Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T07:26:49.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Early Silurian ‘Herefordshire’ myodocope ostracod from Greenland and its palaeoecological and palaeobiogeographical significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2013

VINCENT PERRIER*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
DAVID J. SIVETER
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
MARK WILLIAMS
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
PHILIP D. LANE
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Geography, William Smith Building, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
*
Author for correspondence: vp110@leicester.ac.uk

Abstract

Here we record the occurrence of a new species of the Herefordshire Lagerstätte ostracod genus Pauline from the Lower Silurian (upper Telychian) of North Greenland. Pauline nivisis sp. nov. was recovered from a limestone boulder (Pentamerus Bjerge Formation) collected south of Kap Schuchert, Washington Land. It is reasonable to transpose the palaeobiology known from the Herefordshire Pauline avibella – body, limbs including swimming antennae, lateral eyes, gills and alimentary system – into the carapace of the Greenland species, which represents the oldest cylindroleberidid myodocopid and almost the oldest known myodocope, and is the first record of a Herefordshire Lagerstätte genus from outside the Welsh Borderland locality. Morphological, sedimentological and faunal evidence suggest that the Greenland species was nektobenthic. This is compatible with the notion that ostracods (specifically myodocopids) did not invade the water column until later in the Silurian, in the Wenlock and Ludlow epochs. Pauline is an Early Silurian link between ‘Baltic-British’ and North Laurentian ostracod faunas, endorsing the idea that the UK and Greenland were in close geographical proximity, near a remnant Iapetus Ocean, during late Llandovery time.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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

Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J. & Siveter, D. J. 1996. Soft-bodied fossils from a Silurian volcaniclastic deposit. Nature 382, 248–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J. & Sutton, M. D. 2008. Virtual fossils from 425 million-year-old volcanic ash. American Scientist 96, 474–81.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J., Sutton, M. D., Garwood, R. J. & Legg, D. 2012. A Silurian horseshoe crab illuminates the evolution of chelicerate limbs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 109, 15702–5.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Fortey, R. A. 1982. Faunal evidence for oceanic separations in the Palaeozoic of Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 139, 465–78.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Torsvik, T. H. 2002. Earth geography from 500 to 400 million years ago: a faunal and palaeomagnetic review. Journal of the Geological Society, London 159, 631–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Torsvik, T. H. 2011. The Palaeozoic geography of Laurentia and western Laurussia: a stable craton with mobile margins. Earth-Science Reviews 201, 151.Google Scholar
Copeland, M. J. 1974. Silurian Ostracoda from Anticosti Island, Quebec. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin no. 241, 133 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbari, L., Carbonel, P. & Massabuau, J. C. 2005. The early life history of tissue oxygenation in crustaceans: the strategy of the myodocopid ostracod Cylindroleberis mariae . Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 661–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gabbott, S. E., Siveter, D. J., Aldridge, R. J. & Theron, J. N. 2003. The earliest myodocopes: ostracods from the late Ordovician Soon Shale Lagerstätte of South Africa. Lethaia 36, 151–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hairapetian, V., Mohibullah, M., Tilley, L. J., Williams, M., Miller, C. G., Afzal, J., Ghobadi Pour, M. & Hejazi, H. S. 2011. Early Silurian carbonate platform ostracods from Iran: a peri-Gondwanan fauna with strong Laurentian affinities. Gondwana Research 20, 645–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, H. E. & Thomas, A. T. 2011. Trilobite associations, taphonomy, lithofacies and environments of the Silurian reefs of North Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 302, 142–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, J. M. 1980. Palaeogeographic and stratigraphic differentiation of Silurian carbonate buildups and biostromes of North Greenland. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 64, 527–48.Google Scholar
