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Vagrant benthos (Annelida; Polychaeta) associated with Upper Ordovician carbonate mud-mounds of subsurface Gotland, Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

MATS E. ERIKSSON  and
OLLE HINTS
MATS E. ERIKSSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
OLLE HINTS
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia
*
†Author for correspondence: Mats.Eriksson@geol.lu.se
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Abstract

Micropalaeontological investigations of Upper Ordovician carbonate mud-mounds and enclosing strata of subsurface Gotland, Sweden, demonstrate that jaw-bearing polychaetes formed the most diverse faunal element associated with these build-ups. Although not present within the mound cores (intra-mound facies), scolecodonts, or polychaete jaws, occur abundantly immediately below and particularly above the mounds; the supra-mound facies also has the most diverse fossil assemblages. By contrast to the scolecodont distribution, the most diverse conodont faunas were recorded in the intra-mound facies. This reinforces the fact that scolecodont and conodont abundance and diversity numbers are commonly inverse to one another, suggesting that these metazoans occupied different niches and responded differently to taphonomical processes. The polychaete assemblage has no less than 27 species belonging to 12 genera, of which Oenonites, Mochtyella and Pistoprion are the most abundant. The assemblage has a characteristic Baltic signature and is similar in taxonomic composition to coeval ones from other areas of the Baltoscandian palaeobasin, such as that of present-day Estonia. A principal component analysis clusters the Gotland assemblage most closely to those recorded from shallow to transitional shelf environments of Estonia, indicating that the mud-mounds were formed in such environments.

Keywords

benthosscolecodontspolychaete jawsmud-moundsUpper OrdovicianGotlandSweden
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 146 , Issue 3 , May 2009 , pp. 451 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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