Patterns and processes of shell fragmentation in modern and ancient marine environments

Zuschin, Martin; Stachowitsch, Michael; Stanton, Robert J.

doi:10.1016/s0012-8252(03)00014-x

Cited by 243 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 309 publications

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“…5 shallow-water sites (e.g., Richardson-White and Walker 2011). As in the encrusters, fragmentation and other damage can be recognized in the host echinoids (see also Zuschin et al 2003), comprising disarticulation, dissolution, corrasion (e.g., Brett and Baird 1986;Hageman et al 2004), pitting (e.g., Radwański 1965), flattening (e.g., Briggs 1990;Hageman et al 2004), chalky surfaces (e.g., Kowalewski 1990;Smith and Nelson 2003), and karstification. This preservational variation in both echinoids and their encrusters suggests different taphonomic scenarios.…”

Section: Distribution Of Encrustersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encrustation patterns on Late Cretaceous (Turonian) echinoids from southern Poland

Borszcz

Kukliński

Zatoń

2012

Facies

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This study focuses on sclerobionts from a large collection of epibenthic echinoids ([2,000 specimens) of the genera Conulus and Camerogalerus. Samples were collected from five localities in southern Poland (Polish Jura and Miechów Trough), where Turonian carbonates with terrigenous input are exposed. Low intensity (mean ca. 5 %, maximum ca. 10 %) and slight encrustation (''loosening effect'') exclusively by episkeletozoans probably resulted from low productivity of encrusters while the importance of other factors cannot be excluded unambiguously. Echinoids served as a main substratum and after death formed shellgrounds ('echinoid carpet') offering abundant benthic islands for encrusters in an otherwise soft-bottom environment. The moderate abundance but low-diversity assemblage is represented by bivalves, sedentary polychaetes, foraminifera, bryozoans, corals, and sponges. This assemblage is similar to a nearly contemporaneous assemblage from the Bohemian Basin. The presence of numerous spirorbins offers insights into their early evolution and may indicate that their first peak in abundance after origination was not prior to the earliest Turonian. This is regarded as one of the important ecological steps towards the rise of modern sclerobiont communities. Encruster diversities are independent of their abundance and, as shown in our novel planar projections, lateral parts of tests were preferentially encrusted. This pattern is explained by the combination of largest flat area and stable orientation. Encrusting bivalves and serpulids dominated hard substrate environments in the Turonian of Poland.

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Section: Distribution Of Encrustersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encrustation patterns on Late Cretaceous (Turonian) echinoids from southern Poland

Borszcz

Kukliński

Zatoń

2012

Facies

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“…Occasionally, cracks would also travel along the long axis of the shell, moving towards the siphonal notch (figure 4b,c). As a result of testing, shells were completely destroyed, as described by Zushcin et al [18], and as would be expected from crushing predators.…”

Section: Shell Copiesmentioning

confidence: 89%

How to best smash a snail: the effect of tooth shape on crushing load

Crofts

Summers

2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Organisms that are durophagous, hard prey consumers, have a diversity of tooth forms. To determine why we see this variation, we tested whether some tooth forms break shells better than others. We measured the force needed with three series of aluminium tooth models, which varied in concavity and the morphology of a stress concentrating cusp, to break a shell. We created functionally identical copies of two intertidal snail shells: the thicker shelled Nucella ostrina and the more ornamented Nucella lamellosa using a three-dimensional printer. In this way, we reduced variation in material properties between test shells, allowing us to test only the interaction of the experimental teeth with the two shell morphologies. We found that for all tooth shapes, thicker shells are harder to break than the thinner shells and that increased ornamentation has no discernible effect. Our results show that for both shell morphologies, domed and flat teeth break shells better than cupped teeth, and teeth with tall or skinny cusps break shells best. While our results indicate that there is an ideal tooth form for shell breaking, we do not see this shape in nature. This suggests a probable trade-off between tooth function and the structural integrity of the tooth.

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“…Here, due to low sampling effort in some regions, the highest percentages of damaged shells (46Á56%) were observed in the largest hermit crabs only at Spitsbergen. Predation is a major source of breakage (Zuschin et al 2003). On the basis of species lists for northern Norway and Svalbard (Sandberg & McLaughlin 1998;Gulliksen et al 1999;Gulliksen & Svensen 2004;Moen & Svensen 2004;Palerud et al 2004), we can assume that the predation rates of shell-breaking and boring organisms (mammals, octopi, crabs, fish, gastropods, polychaetes) are similar in the studied regions.…”

Section: Shell Usementioning

confidence: 92%

Hermit crabs (Pagurusspp.) at their northernmost range: distribution, abundance and shell use in the European Arctic

et al. 2015

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Patterns and processes of shell fragmentation in modern and ancient marine environments

Cited by 243 publications

References 309 publications

Encrustation patterns on Late Cretaceous (Turonian) echinoids from southern Poland

Encrustation patterns on Late Cretaceous (Turonian) echinoids from southern Poland

How to best smash a snail: the effect of tooth shape on crushing load

Hermit crabs (Pagurusspp.) at their northernmost range: distribution, abundance and shell use in the European Arctic

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