Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T03:56:02.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quantitative analysis of epizoans on Silurian stromatoporoids within the Brassfield Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Joseph G. Lebold
Joseph G. Lebold*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stromatoporoids from the Brassfield Formation (Early Silurian, Llandovery) near Fairborn, Ohio, provided substrata for a diverse epizoic community. The stromatoporoids were colonized by at least 28 taxa, including bryozoans, cnidarians, echinoderms, annelids, and endolithic organisms. Analysis of the occurrence, diversity, distribution, and coverage of the epizoans recognized patterns of site-selective attachment on the surface of the stromatoporoids.

The upper surface of the stromatoporoids had a slightly higher total epizoan coverage than the lower surface. Concentric zones outlined from the margin also had differences in area and percent coverage. On the upper and lower surfaces, epizoan occurrence decreased from the margin to the interior. Epizoan coverage for the lower surface also decreased inward. On the upper surface, the middle zone had the highest coverage followed by the outer and polar zones, respectively. Among the major invertebrate phyla, only the echinoderms were randomly distributed. Bryozoans, cnidarians, and miscellaneous taxa including borers, cornulitids, and spirorbids were distributed nonrandomly on the surface of the stromatoporoids.

Over 95 percent of the stromatoporoid area analyzed is not covered by epizoans. However, epizoans are commonly clumped or in direct contact with one another. These physical interactions are the result of site-selective attachment by epizoans in close proximity rather than competition for available space.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , May 2000 , pp. 394 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, R. R., and Brett, C. E. 1990. Symposium on Paleozoic epibionts: Introduction. Historical Biology, 4:151–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, R. R., and Scharpf, C. D. 1990. Epizoans on Late Ordovician brachiopods from southeastern Indiana. Historical Biology, 4:179–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ausich, W. I. 1987. John Bryan State Park, Ohio: Silurian Stratigraphy, p. 419–422. In Biggs, D. L. (ed.), Geological Society Of America Centennial Field Guide—North-Central Section, 1987. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baird, G. C., Brett, C. E., and Frey, R. C. 1989. Hitchhiking epizoans on orthoconic cephalopods: preliminary review of the evidence and its implications. Senckenbergiana Lethaea, 69:439–465.Google Scholar
Baird, G. C., and Liddell, W. D. 1978. Preservation and paleoecology of a Middle Ordovician hardground community. Paleobiology, 4:329–348.Google Scholar
Bordeaux, Y. L., and Brett, C. E. 1990. Substrate specific associations of epibionts on Middle Devonian brachiopods: implications for paleoecology. Historical Biology, 4:221–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottjer, D. J., and Ausich, W. I. 1986. Phanerozoic development of tiering in soft substrata suspension feeding communities. Paleobiology, 12:400–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, C. E. 1988. Paleoecology and evolution of marine hard substrate communities: An overview. Palaios, 3:374–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grahn, Y., and Bergström, S. M. 1985. Chitinozoans from the Ordovician-Silurian boundary beds in the eastern Cincinnati region in Ohio and Kentucky. Ohio Journal of Science, 85:175–183.Google Scholar
Hoare, R. D., and Steller, D. L. 1967. A Devonian brachiopod with epifauna. Ohio Journal of Science, 67:291–297.Google Scholar
Hurst, J. M. 1974. Selective epizoan encrustation of some Silurian brachiopods from Gotland. Palaeontology, 17:423–429.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. B. C. 1977. Competition on marine hard substrata: The adaptive significance of solitary and colonial strategies. The American Naturalist, 111:743–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. B. C., and Winston, J. E. 1982. Ecology of cryptic coral reef communities. I. Distribution and abundance of major groups of encrusting organisms. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 57:135–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorgensen, C. B. 1966. Biology of Suspension Feeding. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 357 p.Google Scholar
