Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T00:26:18.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Eocene echinoids, the Suwannee Strait, and biogeographic taphonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Burchard D. Carter
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Physics, Georgia Southwestern College, Americus, Georgia 31709-4693
Michael L. McKinney
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1410

Abstract

Faunal similarity among regions is often used as a means of identifying regions of endemism in fossil faunas. At least two large-scale taphonomic effects can affect apparent faunal similarity: stratigraphic and facies mismatching. In stratigraphic mismatching, an unconformity represents removal of most or all of a complete assemblage zone in one region, and the constituent taxa are mistakenly interpreted as having never inhabited that region. In facies mismatching, environmental differences between two regions (possibly unrecognized) cause the inference of a barrier that never existed. The two types of mismatching can work in concert if a facies was originally represented in a single stratigraphic interval that has been completely removed from one region. Analysis of faunal similarity via multivariate analysis of individual localities, coupled with comparison of the regions as single samples, may indicate mismatching if the results differ significantly.

We view these two problems as part of a suite of taphonomic effects that are not evident in paleobiological analyses of smaller geographic scope. First, there is ambiguity in the notion of “barrier,” even when a candidate is obvious. Second, barriers in paleobiogeography are often hidden and must be inferred from their effects rather than observed. Third, stratigraphic and facies mismatching produce effects on regional faunas similar to those produced by barriers. Anyone using barriers to explain faunal disruptions should address these three points.

Upper Eocene faunas of central Florida seem taxonomically distinct from those of the remainder of the Gulf Coastal Plain. This has historically been attributed to a known paleogeographic feature, the Suwannee Strait, which acts as a barrier. The amount of dissimilarity of the echinoid faunas is greater than the amount predicted as a result of sampling problems. Comparison of the results of multivariate and whole-region analyses suggests that mismatching of the two faunas, rather than a true barrier, causes the distinction. Principally facies, but also strata are mismatched. Early Late Eocene faunas inhabited terrigenous sands to the north of the strait and carbonate sands to the south and show the highest distinctiveness. Middle Late Eocene faunas inhabited primarily carbonate sands to the south and both carbonate sands and muds to the north. Overall similarity is higher for both local and regional analyses, and the faunas of northern sands are more similar to those of the southern region than to the northern mud faunas. Overall similarity across the strait is highest in the late Late Eocene strata when both regions had carbonate mud and sand facies. The faunas exhibit greater similarity within facies than they do within regions. Upper Late Eocene strata are poorly preserved north of the strait because of post-Eocene erosion.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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

