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Biodiversity of Shallow-Water Red Sea Echinoids: Implications For the Fossil Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

James H. Nebelsick
James H. Nebelsick
Affiliation:
Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, University of Tübingen, SigwartstraBe 10, D-72076, Germany
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Extract

Determination of fossil echinoid diversities is an important aspect of detailed palaeon- tological studies. The comparison of recent and fossil associations can be used to elucidate the problems of determination of fossil echinoid distributions. Actuopalaeontological studies of echinoids from the Red Sea (northern Bay of Safaga, Egypt) have shown that the study of fragments within bulk sediment samples greatly increased the possibilities for determining echinoid presence and distribution. The results show the restricted distribution as well as the differential preservation potential of the various echinoids.

The distribution of echinoids is primarily controlled by grain size, food availability, exposure to current activity, and predation pressure. Regular and irregular sea-urchins show the expected disjunct distributions with the former showing a more undifferentiated distribution to various hard substrates. Irregular echinoids are tightly restricted to particular types of soft substrates reflecting their adaptation to the specific grain size of the sediments. Co-occurring irregular sea-urchins show a spatial differentiation into shallow (clypeasteroids) and deeper burrowers (spatangoids). This investigation shows that important echinoid species known to occur in the Red Sea are lacking or are very rare within the study area, although a large number of different facies types are present. Patchy distributions are present for both regular and irregular sea-urchins. The determination of biodiversity is therefore seen to be largely dependent on the scale of investigation.

An important implication for fossil echinoid presence are the differential effects of taphonomic agents on the various test architectures. Some species are well represented due to their common occurrences, and their comparatively robust tests or test fragments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 185 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1996

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