Paleobiodiversity and community structures of Lagerstätten during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age and the response of the marine benthic invertebrate fauna to global cooling
Final Report Abstract
We aimed to study Lagerstätten and outcrops with abundant and well-preserved fossils from the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) in order to evaluate diversity patterns und faunal turnover throughout this remarkable phase of global climate change. Basis was the collection of own samples and the taxonomic identification of the fauna to add and combine their date with published records. Because of the unexpected lack of suitable publications and PBDB-input on Lagerstätten and sites with well-preserved fauna exclusively, such study could not be carried out and the project had to be modified and was therefore extended to an analysis of global and general patterns in paleo-biodiversity and turnover rates during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Thus, LPIA data from the PBDB in combination with own datasets were integrated into a comprehensive study. Analyses of the faunal changes during the LPIA showed, and supported earlier results, that diversity and turnover rates during the LPIA were low and decline started with the onset of the LPIA. The study also demonstrated that environmental factors play a minor role in the Carboniferous where the individual factors show similar trends. In the Permian their influence increases and more fluctuation in their specific rates occurs. Affinities of gastropods, bivalves, and brachiopods towards environmental factors were evaluated separately. Bivalves favor siliciclastics over carbonates, but all three groups tend to be more common in non-reefal and shallow marine settings. The pronounced increase of brachiopod-diversity in the Permian is a true signal which is accentuated by the data entry, which we call “Clapham-effect”. A similar rise of bivalves and gastropods cannot be excluded, but to estimate this, more information on these taxa needs to be entered into the PBDB respectively the dataset. The Virgilian Finis Shale (TX, USA) was sampled, while the data on the Desmoinesian Buckhorn Asphalt Quarry (OK, USA) derive from a previous study. The BAQ was characterized as Lagerstätte earlier by the applicant, but the Finis Shale now is also announced to represent a newly described type of Lagerstätte (liberation lagerstätte). From both sites numerous new genera and species were described so far (>15) which clearly demonstrates the importance of such kind of deposits (i.e., Lagerstätten) for taxonomy and thus, faunal diversity and statistical analyses.
Publications
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2016. Bryozoan fauna of the Boggy Formation (Deese Group, Pennsylvanian) of the Buckhorn Asphalt Quarry, Oklahoma, USA. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 96: 517-540
Ernst A, Seuss B, Taylor PD, Nützel A
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2017. The fish assemblage from the Pennsylvanian Buckhorn Asphalt Quarry Lagerstätte (Oklahoma, USA). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 91: 565-576
Ivanov AO, Seuss B, Nützel A
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2018. Desmoinesian (Middle Pennsylvanian) orthocerid cephalopods from the Buckhorn Asphalt Lagerstätte in Oklahoma, Midcontinent North America. Paleontological Research 22: 20-36
Niko S, Seuss B, Mapes RH
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2018. The Unitary Association method in biochronology and its potential stratigraphic power between benthic and planktonic organisms: A case study of foraminifers from Paleocene-Eocene strata of southern Egypt. Geobios 51: 259-268
Abdelhady AA, Seuss B, El-Dawy MH, Obaidalla NA, Mahfouz KH, Wahed SAA
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2019. Bioerosion in fossil cephalopods: a case study from the Upper Carboniferous Buckhorn Asphalt Quarry Lagerstätte, Oklahoma, USA. Facies 65: 7pp.
Seuss B, Nützel A
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2019. Stratigraphic ranking of selected invertebrate fossils: As quantitative approach at different temporal and geographic scales. Palaeontologia Electronica 22.2.51A: 1-17
Abdelhady AA, Seuss B, Hassan HF
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2020: Fossil liberation: a model to explain high biodiversity in the Triassic Cassian Formation. Palaeontology 1: 1-18
Roden VJ, Hausmann IM, Nützel A, Seuss B, Reich M, Urlichs M, Hagdorn H, Kiessling W
