The Paleoecological and Environmental Significance Of Trace Fossils

Rhoads, Donald C.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-65923-2_9

Cited by 71 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Based on research by Raff and Raff (1970) and Rhoads and Morse (1971), numerous authors (see references in Savrda and Bottjer 1987) have demonstrated that oxygen consumption or respiration rate generally decreases with decreasing size of marine organisms; oxygen requirements appear to be less, and tolerances to oxygen de®ciency greater, as body size decreases. Rhoads (1975) suggested that the burrow diameter of trace fossils should show a similar relationship, a conclusion supported by observation of contemporary biogenic structures across oxygen-availability gradients (e.g. Savrda et al 1984).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Colonization of the deep‐marine environment during the early Phanerozoic: the ichnofaunal record

Orr

2001

Geological Journal

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Temporal changes in the ichnogeneric diversity and ethological structure of 50 Cambrian to Carboniferous deep-marine ichnofaunal assemblages were quanti®ed. Assemblages of Cambrian age are distinctive: their diversity is lower, pascichnia and agrichnia relatively unimportant, and`shallow-marine' ichnotaxa more common, than in subsequent periods. There appear to be no environmental reasons that would have precluded more extensive colonization of the deep-marine environment during the Cambrian. The signi®cant restructuring of deep-marine communities at, or near, the Cambrian±Ordovician boundary is therefore attributed to competition for ecospace and/or resources within shallow-marine environments during the early Phanerozoic, as a result of which ichnotaxa, including examples of pascichnia and agrichnia, were displaced offshore. The Nereites ichnofacies, as traditionally understood, is thus characteristic of only deep-marine environments younger than the Cambrian.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Colonization of the deep‐marine environment during the early Phanerozoic: the ichnofaunal record

Orr

2001

Geological Journal

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“…Maximum burrow diameter associated with each individual bedding plane has particular significance as it preserves a record of the largest infaunal organism present at a given time, which is linked with relative oxygen levels correlated with body size based on physiological oxygen demands (Rhoads, 1975;Pearson and Rosenburg, 1978;Savrda et al, 1984;Savrda, 1992). Burrow diameter is a more accurate proxy than depth of penetration because the horizon of origination, necessary for precise measurements of depth of penetration, is (1) generally illusive within fine-grained sediments lacking conspicuous lithologic variation; and (2) oblique views of nonvertical burrows can be misleading when viewed in cross section.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Ichnological Signalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, there is a correlative decrease in the abundance and size of individuals and an overall decrease in diversity within benthic communities as oxygen levels decrease associated with the progressive loss of larger organisms with higher oxygen demands. This is preserved in the ichnological record as a decrease in depth of feeding and residence, and necessarily the depth of burrow penetration and burrow diameter due to both upward migration of the redox boundary within the sediment as well as physiological constraints that systematically exclude larger organisms (Rhoads and Morse, 1971;Rhoads, 1975;Pearson and Rosenberg, 1978;Savrda et al, 1984;Thompson et al, 1985;Savrda andBottjer, 1986, 1989;Tyson and Pearson, 1991;Savrda, 1992). These ecological patterns were used to define a tripartite model of relative bottom-water oxygenation with dysaerobic defined as representing depositional conditions between aerobic, or fully oxygenated, and anaerobic, or completely devoid of bottom-water oxygen (Rhoads and Morse, 1971).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Combined Trace- And Body-Fossil Approach Reveals High-Resolution Record of Oxygen Fluctuations in Devonian Seas

Boyer

Droser

2011

PALAIOS

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Black shales deposited in epeiric seas preserve dynamic, bottom-water oxygen conditions as inferred from high-resolution trace-and body-fossil data. Nearly all paleoproxies are imperfect; however, this study utilizes the strength of paleobiological proxies to capture variability in bottomwater oxygen levels through aerobic and anaerobic, as well as dysaerobic (reduced but non-zero oxygen) conditions. Trace-and body-fossil data were collected at high resolution from twelve localities through central and western New York State, United States, exposing Devonian black shales. The combination of relative amount of bioturbation, estimated as ichnofabric index (ii), maximum burrow diameter measurements, and body-fossil species diversity allows relative bottom-water oxygen levels to be interpreted on a millimeter scale. Overall, trace-fossil size and diversity through the dysaerobic zone are much reduced compared with those described from younger strata. The decreased depth of bioturbation compared with younger strata, and resulting reduced overprinting of the sedimentological record by deep burrowing infauna, provide the opportunity for records of high frequency fluctuations in relative oxygen levels to be preserved. The biological signal preserved in these units reveals that bottom-water oxygen levels fluctuated considerably within a narrow stratigraphic range (on a centimeter scale) and that the dysaerobic zone is not temporally stable.

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“…All of them indicated that although environment was fetid, it supported a benthonic community of predominantly soft bodied mud ingesting organisms. The Monocraterion of Skolithos ichnofacies is widespread in littoral sandy to rocky shores with high energy conditions (Seilacher 1967;Crimes 1975;Frey 1975;Rhoads 1975). The trace fossil Rhizocorallium of Cruziana ichnofacies also indicates a shallow marine condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Trace fossils from Talchir carbonate concretions, Giridih basin, Jharkhand

Das

Tripathi

2009

J Earth Syst Sci

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The carbonate concretions occurring at the bottom of Talchir fissile shale facies preserved signatures of various trace fossils along with a cast of doubtful organisms and cyanobacterial mat structures. The host shale deposited under glacial melt water fed lacustrine condition. The concretions, formed in poorly oxygenated conditions, are either of syndepositional origin and/or deposited a little below the sediment water interface and were later exhumed to the depositional surface due to erosion of soft mud overlying them.The trace fossils are both megascopic and microscopic in nature. The megascopic trace fossils are identified on the basis of their morphology as Monocraterion and Rhizocorallium. Some of the megascopic structures described remain problematic at present. The microscopic trace fossils are formed due to the activity of marine meiofauna (possibly by nematodes), which, although produced morphologically show similar traces of known larger ichnogeneras but much smaller than them. The discovery of these trace fossils apparently indicate the influx of saline water into a lacustrine domain during the Talchir sedimentation at Giridih basin. Moreover, presence of the above two megascopic trace fossils in the marine lacustrine carbonate concretions may lead researchers to consider their much wider environmental significance than hitherto believed.

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The Paleoecological and Environmental Significance Of Trace Fossils

Cited by 71 publications

References 15 publications

Colonization of the deep‐marine environment during the early Phanerozoic: the ichnofaunal record

Colonization of the deep‐marine environment during the early Phanerozoic: the ichnofaunal record

A Combined Trace- And Body-Fossil Approach Reveals High-Resolution Record of Oxygen Fluctuations in Devonian Seas

Trace fossils from Talchir carbonate concretions, Giridih basin, Jharkhand

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