Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:19:46.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth and function of the micro-frills present on the Devonian brachiopod Athyris campomanesi (Verneuil & Archiac)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Fernando Alvarez ,
Covadonga Brime  and
Gordon B. Curry
Fernando Alvarez
Affiliation:
Facultad de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
Covadonga Brime
Affiliation:
Facultad de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
Gordon B. Curry
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Minute, lamellose concentric micro-frills are described on the external surfaces of the Devonian brachiopod Athyris campomanesi (Verneuil & Archiac). The micro-frills are very regularly spaced with a separation of approximately 0.5 mm, are inclined anteriorly and antero-laterally, and become more or less recurved peripherally down towards the valve surface. These micro-frills must have been secreted by outward extensions of epithelium, presumably resulting from an increase in the rate of cell proliferation or extension in the marginal zone. Extrapolating from the known growth rates of living brachiopods, it seems probable that the micro-frills formed very rapidly, within a matter of days or hours. In life the micro-frills would have formed minute channels around the peripheries of both valves, similar in form and function to rain gutters. As such they probably functioned as baffle chambers, within which excess paniculate material from the inhalant feeding currents would have accumulated. Such particulate material is likely to have been moved laterally from the median axis of the shell down to the sediment surface under the effects of gravity and in vitro shell movements. Each micro-frill may only have functioned in this fashion for a matter of weeks before being rendered ineffective by the forward growth of the valve margin, at which stage it would have been abandoned and replaced by a subsequently formed micro-frill.

Keywords

AsturiasecologyEmsianexternal ornamentationfunctional morphologyRaneces Groupshell structureSpain.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , 1987 , pp. 65 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1987

