Pennsylvanian Iola Limestone. All specimens in both images from the Kansas City Group, Missourian Stage--306.5 to 305.5 million years ago. Fusulinds at top collected and photographed by an individual who goes by the cybername "Missourian"; image at bottom collected and photographed by James St. John. |