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Fossil distribution is determined not only by biological factors such as evolution and ecology but also by stratigraphic processes such as sedimentation and the formation of hiatuses. Disentangling stratigraphic and biological signals is therefore necessary in order to accurately interpret the history of life. Efforts to formulate a robust stratigraphic framework for paleobiological data have transformed our understanding of fossil distribution in the marine sedimentary rock record. However, the effects of stratigraphic architecture on stratigraphic stacking patterns and fossil occurrences in the non-marine realm remain poorly understood. Here I examine stratigraphic paleobiology in non-marine systems that span global, regional, and outcrop scales. A global database study of modern non-marine mammalian spatial ranges and their fossil history indicates that taxa with geographic ranges that intersect modern sedimentary basins have a better fossil record than mammal taxa with ranges outside of sedimentary basins. At the regional scale, the distribution of Jurassic fossil occurrences in the western United States within a comprehensive macrostratigraphic framework suggests that both marine sedimentation and marine diversity track changes in the extent of shallow seas. By contrast, patterns of biodiversity in the non-marine fossil record are strongly overprinted by the temporal and geographic distribution of non-marine sediment storage. At the outcrop-to-regional scale, fossil distribution within the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation in the western United States indicates that distributive fluvial systems preferentially preserve vertebrate fossils in amalgamated channels in proximal zones and in poorly-drained floodplain deposits in distal regions. Combined, this multi-scale analysis indicates that the non-marine fossil record is strongly overprinted by hiatuses, which reflect primarily a failure of sediments to accumulate in non-marine environments. Hiatuses in the marine record, by contrast, largely, reflect shifts in the position of the shoreline relative to the continents and therefore significant changes in habitable marine shelf area. This study acts as an initial non-marine stratigraphic paleobiology model and I anticipate future studies will expand on this work and identify variability between non-marine sedimentary basin types. Within distributive fluvial systems there is a definitive predictive distribution of vertebrate fossils and this body of work illuminates the previously unknown nature of this relationship.
The principles of stratigraphic paleobiology can be readily applied to the nonmarine fossil record. Consistent spatial and temporal patterns of accommodation and sedimentation in sedimentary basins are an important control on stratigraphic architecture. Temperature and precipitation covary with elevation, causing significant variation in community composition, and changes in base level cause elevation to undergo predictable changes. These principles lead to eight sets of hypotheses about the nonmarine fossil record. Three relate to long-term and cyclical patterns in the preservation of major fossil groups and their taphonomy, as well as the occurrence of fossil concentrations. The remaining hypotheses relate to the widespread occurrence of elevation-correlated gradients in community composition, long-term and cyclical trends in these communities, and the stratigraphic position of abrupt changes in community composition. Testing of these hypotheses makes the stratigraphic paleobiology of nonmarine systems a promising area of investigation.
The principles of stratigraphic paleobiology can be readily applied to the nonmarine fossil record. Consistent spatial and temporal patterns of accommodation and sedimentation in sedimentary basins are an important control on stratigraphic architecture. Temperature and precipitation covary with elevation, causing significant variation in community composition, and changes in base level cause elevation to undergo predictable changes. These principles lead to eight sets of hypotheses about the nonmarine fossil record. Three relate to long-term and cyclical patterns in the preservation of major fossil groups and their taphonomy, as well as the occurrence of fossil concentrations. The remaining hypotheses relate to the widespread occurrence of elevation-correlated gradients in community composition, long-term and cyclical trends in these communities, and the stratigraphic position of abrupt changes in community composition. Testing of these hypotheses makes the stratigraphic paleobiology of nonmarine systems a promising area of investigation.
Whether the fossil record should be read at face value or whether it presents a distorted view of the history of life is an argument seemingly as old as many fossils themselves. In the late 1700s, Georges Cuvier argued for a literal interpretation, but in the early 1800s, Charles Lyell’s gradualist view of the earth’s history required a more nuanced interpretation of that same record. To this day, the tension between literal and interpretive readings lies at the heart of paleontological research, influencing the way scientists view extinction patterns and their causes, ecosystem persistence and turnover, and the pattern of morphologic change and mode of speciation. With Stratigraphic Paleobiology, Mark E. Patzkowsky and Steven M. Holland present a critical framework for assessing the fossil record, one based on a modern understanding of the principles of sediment accumulation. Patzkowsky and Holland argue that the distribution of fossil taxa in time and space is controlled not only by processes of ecology, evolution, and environmental change, but also by the stratigraphic processes that govern where and when sediment that might contain fossils is deposited and preserved. The authors explore the exciting possibilities of stratigraphic paleobiology, and along the way demonstrate its great potential to answer some of the most critical questions about the history of life: How and why do environmental niches change over time? What is the tempo and mode of evolutionary change and what processes drive this change? How has the diversity of life changed through time, and what processes control this change? And, finally, what is the tempo and mode of change in ecosystems over time?
The geographic and stratigraphic distribution of fossil nonmarine Ostracoda in the United States are summarized in this book, followed by diagnoses of the subject species, references to literature and 34 plates of illustrations. This work shows the great diversity and usefulness of this interesting class of organisms which are small bivalved aquatic crustaceans that occupy both marine and nonmarine environments. Many are characteristic of estuarine and other tidal habitats, but only a few occupy hypersaline waters. One or two kinds are found in wet soils, or in leaf or flower cups in tropical rain forests. A few live in caves and others are commensal in gills of fish and other aquatic animals. Micropaleontologists have found their shells in many types of sedimentary rocks and have used them for stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental interpretations. Their relatively rapid rates of evolution have made them useful in subsurface stratigraphy and their sensitivity to environmental changes has provided a means of recognizing variations in rock facies. In nonmarine aquatic rocks they are commonly the most easily recoverable microfossils, and have been widely used in petroleum exploration, notably in China, Russia, Brazil and the western United States.
Stratigraphy has come to be indispensable to nearly all branches of the earth sciences, assisting such endeavors as charting the course of evolution, understanding ancient ecosystems, and furnishing data pivotal to finding strategic mineral resources. This book focuses on traditional and innovative stratigraphy techniques and how these can be used to reconstruct the geological history of sedimentary basins and in solving manifold geological problems and phenomena.