Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:20:41.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Aminochronology and time averaging of Quaternary land snail assemblages from colluvial deposits in the Madeira Archipelago, Portugal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2019

Evan New Open the ORCID record for Evan New [Opens in a new window] ,
Yurena Yanes ,
Robert A.D. Cameron ,
Joshua H. Miller ,
Dinarte Teixeira  and
Darrell S. Kaufman
Evan New*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
Yurena Yanes
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
Robert A.D. Cameron
Affiliation:
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
Joshua H. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
Dinarte Teixeira
Affiliation:
Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation, IP-RAM, Madeira Government, Madeira 9000-715, Portugal LIBRe—Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki 00014, Finland
Darrell S. Kaufman
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geology, 500 Geology Physics Building, 345 Clifton Court, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (E. New).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Understanding the properties of time averaging (age mixing) in a stratigraphic layer is essential for properly interpreting the paleofauna preserved in the geologic record. This work assesses the age and quantifies the scale and structure of time averaging of land snail-rich colluvial sediments from the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal) by dating individual shells using amino acid racemization calibrated with graphite-target and carbonate-target accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon methods. Gastropod shells of Actinella nitidiuscula were collected from seven sites on the volcanic islands of Bugio and Deserta Grande (Desertas Islands), where snail shells are abundant and well preserved in Quaternary colluvial deposits. Results show that the shells ranged in age from modern to ~48 cal ka BP (calibrated radiocarbon age), covering the last glacial and present interglacial periods. Snail shells retrieved from two of the colluvial sites exhibit multimillennial age mixing (>6 ka), which significantly exceeds the analytical error from dating methods and calibration. The observed multimillennial mixing of these assemblages should be taking into consideration in upcoming paleoenvironmental and paleoecological studies in the region. The extent of age mixing may also inform about the time span of colluvial deposition, which can be useful in future geomorphological studies. In addition, this study presents the first carbonate-target radiocarbon results for land snail shells and suggests that this novel, rapid, and more affordable dating method offers reliable age estimates for small land snail shells younger than ~20 cal ka BP.

Keywords

Age mixingAmino acid racemizationCarbonate-target 14C datingLand snailsQuaternaryDesertas Islands
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , September 2019 , pp. 483 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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

REFERENCES

Abreu, C., Teixeira, D., 2008. List of molluscs (Mollusca). In: Borges, P.A.V., Abreu, C., Aguiar, A.M.F., Carvalho, P., Jardim, R., Melo, I., Oliveira, P., Sérgio, C., Serrano, A.R.M., Vieira, P. (Eds.), A List of the Terrestrial Fungi, Flora and Fauna of Madeira and Selvagens Archipelagos. Direcção Regional do Ambiente da Madeira and Universidade dos Açores, Funchal and Angra do Heroísmo, pp. 237–244.Google Scholar
Albano, P.G., 2014. Comparison between death and living land mollusk assemblages in six forested habitats in Northern Italy. Palaios 29, 338–347.Google Scholar
Albano, P.G., Filippova, N., Steger, J., Kaufman, D.S., Tomašových, A., Stachowitsch, M., Zuschin, M., 2016. Oil platforms in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf: living and death assemblages reveal no effects. Continental Shelf Research 120, 21–34.Google Scholar
