This is Mazon Monday post #272. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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A sketch of Annularia by George Langford Sr.
Annularia radiata is a very commonly found species of Annularia. Annularia was the foliage for Calamites sp., which is related to modern day horsetails. It is very similar to the larger Annularia inflata (Mazon Monday #60).
It was named by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761 - 1838) in 1820. Sternberg was a Bohemian theologian, minerologist, geologist, entomologist, and botanist. He is widely known as the "Father of Paleobotany". The Linda Hall Library had a nice post about him for "Scientist of the Day" on January 6th, 2021.
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg, a Bohemian botanist, was born Jan. 6, 1761, in Prague. Sternberg was one of the founders of what is known as paleobotany (or, to the British, palaeobotany), the study of fossil plants. In 1820, when Sternberg published the first part of his Versuch der Flora der Vorwelt (Study of the Plants of the Prehistoric World, 1820-38), fossils were just beginning to be understood as the most important key to deciphering the earth's geological history, but the fossils used by such geohistorians as William Smith and Georges Cuvier were almost exclusively animal fossils, mollusks for Smith, and vertebrates for Cuvier. Sternberg was one of the first to point out that plant life had also changed over the eons, and in his book, he showed how to distinguish Paleozoic plants from those of the Mesozoic or Cenozoic.
Annularia radiata is on page 62 of Jack Wittry's "A Complete Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".
Annularia radiata (Brongniart) Sternberg, 1825
1825. Annularia radiata Sternberg: pl. 31
1879-80. Annularia longifolia Lesquereux: pl. 2, fig. 1
1925. Annularia radiata (Brongniart) Sternberg; Noé: pl. 4, fig. 2; pl. 5, fig. 1
1958. Annularia radiata Langford: p. 40, fig. 41
1969. Annularia radiata Brongniart; Crookall: p. 728, pl. 123, fig. 3; pl. 142, fig. 5
1969. Annularia radiata Darrah: p. 172
1979. Annularia radiata Janssen: p. 85, non fig. 68DESCRIPTION: The whorls are round in shape and made up of 6 to 13 leaves that are confluent at their bases. The leaves are 5 to 20 mm long, open, and seldom touching. Their shape is symmetrical, tapering equally from the middle which is the widest point. The apex is pointed and the base is constricted. The venation consists of only a single, heavy midvein.
REMARKS: Annularia radiata is very common. As with Annularia inflata, it grows larger in the Mazon Creek flora than is typically seen in other fossil floras. See A. inflata.
Specimens
Field Museum PP 46048
Field Museum PP 36911
ESCONI member. See Fossil Friday #60.