Literature Cited

Adams, C. G. 1973. Some tertiary foramaminifera. Pp. 453468in Hallam, A., ed. Atlas of paleobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Allmon, W. D. 1989. Paleontological completeness of the record of lower Tertiary mollusks, U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains. Historical Biology 3:141158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anders, M. H., Krueger, S. W., and Sadler, P. M. 1987. A new look at sedimentation rates and the completeness of the stratigraphic record. Journal of Geology 95:114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Applin, P. L., and Applin, E. R. 1944. Regional subsurface stratigraphy and structure of Florida and southern Georgia. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 28:16731753.Google Scholar
Archer, A. W., and Maples, C. G. 1987. Monte Carlo simulation of selected binomial similarity coefficients (I): effect of number of variables. Palaios 2:609617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aurora, R., ed. 1984. Hydrogeologic evaluation for underground injection control in the Coastal Plain of Georgia. Georgia Geologic Survey Hydrologic Atlas 10.Google Scholar
Carter, B. D. 1987a. Megataphonomy of biogeographic boundaries. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 19:613.Google Scholar
Carter, B. D. 1987b. Paleogene echinoid distributions in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. Palaios 2:390404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, B. D. 1989. Echinoid biofacies and lithofacies distributions in the upper Eocene of the Dougherty Plain, southwestern Georgia. Southeastern Geology 30:175191.Google Scholar
Carter, B. D. 1990. Late Eocene echinoid biofacies of Florida. Palaios 5:176183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, B. D., and Hammack, R. E. 1989. Stratigraphic distribution of late Eocene (Priabonian, Jacksonian) echinoids in Georgia: suggested correlations with Florida and the Carolinas. Palaios 4:8691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, B. D., Beisel, T. H., Branch, W. B., and Mashburn, C. M. 1989. Substrate preferences of late Eocene (Priabonian, Jacksonian) echinoids of the eastern Gulf Coast. Journal of Paleontology 63:495503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheetham, A. H. 1963. Late Eocene zoogeography of the eastern Gulf coast. Geological Society of America Memoir 91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C. S. 1965. The regional lithostratigraphic analysis of Paleocene and Eocene rocks of Florida. Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 45.Google Scholar
Cooke, C. W. 1941. Cenozoic regular echinoids of eastern United States. Journal of Paleontology 15:120.Google Scholar
Cooke, C. W. 1942. Cenozoic irregular echinoids of eastern United States. Journal of Paleontology 16:162.Google Scholar
Cooke, C. W. 1959. Cenozoic echinoids of eastern United States. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, A., ed. 1973. Atlas of paleobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Herrick, S. M., and Vorhis, R. C. 1963. Subsurface geology of the Coastal Plain of Georgia. Georgia Geological Survey Information Circular 25.Google Scholar
Hetrick, J. H., Kellam, M. F., Rodenbeck, S. A., and Huddlestun, P. F. 1986. Geologic data of the Gulf Trough area, Georgia. Georgia Geological Survey Information Circular 56.Google Scholar
Hottinger, L. 1973. Selected Paleogene larger Foraminifera. Pp. 443452in Hallam, A., ed. Atlas of paleobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Huddlestun, P. F., and Hetrick, J. H. 1986. Upper Eocene stratigraphy of central and eastern Georgia. Georgia Geological Survey Bulletin 95.Google Scholar
Huddlestun, P. F., Hunter, M. E., and Carter, B. D. 1988. The Suwannee Strait as a faunal province boundary. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 20(4):271.Google Scholar
Hull, J.P.D. 1962. Cretaceous Suwannee Strait, Georgia and Florida. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 46:118122.Google Scholar
Hunter, M. E. 1976. Biostratigraphy. Pp. 6687in Hunter, M. E., ed. Tertiary carbonates, Citrus, Levy, Marion counties, west-central Florida. Guidebook 18. Southeastern Geological Society, Tallahassee, Fla.Google Scholar
Kier, P. M., and Grant, R. E. 1965. Echinoid distribution and habits, Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve, Florida. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 149:6.Google Scholar
Koch, C. F. 1987. Prediction of sample size effects on the measured temporal and geographic distribution patterns of species. Paleobiology 13:100107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manker, J. P., and Carter, B. D. 1987. Paleoecology and paleogeography of an extensive rhodolith facies from the lower Oligocene of south Georgia and north Florida. Palaios 2:181188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maples, C. G., and Archer, A. W. 1988. Monte Carlo simulation of selected binomial similarity coefficients (II): effect of sparse data. Palaios 3:95103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna, M. C. 1973. Sweepstakes, filters, corridors, Noah's arks, and beached Viking funeral ships in palaeogeography. Pp. 295308in Tarling, D. H. and Runcorn, S. K., eds. Implications of continental drift to the earth sciences, vol. 1. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L. 1984a. Suwannee Channel of the Paleogene Coastal Plain: support for the “carbonate suppression” model of basin formation. Geology 12:343345.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinney, M. L. 1984b. Allometry and heterochrony in an Eocene echinoid lineage: morphological change as a by-product of size selection. Paleobiology 10:407419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinney, M. L. 1984c. The Cenozoic stratigraphic record of peninsular Florida: how complete is it? Florida Scientist 47:3543.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L., and Jones, D. S. 1983. Oligopygoid echinoids and the biostratigraphy of the Ocala Limestone of peninsular Florida. Southeastern Geology 23:2129.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L., and Zachos, L. G. 1987. Echinoids in biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental reconstruction: a cluster analysis from the Eocene Gulf Coast (Ocala Limestone). Palaios 2:420423.Google Scholar
Menzel, R. W. 1956. Annotated checklist of the marine fauna and flora of the St. Georges Sound-Appalachee Bay region, Florida gulf coast. Florida State University Oceanographic Institute Contributions 61.Google Scholar
Moore, W. E. 1955. Geology of Jackson County, Florida. Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 37.Google Scholar
Nelson, G., and Rosen, D. E. 1981. Vicariance biogeography: a critique. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pinet, P. R., and Popenoe, P. 1985. Shallow seismic stratigraphy and post-Albian geologic history of the northern and central Blake Plateau. Geological Society of America Bulletin 96:627638.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, H. G., and Palmer, K.V.W. 1953. Eocene mollusks from Citrus and Levy Counties, Florida. Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 35.Google Scholar
Romer, A. S. 1952. Discussion of “The Mesozoic tetrapods of South America.” American Museum of Natural History Bulletin 99:250254.Google Scholar
Sadler, P. M., and Strauss, D. 1990. Estimation of completeness of stratigraphical sections using empirical data and theoretical models. Journal of the Geological Society of London 147:471485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindel, D. E. 1980. Microstratigraphic sampling and the limits of paleontologic resolution. Paleobiology 6:408426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuchert, C. 1929. The making of paleogeographic maps. Leopoldiana 4:116125.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1940. Mammals and land bridges. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 30:137163.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1953. Evolution and geography. Oregon State System of Higher Education, Salem.Google Scholar
Sneath, P.H.A., and Sokal, R. R. 1973. Numerical taxonomy. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1979. Macroevolution. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Toulmin, L. D. 1977. Stratigraphic distribution of Paleocene and Eocene fossils in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Alabama Geological Survey Monograph 13.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1973. Evolutionary paleoecology of the marine biosphere. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.Google Scholar
Walker, K. R., Shanmugam, G., and Rupel, S. C. 1983. A model for carbonate to terrigenous clastic sequences. Geological Society of America Bulletin 94:700712.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. B. 1964. Patterns in the balance of nature. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Zachos, L. G., and Shaak, G. D. 1978. Stratigraphic significance of the Tertiary echinoid Eupatagus ingens Zachos. Journal of Paleontology 52:921927.Google Scholar