Kershaw, S. 1980. Cavities and cryptic faunas beneath non-reef stromatoporoids. Lethaia, 13:327–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kershaw, S., and Riding, R. 1978. Parameterization of stromatoporoid shape. Lethaia, 11:233–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobluk, D. R. 1988. Cryptic faunas in reefs: ecology and geologic importance. Palaios, 3:379–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobluk, D. R., and James, N. P. 1979. Cavity-dwelling organisms in Lower Cambrian patch reefs from southern Labrador. Lethaia, 12:193–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaBarbera, M. 1984. Feeding currents and particle capture mechanisms in suspension feeding animals. American Zoology, 24:71–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laub, R. S. 1979. The corals of the Brassfield Formation (mid-Llandovery; Lower Silurian) in the Cincinnati Arch region. Bulletins of American Paleontology, 75(305):1–433.Google Scholar
Lescinsky, H. L. 1997. Epibiont communities: recruitment and competition on North American Carboniferous brachiopods. Journal of Paleontology, 71:34–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddell, W. D., and Brett, C. E. 1982. Skeletal overgrowths among epizoans from the Silurian (Wenlockian) Waldron Shale. Paleobiology, 8:67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinnney, F. K., and Jackson, J. B. C. 1989. Bryozoan evolution. Unwin Hyman, Boston, 238 p.Google Scholar
Morris, R. W., and Rollins, H. B. 1971. The distribution and paleoecological interpretation of Cornulites in the Waynesville Formation (Upper Ordovician) of southwestern Ohio. Ohio Journal of Science, 71:159–179.Google Scholar
Nield, E. W. 1984. The boring of Silurian stromatoporoids—towards an understanding of larval behavior in the Trypanites organism. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 48:229–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nield, E. W. 1986. Noncryptic encrustation and pre-burial fracturing in stromatoporoids from the Upper Visby Beds of Gotland, Sweden. Palaeogeography, Palaoeclimatology, Palaeoecology, 55:35–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, T. J., and Palmer, C. D. 1977. Faunal distribution and colonization strategy in a Middle Ordovician hardground community. Lethaia, 10:179–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powers, B. G., and Ausich, W. I. 1990. Epizoan associations in a Lower Mississippian paleocommunity (Bordon Group, Indiana, U.S.A.). Historical Biology, 4:245–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, R. P. 1974. Ecology of the Cornulitidae. Journal of Paleontology, 48:514–528.Google Scholar
Schumann, D. 1967. Die Lebenswiese von Mucrospirifer Grabau, 1931 (Brachiopoda). Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology, 3:381–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segars, M. T., and Liddell, W. D. 1988. Microhabitat analysis of Silurian stromatoporoids as substrata for epibionts. Palaios, 3:391–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaver, R. H. 1987. The Silurian reefs near Wabash, Indiana, p. 333–336. In Biggs, D. L. (ed.), Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—North-Central Section, 1987. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaver, R. H., Ault, C. H., Ausich, W. I., Droste, J. B., Horowitz, A. S., James, W. C., Okla, S. M., Rexroad, C. B., Suchomel, D. M., and Welch, J. R. 1977. The search for a Silurian reef model: Great Lakes area. Indiana Geological Survey Special Report, 15, 36 p.Google Scholar
Sheehy, T. J. 1981. Carbonate petrology of carbonate buildups in the Brassfield Formation near Fairborn, Ohio. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 13:316.Google Scholar
Sparks, D. K., Hoare, R. D., and Kesling, R. V. 1980. Epizoans on the brachiopod Paraspirifer bownockeri from the Middle Devonian of Ohio. University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology Papers on Paleontology, 23:1–105.Google Scholar
Spjeldnaes, N. 1975. Silurian bryozoans which grew in the shade. In Bryozoa 1974 Document Laboratoire Géologie Faculté Science Lyon, 3:415–424.Google Scholar
Vogel, S. 1981. Life in Moving Fluids. Willard Grant, Boston, 352 p.Google Scholar