Land, M. F. & Nilsson, D. E. 1990. Observations on the compound eyes of the deep-sea ostracod Macrocypridina castanea . Journal of Experimental Biology 148, 221–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, P. D. 1980. Monoceratella (Ostracoda) from the Silurian of Washington Land, North Greenland. In Palaeontology of Greenland: Short Contributions (ed. Peel, J. S.). Rapport Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse 101, 3743.Google Scholar
Lane, P. D. & Owens, R. M. 1982. Silurian trilobites from Kap Schuchert, Washington Land, western North Greenland. In Palaeontology of Greenland: Short Contributions (ed. Peel, J. S.). Rapport Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse 108, 4169.Google Scholar
Latreille, P. A. 1802. Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Crustacés et des Insectes. Tome 3. Familles Naturelles des Genres. Paris, 467 pp.Google Scholar
Latreille, P. A. 1806. Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum, Tome 1. Paris & Strasbourg, 302 pp.Google Scholar
Müller, G. W. 1906. Ostracoda. Die Ostracoden der Siboga-Expedition. In Siboga-Expeditie (ed. Siboga, H. M.), pp. 140. Uitkomsten op Zoologisch, Botanisch, Oceanographisch Monographien no. 30.Google Scholar
Ogoh, K. & Ohmiya, Y. 2005. Biogeography of luminous marine ostracod driven irreversibly by the Japan Current. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22, 1543–5.Google Scholar
Orr, P. J., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J. & Siveter, D. J. 2000. Three-dimensional preservation of a non-biomineralised arthropod in concretions in Silurian volcaniclastics from Herefordshire, England. Journal of the Geological Society, London 157, 173–86.Google Scholar
Page, A., Zalasiewicz, J. A., Williams, M. & Popov, L. E. 2007. Were transgressive black shales a negative feedback modulating glacioeustasy in the Early Palaeozoic Icehouse? In Deep-Time Perspectives on Climate Change: Marrying the Signal from Computer Models and Biological Proxies (eds Williams, M., Haywood, A. M., Gregory, F. J., & Schmidt, D. N.), pp. 123–56. The Micropalaeontological Society, Special Publications no. 2.Google Scholar
Peel, J. S. & Sønderholm, M. (eds). 1991. Sedimentary Basins of North Greenland. Bulletin Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse no. 160, 164 pp.Google Scholar
Perrier, V. & Siveter, D. J. In press. The use of ‘European’ ostracode faunas in testing Silurian stratigraphy and palaeogeography. Geological Society of London, Memoirs.Google Scholar
Perrier, V., Vannier, J. & Siveter, D. J. 2007. The Silurian pelagic myodocope ostracod Richteria migrans . Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 98, 151–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrier, V., Vannier, J. & Siveter, D. J. 2011. Silurian bolbozoids and cypridinids (Myodocopa) from Europe: pioneer pelagic ostracods. Palaeontology 54, 1361–91.Google Scholar
Porębska, E., Kozłowska-Dawidziuk, A. & Masiak, M. 2004. The lundgreni event in the Silurian of the East European Platform, Poland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 213, 271–94.Google Scholar
Poulsen, C. 1934. The Silurian faunas of North Greenland. The fauna of the Cape Schuchert Formation. Meddelelser om Grønland 72 2(1), 1–46. Google Scholar
Rong, J. Y., Wang, Y. & Zhang, X. L. 2012. Tracking shallow marine red beds through geological time as exemplified by the lower Telychian (Silurian) in the Upper Yangtze Region, South China. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences 55, 699713.Google Scholar
Sars, G. O. 1866. Oversigt af Norges marine Ostracoder. Norske Videnskaps-Akademien Forhandlingar 1865, 130 pp.Google Scholar
Sarv, L. 1968. Ostracode Families Craspedobolbinidae, Beyrichiidae and Primitiopsidae in the Silurian of Estonia. Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised, Geologia Institut, Tallinn, 134 pp (in Russian).Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. 1984. Habitats and modes of life of Silurian ostracods. In The Autecology of Silurian Organisms (eds Bassett, M. G. & Lawson, J. D.), pp. 7185. Special Papers in Palaeontology no. 32.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. 1989. Ostracodes. In A Global Standard for the Silurian System (eds Holland, C. H. & Bassett, M. G.), pp. 252–64. National Museum of Wales Geological Series no. 9.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. 