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Sublethal injury and shell repair in Upper Mississippian ammonoids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Paul N. Bond
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010
W. Bruce Saunders
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010

Abstract

Sublethal injuries recorded in the shells of five Upper Mississippian ammonoid species from the Imo Formation of northwest Arkansas are manifested as repaired shell breaks, which can be categorized as minor, moderate, massive, deep-acute, or as perforations. Overall, 15% of the ammonoids exhibit some form of repaired break. The injuries are distributed as follows: Anthracoceras discus 9%; Fayettevillea bransoni 13%; Fayettevillea friscoense 21%; Rhadinites miseri 24%; Richardsonites mapesi 38%. These figures are substantially lower than in living Nautilus, in which more than one-half of adult specimens exhibit repaired shell breaks. The different frequencies of injuries may reflect species-selective predation, differential abilities to sustain and to repair shell damage, or they may be due to interspecific differences in physical parameters such as shell thickness and body chamber length. The most likely possible perpetrators of the injuries include sharks, other fishes, and cephalopods.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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