Albano, P.G., Gallmetzer, I., Haselmair, A., Tomašových, A., Stachowitsch, M., Zuschin, M.,, 2018. Historical ecology of a biological invasion: the interplay of eutrophication and pollution determines time lags in establishment and detection. Biological Invasions 20, 1417–1430.Google Scholar
Barbour Wood, S.L., Krause, R.A., Kowalewski, M., Wehmiller, J., Simões, M.G., 2006. Aspartic acid racemization dating of Holocene brachiopods and bivalves from the southern Brazilian shelf, South Atlantic. Quaternary Research 66, 323–331.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., Baird, G.C., 1986. Comparative taphonomy: a key to paleoenvironmental interpretation based on fossil preservation. Palaios 1, 207–227.Google Scholar
Briner, J.P., Kaufman, D.S., Bennike, O., Kosnik, M.A., 2014. Amino acid ratios in reworked marine bivalve shells constrain Greenland Ice Sheet history during the Holocene. Geology 42, 75–78.Google Scholar
Bush, A.M., Powell, M.G., Arnold, W.S., Bert, T.M., Daley, G.M., 2002. Time-averaging, evolution, and morphologic variation. Paleobiology 28, 9–25.Google Scholar
Bush, S.L., Santos, G.M., Xu, X., Southon, J.R., Thiagarajan, N., Hines, S.K., Adkins, J.F., 2013. Simple, rapid, and cost effective: a screening method for analysis of small carbonate samples. Radiocarbon 55, 631–640.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.A.D., Cook, L.M., 1989. Shell size and shape in Madeiran land snails: do niches remain unfulfilled? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 36, 79–96.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.A.D., Cook, L.M., 1992. The development of diversity in the land snail fauna of the Madeiran archipelago. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 46, 105–114.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.A.D., Cook, L.M., 1999. Land snail faunas of the Deserta Islands, Madeiran archipelago, past and present. Journal of Conchology 36, 1–15.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.A.D., Cook, L.M., Goodfriend, G.A., Seddon, M.B., 2006. Fossil land snail faunas of Porto Santo, Madeiran Archipelago: change and stasis in Pleistocene to recent times. Malacologia 49, 25–59.Google Scholar
Carroll, M., Kowalewski, M., Simoes, M.G., Goodfriend, G.A., 2003. Quantitative estimates of time-averaging in terebratulid brachiopod shell accumulations from a modern tropical shelf. Paleobiology 29, 381–402.Google Scholar
Cook, L.M., 1996. Habitat, isolation and the evolution of Madeiran landsnails. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 59, 457–470.Google Scholar
Cook, L.M., 2008. Species richness in Madeiran land snails, and its causes. Journal of Biogeography 35, 647–653.Google Scholar
Cook, L.M., Cameron, R.A.D., Lace, L.A., 1990. Land snails of eastern Madeira: speciation, persistence and colonization. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 239, 35–79.Google Scholar
Dexter, T.A., Kaufman, D.S., Krause, R.A., Barbour, S.L., Simões, M.G., Warren, J., Yanes, Y., Romanek, C.S., Kowalewski, M., 2014. A continuous multi-millennial record of surficial bivalve mollusk shells from the São Paulo Bight , Brazilian shelf. Quaternary Research 81, 274–283.Google Scholar
Dominguez, J.G., Kosnik, M.A., Allen, A.P., Hua, Q., Jacob, D.E., Kaufman, D.S., Whitacre, K., 2016. Time-averaging and stratigraphic resolution in death assemblages and Holocene deposits: Sydney Harbour's molluscan record. Society for Sedimentary Geology 31, 563–574.Google Scholar
Edinger, E.N., Burr, G.S., Pandolfi, J.M., Ortiz, J.C., 2007. Age accuracy and resolution of Quaternary corals used as proxies for sea level. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 253, 37–49.Google Scholar
Ellis, G.L., Goodfriend, G.A., Abbott, J.T., Hare, P.E., von Endt, D.W., 1996. Assessment of integrity and geochronology of archaeological sites using amino acid racemization in land snail shells: examples from central Texas. Geoarchaeology 11, 189–213.Google Scholar