1990. Photography. In Palaeobiology: A Synthesis (eds Briggs, D. E. G. & Crowther, P. R.), pp. 505–8. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. 2009. The Silurian. In Ostracods in British Stratigraphy (eds Whittaker, J. E. W. & Hart, M. B.), pp. 4590. The Micropalaeontological Society, Special Publications no. 3.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. & Bogolepova, O. K. 2006. The myodocope ostracod Entomozoe from the early Silurian of Severnaya Zemlya, Russian Arctic. Norwegian Journal of Geology 86, 51–8.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J. & Sutton, M. D. 2010. An exceptionally preserved myodocopid ostracod from the Silurian of Herefordshire, UK. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 277, 1539–44.Google ScholarPubMed
Siveter, D. J., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J., Sutton, M. D. & Joomun, S. C. 2013. A Silurian myodocope with preserved soft-parts: cautioning the interpretation of the shell-based ostracod record. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 280 (1752), doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2664.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. & Lane, P. D. 1999. The myodocope ostracode Entomozoe from an early Silurian (Telychian, Llandovery) carbonate mound of the Samuelson Høj Formation of North Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland 184, 513.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J., Briggs, D. E. G. & Sutton, M. D. 2007. Brood care in a Silurian ostracod. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 274, 465–9.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J., Sutton, M. D., Briggs, D. E. G. & Siveter, D. J. 2003. An ostracode crustacean with soft-parts from the Lower Silurian. Science 302, 1749–51.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J. & Vannier, J. 1990. The Silurian myodocope ostracode Entomozoe from the Pentland Hills, Scotland: its taxonomic, ecological and phylogenetic significance and the affinity of bolbozoid myodocopes. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 81, 71–6.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J., Vannier, J. & Palmer, D. 1987. Silurian myodocopid ostracodes: their depositional environment and the origin of their shell microstructures. Palaeontology 30, 783813.Google Scholar
Siveter, D. J., Vannier, J. & Palmer, D. 1991. Silurian myodocopes: pioneer pelagic ostracods and the chronology of an ecological shift. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 10, 157–73.Google Scholar
Sønderholm, M. & Harland, T. L. 1989. Franklinian reef belt, Silurian, North Greenland. In Reefs – Canada and Adjacent Area (eds Geldsetzer, H. H. J., James, N. P. & Tebbutt, G. E.), pp. 263–70. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir no. 13.Google Scholar
Strusz, D. L. 1984. Brachiopods of the Yarralumla Formation (Ludlovian), Canberra, Australia. Alcheringa 8, 123–50. Google Scholar
Sutton, M. D., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J. & Siveter, D. J. 2011. A soft-bodied lophophorate from the Silurian of England. Biology Letters 7, 146–9.Google Scholar
Sutton, M. D., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J. & Sigwart, J. D. 2012. A Silurian armoured aplacophoran: implications for molluscan phylogeny. Nature 490, 94–7.Google Scholar
Torsvik, T. H. 2009. BugPlates software (IGCP 503). With reconstructions of Torsvik, T. H. and Cocks, L. R. M. (2002–2009). Statoil Hydro.Google Scholar
Truuver, K., Meidla, T., Aainsaar, L., Bergström, J. & Tinn, O. 2012. Stratigraphy of the Ordovician-Silurian boundary interval in Östergötland, Sweden, based on ostracod distribution and stable carbon isotopic data. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar (GFF) 134, 295308.Google Scholar
Vannier, J. & Abe, K. 1992. Recent and early Palaeozoic myodocope ostracodes: functional morphology, phylogeny, distribution and lifestyles. Palaeontology 3, 485517.Google Scholar
Vannier, J., Abe, K. & Ikuta, K. 1998. Feeding in myodocopid ostracods: functional morphology and laboratory observations from videos. Marine Biology 132, 391408.Google Scholar
Williams, M., Vannier, J., Corbari, L. & Massabuau, J.-C. 2011. Oxygen as a driver of early arthropod micro-benthos evolution. PLoS One 6 (12), e28183, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028183.Google Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J. A, Taylor, L., Rushton, A. W. A., Loydell, D. K., Rickards, R. B. & Williams, M. 2009. Graptolites in British stratigraphy. Geological Magazine 146, 785850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar