Shell Beds as paleoecological puzzles: A case study from the Upper Permian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil

Facies and depositional environments for the coquinas of the Morro do Chaves Formation, Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, defined by taphonomic and compositional criteria

“…Schäfer (1972) considers that the laws of sedimentology govern the textural and sedimentological characteristics of the coquinas. However, Simões and Kowalewski (1998) point out that coquinas are commonly subjected to not only complex sedimentary processes but also to taphonomical and biological processes that operate for long periods of time. Thus, the analysis and classification of biological and sedimentological processes responsible for the fossil concentration complement the paleoecological interpretation (Kidwell et al 1986).…”

Sensitivity of Taphonomic Signatures to Sample Size, Sieve Size, Damage Scoring System, and Target Taxa

“…Everyone recognizes that most damage to shell exteriors is ambiguous in origin, and analyses consistently find that this damage equals or exceeds unambiguously post-mortem damage to shell interiors. However, despite the desirability of interior-only data in principle, this may well be impractical for much fossil material (but this deserves testing; e.g., Permian bivalves with internal features; Simões and Kowalewski, 1998).…”

Othonella araguaiana (Bivalvia, Megadesmidae) from the Corumbataí Formation (Midlle Permian), Eastern Margin of the Paraná Basin: systematic, evolutionary and biostratigraphic significances

“…In the study area, Rio Claro region, the best and most extensively studied exposures of this unit are in the Corumbataí River valley ( Figures 1 and 2) (Mendes, 1952;Landim, 1970). For this study, we focused our sampling efforts on the so-called "Ferraz shell bed" (Simões and Kowalewski, 1998), a proximal tempestite bed that is intercalated within a monotonous sequence dominated by violet siltstones with wave and lenticular bedding ( Figure 2). This bed is well exposed in a road cut located about 1.5 km from the abandoned (Simões and Kowalewski, 1998).…”

“…For this study, we focused our sampling efforts on the so-called "Ferraz shell bed" (Simões and Kowalewski, 1998), a proximal tempestite bed that is intercalated within a monotonous sequence dominated by violet siltstones with wave and lenticular bedding ( Figure 2). This bed is well exposed in a road cut located about 1.5 km from the abandoned (Simões and Kowalewski, 1998). Othonella shells were found in Unit 2 and 4 of the bivalve-rich sandstone.…”

“…This bivalve fauna, firstly described by Holdhaus (1918), was revised by Runnegar and Newell (1971) and has gained renewed systematic , Simões, RochaCampos, Anelli, 1998Mello, 1999), paleoecological (Ghilardi, 1999;Kowalewski et al, 2000;Ghilardi and Simões, 2002), and taphonomic (Torello and Simões, 1994;Simões, Torello, Rocha-Campos, 1996;Simões and Kowalewski, 1998;Simões et al, 2000a;Simões and Torello, 2003) attention during the last decades (Wesselingh, 2007).…”