Flessa, K.W., Cutler, A.H., Meldahl, K.H., 1993. Time and taphonomy: quantitative estimates of time-averaging and stratigraphic disorder in a shallow marine habitat. Paleontological Society 19, 266–286.Google Scholar
Geldmacher, J., van den Bogaard, P., Hoernle, K., Schmincke, H.-U., 2000. The 40Ar/39Ar age dating of the Madeira Archipelago and hotspot track (eastern North Atlantic). Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 1, 1–26.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., 1989. Complementary use of amino-acid epimerization and radiocarbon analysis for dating of mixed-age fossil assemblages. Radiocarbon 31, 1041–1047.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., 1991. Patterns of racemization and epimerization of amino acids in land snail shells over the course of the Holocene. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 293–302.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., 1992. Rapid racemization of aspartic acid in mollusc shells and potential for dating over recent centuries. Nature 357, 399–401.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., Cameron, R.A.D., Cook, L.M., Courty, M., Fedoroff, N., Livett, E., Tallis, J., 1996. The Quaternary eolian sequence of Madeira: stratigraphy, chronology, and paleoenvironmental interpretation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 120, 195–23Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., Meyer, V.R., 1991. A comparative-study of the kinetics of amino-acid racemization epimerization in fossil and modern mollusk shells. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 3355–3367.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A., Mitterer, R.M., 1993. A 45,000-yr record of a tropical lowland biota: the land snail fauna from cave sediments at Coco Ree, Jamaica. Geological Society of America Bulletin 105, 18–29.Google Scholar
Goodwin, D.H., Flessa, K.W., Téllez-Duarte, M.A., Dettman, D.L., Schöne, B.R., Avila-Serrano, G.A., 2004. Detecting time-averaging and spatial mixing using oxygen isotope variation: a case study. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 205, 1–21.Google Scholar
Grothe, P.R., Cobb, K.M., Bush, S.L., Cheng, H., Santos, G.M., Southon, J.R., Edwards, R.L., Deocampo, D.M., Sayani, H.R., 2016. A comparison of U/Th and rapid-screen 14C dates from Line Island fossil corals. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 17, 833–845.Google Scholar
Hadly, E.A., 1999. Fidelity of terrestrial vertebrate fossils to a modern ecosystem. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 149, 389–409.Google Scholar
Hare, P.E., Hoering, T.C., King, K. Jr. (Eds.) 1980. Biogeochemistry of Amino Acids: Papers Presented at a Conference at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia, October 29 to November 1, 1978. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Hearty, P.J., Kaufman, D.S., 2009. A Cerion-based chronostratigraphy and age model from the central Bahama Islands: amino acid racemization and 14C in land snails and sediments. Quaternary Geochronology 4, 148–159.Google Scholar
Hill, E.A., Reimer, P.J., Hunt, C.O., Prendergast, A.L., Barker, G.W., 2017. Radiocarbon ecology of the land snail Helix melanostoma in northeastern Libya. Radiocarbon 59, 1–22.Google Scholar
Hines, S.K.V, Southon, J.R., Adkins, J.F., 2015. A high-resolution record of Southern Ocean intermediate water radiocarbon over the past 30,000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 432, 46–58.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D.S., Manley, W.F., 1998. A new procedure for determining DL amino acid ratios in fossils using reverse phase liquid chromatography. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, 987–1000.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S.M., 1998. Time-averaging in the marine fossil record: overview of strategies and uncertainties. Geobios 30, 977–995.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S.M., Best, M.M.R., Kaufman, D.S., 2005. Taphonomic trade-offs in tropical marine death assemblages: differential time averaging, shell loss, and probable bias in siliciclastic vs. carbonate facies. Geology 33, 729–732.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S.M., Bosence, D.W.J., 1991. Taphonomy and time-averaging of marine shelly faunas. In: Allison, P.A., Briggs, D.E.G. (Eds.), Taphonomy: Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record. Plenum, New York, pp. 115–209.Google Scholar