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

Ager, D. V. 1961. The epifauna of a Devonian spiriferid. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 117, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, F. 1983. Estructura de la concha de los Athyrididae (Brachiopoda) del Devónico de la Cordillera Cantábrica. Nota preliminar. TRAB GEOL, UNIV OVIEDO 13, 93–6.Google Scholar
Alvarez, F. 1986. Population structure of three species of the genus Plicathyris (Brachiopoda: Athyridacea) from the Devonian of the Cantabrian Zone (NW Spain) and their significance. BIOSTRATIGRAPHIE DU PALEOZOIQUE 4, 167–177.Google Scholar
Alvarez, F. & Brime, C. 1982. Aportación al conocimiento de las condiciones de formatión de algunos depósitos fosilíferos del Devónico Cantábrico. TRAB GEOL, UNIV OVIEDO 12, 153–57.Google Scholar
Alvarez, F., Curry, G. B. & Brime, C. 1985. Contribución al estudio comparativo de la estructura y crecimiento de la concha de braquiópodos actuales y fósiles. TRAB GEOL, UNIV OVIEDO 15, 211–17.Google Scholar
Brunton, C. H. C. 1969. Electron microscopic studies of growth margins of articulate brachiopods. Z ZELLFORSCH 100, 189–200.Google Scholar
Brunton, C. H. C. 1980. Type specimens of some Upper Palaeozoic Athyridide brachiopods. BULL BR MUS NAT HIST (GEOL) 34, 219–34.Google Scholar
Brunton, C. H. C. 1984. Silicified brachiopods from the Viséan of County Fermanagh, Ireland (III). Rhynchonellids, Spiriferids and Terebratulids. BULL BR MUS NAT HIST (GEOL) 38, 27–130.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. B. 1843. General results of Microscopic Inquiries into the Minute Structure of the Skeletons of Mollusca, Crustacea and Echinodermata. ANN MAG NAT HIST 12, 377–90.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. B. 1853. On the intimate structure of the shells of Brachiopoda. In Davidson, T. (ed.), British Fossil Brachiopoda, vol. 1. PALAEONTOGR SOC [MONOGR], 1–136.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E. 1975. A commensal relationship between a small filter beeding organism and Australian Devonian Spiriferid brachiopods. PALEOBIOLOGY 1, 371–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copper, P. 1967. Adaptations and life habits of Devonian atrypid brachiopods. PALAEOGEOG PALAEOCLIM PALAEOECOL 3, 363–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copper, P. 1977. The Late Silurian brachiopod genus Atrypoidea. GEOL FOREN STOCKHOLM FORH 99, 10–26.Google Scholar
Curry, G. B. 1981. Variable pedicle morphology in a population of the Recent brachiopod Terebratulina septentrionalis. LETHAIA 14, 9–20.Google Scholar
Curry, G. B. 1982. Ecology and population structure of the Recent brachiopod Terebratulina from Scotland. PALAEONTOLOGY 25, 227–46.Google Scholar
Curry, G. B. 1984. Growth variability in a Tertiary brachiopod from Antarctica; the significance for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. GEOBIOS MEM SPEC 8, 45–51.Google Scholar
Grant, R. E. 1968. Structural adaptation in two Permian brachiopod genera, Salt Range, West Pakistan. J PALEONTOL 42, 1–32.Google Scholar
Jones, B. 1982. Paleobiology of the Upper Silurian brachiopod Atrypoidea. J PALEONTOL 56, 912–23.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. I. 1974. The shell structure of Spiriferide Brachiopoda. BULL BR MUS NAT HIST (GEOL) 25, 1–261.Google Scholar
Pitrat, C. & Rogers, F. 1978. Spinocyrtia and its epibionts in the Traverse Group (Devonian) of Michigan. J PALEONTOL 52, 1315–24.Google Scholar
Rowell, A. J. 1961. Inhalant and exhalant feeding current systems in Recent brachiopods. GEOL MAG 98, 261–63.Google Scholar
Rudwick, M. J. S. 1960a. The Feeding Mechanisms of Spire-bearing Fossil Brachiopods. GEOL MAG 97, 369–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudwick, M. J. S. 1960b. Correspondence. GEOL MAG 97, 516–18.Google Scholar
Rudwick, M. J. S. 1970. Living and Fossil Brachiopods. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Schumann, D. 1967. Die Lebensweise von Mucrospirifer Grabau, 1931 (Brachiopoda). PALAEOGEOG PALAEOCLIM PALAEOECOL 3, 381–92.Google Scholar
Shiells, K. A. G. 1968. Kochiproductus coronus sp. nov. from the Scottish Viséan and a possible mechanical advantage of its flange structure. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 67, 477–510.Google Scholar
Smith, R. E. 1976. Biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the Atrypella Community, Upper Silurian Douro Formation, Devon Island, District of Franklin. In Contributions to Canadian Paleontology. GEOL SURV CANADA BULL 256, 13–37.Google Scholar
Vogel, K. 1975. Das filter-feeding-System bei Spiriferida. LETHAIA 8, 231–40.Google Scholar
Wallace, P. & Ager, D. V. 1966. Demonstration: Flume experiments to test the hydrodynamic properties of certain spiriferid brachiopods with reference to their supposed life orientation and mode of feeding. PROC GEOL SOC LONDON 1635, 160–63.Google Scholar
Westbroek, P. 1967. Morphological observations with systematic implications on some Paleozoic Rhynchonellida from Europe with special emphasis on the Uncinulidae. LEID GEOL MEDED 41, 1–82.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1956. The calcareous shell of the Brachiopoda and its importance to their classification. BIOL REV 31, 243–87.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1960. Feeding Mechanisms of Spire-bearing Brachiopods. GEOL MAG 97, 514–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, A. et al. 1965. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, H-Brachiopoda (vols I & II). Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1968a. Evolution of the shell structure of articulate brachiopods. SPEC PAP PALAEONT 2, 1–55.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1968b. A history of shell secretion among articulate brachiopods. LETHAIA 1, 268–87.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1971a. Comment on the growth of the shell of articulate brachiopods. SMITHSONIAN CONT PALEOBIOLOGY 3, 47–67.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1971b. Scanning electron microscopy of the calcareous skeleton of fossil and living Brachiopoda. In Heyward, V. H. (ed.) Scanning Electron Microscopy; Systematic and Evolutionary Applications, pp. 37–66London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A. & Wright, A. D. 1961. The origin of the loop in articulate brachiopods. PALAEONTOLOGY 4, 149–76.Google Scholar