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

Phyletic Evolution and Iterative Speciation in the Persistent Pristiograptus dubius

The paper focuses on patterns of the evolution of the simplest and longest−ranging (approximately 18 Ma) Silurian graptolite Pristiograptus dubius. The Pristiograptus dubius species group consists of the P. dubius stem lineage represented by a sequence of a number of subspecies displaying only small morphological changes as well as derivative species produced from the stem lineage by means of iterative speciation. This long raging graptolite lineage is the only one, apart of one retiolitid, which survived the most severe environmental event for graptolites, the Cyrtograptus lundgreni Event. Based on three−dimensional, isolated material two P. dubius groups taxa are distinguished. One group has an obtuse angle between the thecal lip and the succeeding thecal wall, the second group has a right or acute angle. Other characters differentiating P. dubius forms are: the shape of the apertural lips, differences in rhabdosome shape and size, and a different number of sicular rings. Sixteen species and subspecies of Pristiograptus from the East European Platform, Poland and Lithuania are discussed. Five new subspecies P. dubius magnus, P. dubius paezerensis, P. dubius praelodenicensis, P. dubius postfrequens, and P. dubius postmagnus are proposed

The Sommerodde (Telychian, Silurian) positive carbon isotope excursion: why is its magnitude so variable?

The Sommerodde positive organic carbon isotope excursion (SOCIE) within the Oktavites spiralis graptolite Biozone (Telychian, Silurian) was first identified in the Sommerodde-1 core, Bornholm, Denmark, where it is the largest positive excursion within the Upper Ordovician¿lower Silurian part of the core. Other published occurrences of the SOCIE are discussed here, including new ¿13Corg data from the Jabalón River section, Corral de Calatrava, central Spain, where the SOCIE is only a very minor positive excursion. Very unusually, the SOCIE is best developed in deeper water settings, contrary to the typical pattern of declining excursionmagnitude offshore. In the Sommerodde-1 core (Bornholm), and where it has been tentatively identified in the Vežaic¿iai-2 core (Lithuania), the SOCIE is developed in pale, organic-poormudstones. It is considered likely that themagnitude of the SOCIE has been enhanced in the Sommerodde-1 core record by a change in organic matter composition in the deep-marine environment that did not have such a significant effect in shallower marine environments.We thank Emma Hammarlund for her comments on a draft of this work, Jirí Frýda for discussions and Roy Smith for his work on the ̌ figures. We also appreciate the comments and suggestions of Sigitas Radzevičius and an anonymous referee. Author contributions DKL: writing – original draft (lead); JCG-M: writing – review and editing (supporting); PŠ: writing – review and editing (supporting). Funding We thank Emma Hammarlund for funding the carbon isotope analyses

Marine redox dynamics and biotic response to the mid-Silurian Ireviken Extinction Event in a mid-shelf setting

The early Silurian Llandovery–Wenlock boundary interval was marked by significant marine perturbations and biotic turnover, culminating in the Ireviken Extinction Event (IEE) and the Early Sheinwoodian Carbon Isotope Excursion (ESCIE). Here, we apply multiple independent redox proxies to the early Wenlock Buttington section, which was deposited in a mid-shelf location in the Welsh Basin, UK. To account for regional geochemical variability in marine sediments due to factors such as sediment provenance, we first define oxic baseline values for the Welsh basin, utilizing deeper water, well-oxygenated intervals of late Llandovery age. Our approach documents unstable, oscillating redox conditions on the mid shelf at Buttington. We suggest that these dynamic redox fluctuations are likely to relate to changes in the position of the chemocline or a migrating oxygen minimum zone. Benthic biota such as trilobites, brachiopods, bivalves and gastropods appear to have been relatively unaffected by fluctuating oxic-ferruginous conditions, but were more severely impacted by the development of euxinia, highlighting the inhibiting role of toxic sulfides. By contrast, the redox perturbations appear to have placed extreme stress on graptolites, causing many extinction losses regardless of the specific development of euxinia