This is Mazon Monday post #119. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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In 1943, the Illinois State Museum published the first paper in a series that would form the basis of the third volume of the Scientific Papers of the Illinois State Museum. All of the papers in that volume entitled "Coal Age Fossils" (see Mazon Monday #80) addressed the Carboniferous nodules which occur near Mazon Creek in Illinois. This first paper was titled "Carboniferous Insects from the Vicinity of Mazon Creek Illinois". It was written by F. M. Carpenter, who also wrote Chapter 14A "Insecta" of the "Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek".
Frank Morton Carpenter was an absolute giant in the field of fossil insects. He had a tremendous impact on the field of paleoentomology during his career (from 1928 to the 1990's), publishing many papers and describing many new species. In 1947, he described Meganeuropsis americana, which is still the largest insect ever discovered. It lived in what is now Oklahoma about 300 million years ago and had a wingspan of 75 centimeters or about 30 inches.
Here is a summary of Dr. Carpenter and his accomplishments.
Frank Carpenter’s professional career at Harvard University began by his being appointed as a Research Fellow in Applied Biology (1928), supported by a three year National Research Council postdoctoral grant, and continued with the following appointments: Associate in Entomology, MCZ (1931); Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, MCZ (1932); Instructor in Zoology (1935); Curator of Fossil Insects, MCZ (1936); Assistant Professor of Palaeontology, MCZ (1936); Associate Professor of Entomology, MCZ (1939); Member of the Board of Freshman Advisers (1942-1946, 1963-1965); Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology (1945) [four appointments for five years each and a final one for four years, all consecutively, 1950, 1955, 1960, 196511; Acting Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1946); Acting Director of University Extension (1954, 1958, 1964-1966); Chairman of the Evolutionary Biology Training Grant Committee (1965-1973); Fisher Professor of Natural History (1969) and Emeritus (1973); President of Phi Beta Kappa (1970-1971); Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology Emeritus (1973); Honorary Curator of Fossil Insects, MCZ (1973).
The fossil insect collections at Harvard’s MCZ are second in importance only to those at the Institute of Palaeontology of the Russian Academy of Science (Moscow). This excellence was due to Frank Carpenter, the only curator of these collections, including during the last 20 years of his life as (voluntary) Honorary Curator. Frank had a very good relationship with his Russian colleagues and, through collaboration and two visits to Moscow, he amassed a superb library of Russian paleoentomology literature.
For almost 40 years Frank Carpenter taught entomology, paleontology, and related subjects at Harvard. He never took a sabbatical! His famous year-long course in entomology stimulated many students, a number of whom went on to become professional entomologists. As Edward O. Wilson wrote (1976, J. Paleontology 50(3):549-550), Frank Carpenter was the "embodiment of entomology at Harvard" and played a "role as paterfamilias of the Harvard entomological community." Carpenter was chairman of the Department of Biology from 1952-1959, an important period of biological development at Harvard. Frank Carpenter was also a devoted teacher at the Harvard Extension School for more than 30
years, longer than any other professor, and besides being Acting Director several times, he was renowned for stimulating the interest of many students in insects and he considered this a very fulfilling experience.
Frank Carpenter’s influence in evolutionary biology was also recognized outside Harvard. During, and even after, his official academic career at Harvard he was awarded a number of research grants, especially from the National Science Foundation. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and its Vice President from 1961 to 1963 and President of the National Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi) from 1955 to 1957. In 1975 he was awarded the Paleontology Society Medal and in 1983 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. Finally, in 1993 he received the Thomas Say Award from the Entomological Society of America (Fig. 1).
As Robin Wootton, a close colleague of Frank Carpenter’s, described him (1994, Antenna 18(2):56-58): "Simply, he was the greatest ever palaeoentomologist." Carpenter conducted research on fossil insects for almost 70 years, specializing in insects from the Paleozoic Era, an especially significant time, when many entire orders and families were completely different from the modern ones, unfike the Mesozoic. Carpenter particularly concentrated on the Permian and Carboniferous, publishing numerous papers on the Lower Permian fauna of Elmo, Kansas; the Lower Permian of Midco, Oklahoma; and the Carboniferous of North America (especially Mazon Creek, Illinois). However, he also published important works on other periods, e.g., Miocene shales of Florissant, Colorado and studies of amber from the Tertiary Baltic and Cretaceous Canadian deposits. Carpenter described one of the most famous fossil insects, a dragonfly from Elmo, with a wingspan of about 29 inches, Meganeuropsis americana Carpenter 1947, the
largest insect ever known (Fig. 2).
In "Carboniferous Insects", he discusses the sixteen insect fossils found in the Mazon Creek deposit by George Langford, Sr. and George Langford, Jr. Those fossils were sold to the Illinois State Museum and still reside in its collections. Previously, he had described two new insects in 1938 in a paper called "Two Carboniferous insects from the vicinity of Mazon Creek, Illinois", which was published in the American Journal of Science. That paper described Lithoneura lameerei and Adeloneura thompsoni, which are mentioned in the text.
The ironstone nodules occurring near Mazon Creek, Illinois, are the most important source of Carboniferous insects in North America. Although actually very rare in the nodules, about 150 specimens have been found during the past 78 years, and a few still turn up. The present paper is based on sixteen insects included in a large collection of fossiliferous nodules secured over a period of many years by George Langford, Sr., and George Langford, Jr., and recently acquired by the Illinois State Museum. I am indebted to Dr. H. A. Lowenstam for his courtesy in loaning the fossils for study.
The Langford collection is remarkable for the inclusion of sev eral excellent specimens which rank among the very best ever found at Mazon Creek. One of these, the type of Thesoneura americana, n. sp., is by far the largest complete wing which has turned up in the nodules. Five insects in the collection are sufficiently well preserved for specific description or determination. Three belong to the Order Palaeodictyoptera and one to the Protorthoptera. The fifth specimen probably represents a new order, but its affinities are uncertain and until more of its structure is known, I have placed it under incertae sedis. The remaining eleven specimens are so fragmentary or poorly preserved that nothing can be done with them.
All nodules in the Langford collection were found at the strip mine of the Northern Illinois Coal Corporation, between the towns of Wilmington and Braidwood, only a few miles from Morris. The Francis Creek shales, which yield the nodules, are part of the Carbondale group (Upper Carboniferous). This is considered by geologists to be about the same age as the Alleghenian of Pennsylvania and the middle or late Westphalian of Europe. The Mazon Creek insects therefore are older than those of the famous Commentry shales, in Central France.
The article contains detailed drawings of insect wings.
Text-figure 1. Thesoneura americana, n. sp. Drawing of holotype. Sc, sub costa; R1, radius; Rs, radial sector; MA, anterior media; MP, posterior media; CuA, anterior cubitus; CuP, posterior cubitus; 1A, first anal. +, convex veins; concave veins.
Text-figure 3. Lithoneura mirifica, n. sp. Drawing of holotype. Lettering as in figure 1.
The back of the book has beautiful black and white pictures of some of the insects discussed.
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