A parautochthonous shallow marine fauna from the Late Burdigalian (early Ottnangian) of Gurlarn (Lower Bavaria, SE Germany): Macrofaunal inventory and paleoecology
Simon SchneiderB. BerningMaria Aleksandra BitnerR.P. CarriolM. JagerJürgen KriwetAndreas KrohWinfried Werner
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Abstract:
This paper describes and illustrates a diverse parautochthonous macrofauna from a single Upper Burdigalian (lower Ottnangian) horizon at Gurlarn in Lower Bavaria (SE Germany). In total, 80 different taxa are recorded in specific or open nomenclature; some 50 % of these taxa are bryozoans, followed by bivalves (16 taxa), cirripedes (7 taxa), echinoderms, corals (5 taxa each), brachiopods, fish (4 taxa each), serpulids, and gastropods (3 taxa each). The presence of additional organisms was documented by actualistic comparison based on indirect evidence such as drillholes, bite marks, and specialized growth forms of bryozoan colonies. Analysis of autand synecological indicators suggests that the fauna thrived in a near-shore shallow marine setting at a water depth of 5-20 m. Based on particular faunal elements and overall faunal composition we hypothesize that the environment is characterized by three distinct but interfingering habitats, i.e. (1) rocky slopes and boulders, (2) seagrass meadows, and (3) bryozoan meadows. Because similar, albeit less wellpreserved, faunas occur at several localities along the northern coast of the early Ottnangian Molasse Sea, the parautochthonous assemblage from Gurlarn provides an excellent example for the structure of these typical biota.Keywords:
Paleoecology
Abstract Three Australian Ordovician graptolite faunas are described; the short‐lived Anisograptid Fauna is followed by the Dichograptid Fauna, which in turn is succeeded by the Diplograptid Fauna. The Dichograptid Fauna consists of two sub‐faunas, the Tetragraptus‐Didymograptus and the Isograptid; the Diplograptid Fauna consists of the Glyptograptus‐Amplexograptus and the Leptograptus‐Orthograptus sub‐faunas. The Diplograptid Fauna becomes extinct low in the Silurian, giving way to the Monograptid Fauna, which persists into the Devonian.
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Bivalves are one of the major macroinvertebrate fossil groups of the Phanerozoic. Bivalves have occupied many aqueous habitats, and in doing this have undergone a steady, relatively unchecked increase in diversity (Figure 1). Thus, bivalves are one of the most useful fossil groups in paleoecology, both for environmental reconstruction as well as for deciphering patterns and processes of evolutionary paleoecology.
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Abstract This chapter argues that a crucial prerequisite to the modern paleobiological synthesis is the development and refinement of the field of paleoecology. Paleoecology itself is not a new field; paleontologists had been using the term for decades, and its subject matter—the relationship between fossil organisms and their environments—had been studied. But paleoecology went through its own revolution in which the subject was redefined and reconceptualized by a number of mostly younger paleontologists, many of whom would also become leaders in the paleobiology movement. The new approach to paleoecology emphasized two important conceptual revisions. First, rather than focusing on the physical parameters of the environment as a geological problem, the new paleoecology placed much greater emphasis on the biological aspects of populations of fossil organisms, and it often explicitly compared fossil assemblages to living counterparts. Second, the new paleoecology drew heavily on important work in theoretical ecology and biogeography that was having its own revolutionary impact on the broader study of ecology. Ecologists were opening new conceptual frontiers in ecology through the use of mathematical models designed to offer generalizations about community structure, colonization and extinction, and evolution. The new paleoecology was, in large part, an outgrowth of this movement in theoretical ecology.
Paleoecology
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