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The Broken-Stick model as a null hypothesis for crinoid stalk taphonomy and as a guide to the distribution of connective tissue in fossils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Tomasz K. Baumiller  and
William I. Ausich
Tomasz K. Baumiller
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
William I. Ausich
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1398
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Abstract

Lengths of crinoid stalk segments consisting of multiple columnals (pluricolumnals) from the Fort Payne Formation of south-central Kentucky (Mississippian) were tested for uniformity using simulations. The results indicate that stalk segment lengths are too uniform to have been produced by a random process operating on homogeneous stalks.

The most parsimonious explanation for the uniformity of pluricolumnal lengths is based on analogy with stalks of living isocrinids. The stalks of these crinoids are organized into multicolumnal segments of approximately uniform length: columnals within each segment are connected by “through-going” ligament and “intercolumnal” ligament. The articulation between segments, however, consists of only intercolumnal ligament. Preliminary results from experiments on Recent carcasses indicate that the latter is the primary plane of disarticulation following death.

The preservational pattern of the Mississippian stalks suggests that their ligamentary organization was similar to that of the isocrinids. Since the plane of primary disarticulation in isocrinids corresponds to the autotomy plane, Mississippian crinoids also may have been capable of autotomizing their stalks.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , Summer 1992 , pp. 288 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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