Kosnik, M.A., Hua, Q., Kaufman, D.S., Kowalewski, M., Whitacre, K., 2017. Radiocarbon-calibrated amino acid racemization ages from Holocene sand dollars (Peronella peronii). Quaternary Geochronology 39, 174–188.Google Scholar
Kosnik, M.A., Hua, Q., Kaufman, D.S., Wüst, R.A., 2009. Taphonomic bias and time-averaging in tropical molluscan death assemblages: differential shell half-lives in Great Barrier Reef sediment. Paleobiology 35, 565–586.Google Scholar
Kosnik, M.A., Kaufman, D.S., Hua, Q., 2008. Identifying outliers and assessing the accuracy of amino acid racemization measurements for geochronology: I. Age calibration curves. Quaternary Geochronology 3, 308–327.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, M., 1996. Time-averaging, overcompleteness, and the geological record. Journal of Geology 104, 317–326.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, M., Bambach, R.K., 2008. The limits of paleontological resolution. In: Harries, P.J. (Ed.), High-Resolution Approaches in Stratigraphic Paleontology. Springer, New York, pp. 1–48.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, M., Casebolt, S., Hua, Q., Whitacre, K.E., Kaufman, D.S., Kosnik, M.A., 2018. One fossil record, multiple time resolutions: disparate time-averaging of echinoids and mollusks on a Holocene carbonate platform. Geology 46, 51–54.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, M., Goodfriend, G.A., Flessa, K.W., 1998. High-resolution estimates of temporal mixing within shell beds: the evils and virtues of time-averaging. Paleontological Society 24, 287–304.Google Scholar
Krause, R.A., Barbour, S.L., Kowalewski, M., Kaufman, D.S., Romanek, C.S., Simoes, M.G., Wehmiller, J.F., 2010. Quantitative comparisons and models of time-averaging in bivalve and brachiopod shell accumulations. Paleobiology 36, 428–452.Google Scholar
Kwaad, F.J.P., Mucher, H., 1979. The formation and evolution of colluvium on arable land in northern Luxembourg. Geoderma 22, 173–192.Google Scholar
Lang, A., Hönscheidt, S., 1999. Age and source of colluvial sediments at Vaihingen-Enz, Germany. Catena 38, 89–107.Google Scholar
Leopold, M., Völkel, J., 2007. Colluvium: definition, differentiation, and possible suitability for reconstructing Holocene climate data. Quaternary International 162–163, 133–140.Google Scholar
Meldahl, K.H., Flessa, K.W., Cutler, A.H., 1997. Time-averaging and postmortem skeletal survival in benthic fossil assemblages: quantitative comparisons among holocene environments. Paleobiology 23, 207–229.Google Scholar
Michelson, A.V., Park, L.E., 2013. Taphonomic dynamics of lacustrine ostracodes on San Salvador Island, Bahamas: high fidelity and evidence of anthropogenic modification. Palaios 28, 129–135.Google Scholar
Miller, G.H., Brigham-Grette, J., 1989. Amino acid geochronology: resolution and precision in carbonate fossils. Quaternary International 1, 111–128.Google Scholar
Olszewski, T.D., 2004. Modeling the influence of taphonomic destruction, reworking, and burial on time-averaging in fossil accumulations. Palaios 19, 39–50.Google Scholar
Pigati, J.S., Quade, J., Shahanan, T.M., Haynes, C.V. Jr., 2004. Radiocarbon dating of minute gastropods and new constraints on the timing of late Quaternary spring-discharge deposits in southern Arizona, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 204, 33–45.Google Scholar
Pigati, J.S., Rech, J.A., Nekola, J.C., 2010. Radiocarbon dating of small terrestrial gastropod shells in North America. Quaternary Geochronology 5:519–32.Google Scholar
Prada, S., Serralheiro, A., 2000. Stratigraphy and Evolutionary Model of Madeira Island. Bocagiana/Museu Municipal do Funchal 200. Museu Municipal do Funchal (História Natural, Madeira, 13 p.Google Scholar
Quarta, G., Romaniello, L., D'Elia, M., Mastronuzzi, G., Calcagnile, L., 2007. Radiocarbon age anomalies in pre- and post-bomb land snails from the coastal Mediterranean basin. Radiocarbon 49, 817–26.Google Scholar
R Core Team, 2017. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org, accessed 5/10/2018.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., et al. , 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869–1887.Google Scholar
Ritter, M., Erthal, F., Kosnik, M.A., Coimbra, J.C., Kaufman, D.S., 2017. Spatial variation in the temporal resolution of subtropical shallow-water molluscan death assemblages. Palaios 32, 572–583.Google Scholar
Santos, F.D., Valente, M.A., Miranda, P.M.A, Aguiar, A., Azevedo, E.B., Tome, A.R., Coelho, F., 2004. Climate change scenarios in the Azores and Madeira islands. World Resource Review 16, 473–491.Google Scholar
Schnedl, S.-M., Haselmair, A., Gallmetzer, I., Mautner, A.-K., Tomašových, A., Zuschin, M., 2018. Molluscan benthic communities at Brijuni Islands (northern Adriatic Sea) shaped by Holocene sea-level rise and recent human eutrophication and pollution. The Holocene 28, 1801–1817.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program, Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Terry, R.C., 2009. The dead do not lie: using skeletal remains for rapid assessment of historical small-mammal community baselines. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 277, 1193–1201.Google Scholar
Terry, R.C., 2010. On raptors and rodents: testing the ecological fidelity and spatiotemporal resolution of cave death assemblages. Paleobiology 36, 137–160.Google Scholar
Terry, R.C., Novak, M., 2015. Where does the time go? Mixing and the depth-dependent distribution of fossil ages. Geology 43, 487–490.Google Scholar
Tomašových, A., Kidwell, S.M., Barber, R.F., Kaufman, D.S., 2014. Long-term accumulation of carbonate shells reflects a 100-fold drop in loss rate. Geology 42, 819–822.Google Scholar
Vidović, J., Nawrot, R., Gallmetzer, I., Haselmair, A., Tomašových, A., Stachowitsch, M., Ćosović, V., Zuschin, M., 2016. Anthropogenically induced environmental changes in the northeastern Adriatic Sea in the last 500 years (Panzano Bay, Gulf of Trieste). Biogeosciences 13, 5965–5981.Google Scholar
Waldén, H.W., 1983. Systematic and biogeographical studies of the terrestrial Gastropoda of Madeira. With an annotated Check-list. Annales Zoologici Fennici 20, 255–275.Google Scholar
Wehmiller, J.F., Miller, G.H., 2000. Aminostratigraphy dating method in Quaternary geology. Quaternary Geochronology: Methods and Applications 4, 187–222.Google Scholar
Williams, G.E., Polach, H.A., 1971. Radiocarbon dating of arid-zone calcareous paleosols. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 82, 3069–3086.Google Scholar
Wollaston, T.V., 1878. Testacea Atlantica 9, 588.Google Scholar
Yanes, Y., 2012. Shell taphonomy and fidelity of live, dead, Holocene and Pleistocene land snail assemblages. Palaios 27, 127–136.Google Scholar
Yanes, Y., Aguirre, J., Alonso, M.R., Ibáñez, M., Delgado, A., 2011. Ecological fidelity of Pleistocene–Holocene land snail shell assemblages preserved in carbonate-rich paleosols. Palaios 26, 406–419.Google Scholar
Yanes, Y., Al-Qattan, N., Rech, J.A., Pigati, J.S., Dodd, J.D., Nekola, J.N., 2019. Overview of the oxygen isotope systematics of land snails from North America. Quaternary Research 91, 329–344.Google Scholar
Yanes, Y., Kowalewski, M., Ortiz, J.E., Castillo, C., de Torres, T., de la Nuez, J., 2007. Scale and structure of time-averaging (age mixing) in terrestrial gastropod assemblages from Quaternary eolian deposits of the eastern Canary Islands. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 251, 283–299.Google Scholar