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Function and shape in late Paleozoic (mid-Carboniferous) ammonoids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Andrew R. H. Swan  and
W. Bruce Saunders
Andrew R. H. Swan
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University College of Swansea
W. Bruce Saunders
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010
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Abstract

Analysis of an exhaustive data base of Namurian ammonoid shell characters indicates that the morphology of the Goniatitida can be explained in terms of functional constraints, resulting particularly from hydrostatic and hydrodynamic properties. Modes of life ranging from benthic to pelagic are inferred on this basis for various goniatitid morphotypes; all morphologic features and facies associations are normally compatible with these inferences. Neutral buoyancy is shown to have been likely for all goniatitids. By contrast, the prolecanitids (Order Agoniatitida) exhibit a number of hydrostatic and morphologic anomalies; these anomalies are not explicable using the same principles and remain problematic. This is noteworthy, in that prolecanitids survived the Permian/Triassic extinctions and gave rise to the diverse ceratitic radiation in the Triassic.

The applicability of these results to ammonoids outside the Namurian is assessed, and, in particular, morphologic parallels with Mesozoic ammonites are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , Summer 1987 , pp. 297 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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