After the discovery of whale fall communities in modern oceans, it has been hypothesized that during the Mesozoic the carcasses of marine reptiles created similar habitats supporting long-lived and specialized animal communities. Here, we report a fully documented ichthyosaur fall community, from a Late Jurassic shelf setting, and reconstruct the ecological succession of its micro- and macrofauna. The early ‘mobile-scavenger’ and ‘enrichment-opportunist’ stages were not succeeded by a ‘sulphophilic stage’ characterized by chemosynthetic molluscs, but instead the bones were colonized by microbial mats that attracted echinoids and other mat-grazing invertebrates. Abundant cemented suspension feeders indicate a well-developed ‘reef stage’ with prolonged exposure and colonization of the bones prior to final burial, unlike in modern whale falls where organisms such as the ubiquitous bone-eating worm Osedax rapidly destroy the skeleton. Shallow-water ichthyosaur falls thus fulfilled similar ecological roles to shallow whale falls, and did not support specialized chemosynthetic communities.
Ecological succession of a Jurassic shallow-water ichthyosaur fall / Danise, Silvia*; Twitchett, Richard J.; Matts, Katie. - In: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. - ISSN 2041-1723. - ELETTRONICO. - 5:(2014), pp. 4789-4789. [10.1038/ncomms5789]
Ecological succession of a Jurassic shallow-water ichthyosaur fall
Danise, Silvia;
2014
Abstract
After the discovery of whale fall communities in modern oceans, it has been hypothesized that during the Mesozoic the carcasses of marine reptiles created similar habitats supporting long-lived and specialized animal communities. Here, we report a fully documented ichthyosaur fall community, from a Late Jurassic shelf setting, and reconstruct the ecological succession of its micro- and macrofauna. The early ‘mobile-scavenger’ and ‘enrichment-opportunist’ stages were not succeeded by a ‘sulphophilic stage’ characterized by chemosynthetic molluscs, but instead the bones were colonized by microbial mats that attracted echinoids and other mat-grazing invertebrates. Abundant cemented suspension feeders indicate a well-developed ‘reef stage’ with prolonged exposure and colonization of the bones prior to final burial, unlike in modern whale falls where organisms such as the ubiquitous bone-eating worm Osedax rapidly destroy the skeleton. Shallow-water ichthyosaur falls thus fulfilled similar ecological roles to shallow whale falls, and did not support specialized chemosynthetic communities.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Danise et al 2014 Nature Communications.pdf
accesso aperto
Tipologia:
Pdf editoriale (Version of record)
Licenza:
Open Access
Dimensione
1.66 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
1.66 MB | Adobe PDF |
I documenti in FLORE sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.