The position of graptolites within Lower Palaeozoic planktic ecosystems.

An integrated approach has been used to assess the palaeoecology of graptolites both as a discrete group and also as a part of the biota present within Ordovician and Silurian planktic realms. Study of the functional morphology of graptolites and comparisons with recent ecological analogues demonstrates that graptolites most probably filled a variety of niches as primary consumers, with modes of life related to the colony morphotype. Graptolite coloniality was extremely ordered, lacking any close morphological analogues in Recent faunas. To obtain maximum functional efficiency, graptolites would have needed varying degrees of coordinated automobility. A change in lifestyle related to ontogenetic changes was prevalent within many graptolite groups. Differing lifestyle was reflected by differing reproductive strategies, with synrhabdosomes most likely being a method for rapid asexual reproduction. Direct evidence in the form of graptolithophage 'coprolitic' bodies, as well as indirect evidence in the form of probable defensive adaptations, indicate that graptolites comprised a food item for a variety of predators. Graptolites were also hosts to a variety of parasitic organisms and provided an important nutrient source for scavenging organisms

The Granton ‘shrimp-bed’, Edinburgh—a Lower Carboniferous Konservat-Lagerstätte

Newly discovered crustaceans from the Granton ‘shrimp-bed’ (Dinantian, Lower Oil Shale Group) are described: Bairdops elegans, Minicaris sp., Palaemysis, Tealliocaris cf. woodwardi, Pseudogalathea ornatissima, Anthracocaris scotica, Paraparchites cf. okeni, Beyrichiopsis plicata, and Eocypridina cf. aciculata, and new observations on Waterstonella grantonensis are reported. Tealliocaris woodwardi alone is recorded from bed o, a level ca 1 m below the ‘shrimp-bed’. The Granton ‘shrimp-bed’ biota is reviewed—the geological and lithological context of the deposit, the distribution and taphonomy of the biota, its life environment, palaeoecology, the likely causes of mortality, and comparisons are made with contemporaneous shrimp biotas. The nature of this unusual Konservat-Lagerstätte reflects conditions in the sheltered, periodically emergent lagoon which it represents

Preservation of giant anomalocaridids in silica-chlorite concretions from the early Ordovician of Morocco

The recently discovered Fezouata Biota, from the Early Ordovician (late Tremadocian to late Floian) of Morocco, preserves a diverse soft-bodied fauna. While preservation is mostly of Burgess Shale-type, giant anomalocaridids also occur in siliceous concretions. Petrographic and geochemical analyses of these concretions reveal their growth history and the circumstances that led to the fossilization of nonbiomineralized anatomy within them. The large (>1 m) concretions are homogeneous in composition and geochemical characteristics, suggesting rapid, pervasive growth of mineral frameworks during decay of the large animals at, or near, the sediment-water interface. Concretions are comprised of ultrafine-grained (2–20 µm) authigenic quartz, Fe chlorite, and calcite, a composition unlike other described marine concretions. Abundant pyrite, now represented by oxide pseudomorphs, grew adjacent to the anomalocaridid carcasses, but rarely within the matrix of the concretions. This distribution indicates that sulfate reduction around the carcasses was vigorous within otherwise organic-poor sediments resulting in the establishment of prominent chemical gradients around the giant anomalocaridids that led to early precipitation of mineral overgrowth around nonbiomineralized tissues. Rapid precipitation of intergrown silica and Fe chlorite required an abundant source of silica, iron, and aluminum. These ions were likely derived from dissolution of volcanic ash in the sediments. Limited intergrown calcite (d13C avg. -12.2‰, n ?=? 23) precipitated from bicarbonate that was generated largely by sulfate reduction of organic tissues of the carcasses. Whereas Burgess Shale-type preservation of fossils in the Fezouata biota required suppression of degradation, exceptional preservation of anomalocaridids within the siliceous concretions resulted from extensive microbial decomposition of a large volume of organic tissues. Rapid mineralization was facilitated by localization of microbial activity around the large carcasses and must have required an unusually reactive sediment composition

A starfish with three-dimensionally preserved soft parts from the Silurian of England

Palaeozoic asteroids represent a stem-group to the monophyletic post-Palaeozoic Neoasteroidea, but many aspects of their anatomy are poorly known. Using serial grinding and computer reconstruction, we describe fully articulated Silurian (ca 425 Myr) specimens from the Herefordshire Lagerstätte, preserved in three dimensions complete with soft tissues. The material belongs to a species of Bdellacoma, a genus previously assigned to the ophiuroids, but has characters that suggest an asteroid affinity. These include a pyloric system in the gut, and the presence of large bivalved pedicellariae, the latter originally described under the name Bursulella from isolated valves. Ampullae are external and occur within podial basins; the radial canal is also external. Podia are elongate and lack terminal suckers. The peristome is large relative to the mouth. Aspects of the morphology are comparable to that of the extant Paxillosida, supporting phylogenetic schemes that place this order at the base of the asteroid crown group

The molecular taphonomy of Carboniferous animal and plant cuticles from North America

Analyses of identifiable organic fossil remains of animals and plants have considerable potential to resolve conflicting models of organic matter diagenesis and kerogen formation (e.g. selective preservation versus random polymerization). Fossil cuticles of arthropods (scorpion, eurypterid) and plants (cordaite, pteridosperm) from Upper Carboniferous strata of Lone Star Lake, Kansas, USA and Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada were analysed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and examined by electron microscopy. Recent Pandinus (scorpion) and Araucaria (conifer) provided a basis for comparison. Pyrolysis of Recent dewaxed scorpion cuticle yielded products derived from chitin and proteins. These products were absent in the fossil arthropod cuticles, however, which yielded an homologous series of alkanes and alkenes, together with phenolic and other aromatic constituents. Recent dewaxed plant cuticle yielded fatty acids, phenols and carbohydrate-derived compounds indicative of cutin polyester and associated lignocellulose. The pyrolysates of the fossil plant cuticles, on the other hand, were dominated by alkane-alkene doublets, with minor phenolic and other benzenoid components. There is no evidence that the preservation of these cuticles as particulate organic matter in kerogen is simply a result of selective preservation. Nonetheless, the chemistry and morphology remain characteristic of a particular taxon, hereby eliminating the possibility of incorporation of randomly repolymerized materials or the transfer of material between plant and animal residues. The aliphatic moieties in the fossil cuticles are thought to be the result of polymerization of the associated epicuticular, cuticular and/or tissue lipids during diagenesis