Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T03:17:41.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Temporal Hierarchy of Paleoecologic Processes Within a Middle Devonian Epeiric Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Carlton E. Brett ,
Keith B. Miller  and
Gordon C. Baird
Carlton E. Brett
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. 14627
Keith B. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. 14627
Gordon C. Baird
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, State University College at Fredonia, Fredonia, N.Y. 14063
Get access

Extract

Among the most intriguing and significant aspects of the marine stratigraphic record are patterns of temporal change in fossil assemblages and paleocommunities. Understanding the stratigraphic patterns and the correct temporal scale of such faunal change is crucial to interpreting the underlying processes involved. Inattention to the temporal scale at which paleontological data are collected, and at which faunal change is observed, often results in the use of entirely inappropriate explanatory models. In many cases modern ecological theories have been misapplied to the fossil record because problems of scale were not adequately considered. The term “community” itself has been applied to such a wide range of fossil accumulations that it has ceased to have any consistent paleoecologic meaning (see discussion in Järvinen et al.,1986). For this reason, we prefer to use the term “assemblage” for time-averaged accumulations of fossils, and restrict “community” to only those organisms which actually lived together in the same space and time (i.e., a biocoenosis). Therefore, faunal assemblages, even when untransported, are the preserved amalgamated record of many successive communities within which short-term (10 – 100 years) changes may or may not be resolvable. Recurrent, compositionally similar assemblages, believed to have occupied generally similar benthic environments, are then grouped into biofacies which can be seen to intergrade and migrate through time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 5: Paleocommunity Temporal Dynamics: The Long-Term Development of Multispecies Assemblies , 1990 , pp. 178 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Paleontological Society 

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

Anderson, E. J., Brett, C.E., Fisher, D.W., Goodwin, P.W., Kloc, G.C., LandIng, E., and Lindemann, R.H. 1988. Upper Silurian to Middle Devonian stratigraphy and depositional controls, east-central New York, p. 111–134. In Landing, E. (ed.), The Canadian Paleontology and Biostatigraphy Seminar. New York State Museum Bulletin 462.Google Scholar
Aller, R.C. 1982. Carbonate dissolution in nearshore terrigenous muds:the role of physical and biological reworking. Journal of Geology, 90: 79–95.Google Scholar
Babcock, L.E., and Speyer, S.E. 1987. Enrolled trilobites from the Alden Pyrite Bed, Ledyard Shale (Middle Devonian) of western New York. Journal of Paleontology, 61: 539–548.Google Scholar
Baird, G.C. 1979. Sedimentary relationships of Portland Point and associated Middle Devonian rocks in central and western New York. New York State Museum Bulletin, 433, 24 p.Google Scholar
Baird, G.C., and Brett, C.E. 1983. Regional variation and paleontology of two coral beds in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of western New York. Journal of Paleontology, 57:417–446.Google Scholar
Bowen, Z. P., Rhoads, D. C., and McAlester, A. L. 1974. Marine benthic communities in the upper Devonian of New York. Lethaia, 7:93–120.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., and Baird, G.C. 1986. Symmetrical and upward shallowing cycles in the Middle Devonian of New York State and their implications for the punctuated aggradational cycle hypothesis. Paleoceanography, 1: 431–445.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., Baird, G.C., and Miller, K. B. 1986a. Sedimentary cycles and lateral facies gradients across a Middle Devonian shelf-to-basin ramp, Ludlowville Formation, Cayuga Basin, p. 81–127. In Cisne, J.L. (ed.), New York Geological Association, 58th Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., Baird, G.C., Gray, L. M., and Savarese, M. L. 1983. Middle Devonian Givetian) coral associations of western and central New York State, p. 65–107. In Sorauf, J. E. and Oliver, W. A. Jr. (eds.), Silurian and Devonian Corals and Stromatoporoids of New York: Fourth International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., and Cottrell, J. F. 1982. Substrate specificity in the Devonian tabulate coral Pleurodictyum. Lethaia, 15: 247–262.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., and Bordeaux, Y. 1988. Epibionts on Devonian brachiopds: paleoecologic implications. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 20: 10.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., Speyer, S.E., and Baird, G.C. 1986b. Storm-generated sedimentary units: tempestite proximality and event stratification in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York, p. 129–156. In Brett, C. E. (ed.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part I: New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Brower, J.C., and Nye, O.B. In press. Quantitative analysis of paleocommunities in the lower part of the Hamilton Group near Cazenovia, N.Y. In Landing, E. and Brett, C. E. (eds.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part 2: New York State Museum Bulletin.Google Scholar
Brower, J.C., Nye, O. B. Jr., Belak, R., Carey, E.F., Leetaru, H.E., Macadam, M., Millendorf, S.A., Salisbury, A., Thomson, J.A., Willette, P.D. and Yamamoto, S. 1978. Faunal assemblages in the lower Hamilton Group in Onondaga County, p. 104–123. In Merriam, D. F. (ed.), New York State Geological Association, 50th Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Busch, R.M., and Rollins, H.B. 1984. Correlation of Carboniferous strata using a hierarchy of transgressive-regressive units. Geology, 12:471–474.Google Scholar
Busch, R.M., and West, R. R. 1987. Hierarchical genetic stratigraphy: a framework for paleoceanography. Paleoceanography, 2:238–257.Google Scholar
Cleland, H.F. 1903. A study of the fauna of the Hamilton Formation of the Cayuga Lake section in central New York. United States Geological Survey Bulletin, 206. 112p.Google Scholar
Connell, J.H., and Keough, M.J. 1985. Disturbance and patch dynamics of subtidal marine animals on hard substrata, p. 125–157. In The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, G.A. 1930. Stratigraphy of the Hamilton Group of New York. American Journal of Science, 19: 116–134, 214–236.Google Scholar
Copper, P. 1986. Frasnian/Famennian mass extinction and cold water oceans. Geology, 14: 835–839.Google Scholar
Cummins, H., Powell, E.N., Stanton, R.J., and Staff, G. 1986. The rate of taphonomic loss in modern benthic habitats: how much of the potentially preservable community is preserved? Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 52:291–320.Google Scholar
Dick, V.B., and Brett, C.E. 1986. Petrology, taphonomy and sedimentary environments of pyritic fossil beds from the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) of western New York, p. 102–127. In Brett, C. E. (ed.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part I: New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. 1985. Unfinished Synthesis: Biological Hierarchies and Modern Evolutionary Thought. New York, Oxford University Press, 237p.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., and Gould, S.J. 1972. Punctuated equilibrium: an alternative to phyletic gradualism, p. 82–115. In Schopf, T.J.M. (ed.), Models in Paleobiology: San Francisco, Freeman, Cooper.Google Scholar
Frey, R.W., and Howard, J.D. 1986. Taphonomic characteristics of offshore mollusk shells, Sapelo Island, Georgia. Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology, 19: 51–61.Google Scholar
Goldring, W. 1935. Geology of the Berne Quadrangle. New York State Museum Bulletin, 303, 238 p.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J., and Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibrium: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology, 3: 115–151.Google Scholar
Grabau, A.W. 1899. The paleontology of Eighteen Mile Creek and the lake shore sections of Erie County, New York. Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences Bulletin, 6, no. 2,3,4.Google Scholar
Grasso, T.X. 1973. A comparison of environments, the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group in the Genesee Valley, p.B1–B27. In Hewitt, D. C. (ed.), New York State Geological Association, 45th Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook, Rochester.Google Scholar
Grasso, T.X. 1978. Benthic communities of the Ludlowville and Moscow Formations (Upper Hamilton Group) in the Tully Valley, Onondaga County, p. 143–172. In Merriam, D.F. (ed.), New York State Geological Association, 50th Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Grasso, T.X. 1986. Redefinition, stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Mottville Member (Hamilton Group) in central and eastern New York, p. 5–31. In Brett, C. E. (ed.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part I: New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Gray, L. M. 1985. Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Centerfield and Chenango Members (Middle Devonian) in western and central New York State: Unpubl. Ph.D. dissert., University of Rochester, 158 p.Google Scholar
Heckel, P. H. 1977. Origin of black shale facies in Pennsylvanian cyclothems of mid-continent North America. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 61:1045–1068.Google Scholar
House, M.R. 1981. Lower and Middle Devonian goniatite biostratigraphy, p. 33–37. In Oliver, W.A., and Klapper, G. (eds.), Devonian Biostratigraphy of New York, Part 1, Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Jablonski, D.J. 1986. Causes and consequences of mass extinctions: a comparative approach, p. 183–229. In Elliott, D. K. (ed.), Dynamics of Extinction: New York, John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Järvinen, O., Babin, C., Bambach, R.K., FlüGEL, E., Fürsich, F.T., Futuyma, D.J., Niklas, K.J., Panchen, A.L., Simberloff, D., Underwood, A. J., and Weidlich, K. F. 1986. The neontologico-paleontological interface of community evolution: how do the pieces in the kaleidoscopic biosphere move? p. 331–350. In Raup, D.M., and Jablonski, D. (eds.), Patterns and Processes in the History of Life: Berlin, Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.E. 1977. Succession and replacement in the development of Silurian brachiopod populations. Lethaia, 10:83–93.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S.M. 1986. Taphonomic feedback in Miocene assemblages: testing the role of dead hardparts in benthic communities. Palaios, 1: 239–255.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S.M., and Jablonski, D. 1983. Taphonomic feedback: ecological consequences of shell accumulation, p. 195–248. In Tevesz, M.J.S., and McCall, P. L. (eds.), Biotic Interactions in Recent and Fossil Benthic Communities: New York, Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Kloc, G.J. 1983. Stratigraphic distribution of ammonoids in the Middle Devonian (Givetian) Hamilton Group of New York. , State University of New York at Buffalo, 73 p.Google Scholar
Kloc, G.J. 1986. Distribution of goniatitic ammonoids in the Middle Devonian (Givetian) Hamilton Group of New York. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 18(1): 27.Google Scholar
Koch, W.F. 1986. Appalachian Basin Late Middle Devonian brachiopod communities. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 18(1):27.Google Scholar
McCall, P.L., and Tevesz, M.J.S. 1982. Soft-bottom succession and the fossil record, p. 195–248. In Tevesz, M.J.S., and McCall, P.L. (eds.), Biotic Interactions in Recent and Fossil Benthic Communities: New York, Plenum Press.Google Scholar
McGhee, G., and Sutton, R.G. 1981. Late Devonian marine ecology and zoogeography of the central Appalachians and New York. Lethaia, 14:27–43.Google Scholar
McGhee, G., and Sutton, R.G. 1985. Late Devonian marine ecosystems of the lower West Falls Group in New York, p. 109–209. In Woodrow, D.L., and Sevon, W.D. (eds), The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201.Google Scholar
Miller, K.B. 1986. Depositional environments and sequences, “ Pleurodictyum Zone,” Ludlowville Formation of western New York. p. 57–77. In Brett, C. E. (ed.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part I: New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Miller, K.B. In press. High-resolution correlation within a storm-dominated muddy epeiric sea: taphofacies of the Middle Devonian Wanakah Member, western New York. In Landing, E., and Brett, C. E. (eds.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part 2: New York State Museum Bulletin.Google Scholar
Miller, K.B., Brett, C. E., and Parsons, K. M. 1988. The paleoecologic significance of storm-generated disturbance within a Middle Devonian muddy epeiric sea. Palaios, 3: 35–52.Google Scholar
Miller, W. III. 1986. Paleoecology of benthic community replacement. Lethaia, 19: 225–231.Google Scholar
Miller, W. III. and Dubar, J. R. 1988. Community replacement of a Pleistocene Crepidula biostrome. Lethaia, 21: 67–78.Google Scholar
Odum, E. P. 1969. The strategy of ecosystem development. Science, 164:262–270.Google Scholar
Osman, R.W. 1977. The establishment and development of a marine epifaunal community. Ecological Monographs, 47:37–63.Google Scholar
Parsons, K.M., Brett, C.E., and Miller, K.B. 1988. Taphonomy and depositional dynamics of Devonian shell-rich mudstones. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 63:109–139.Google Scholar
Powell, E., Staff, G., Davies, D., and Callender, R. 1988. The rate of shell dissolution vs. net sediment accumulation: can shell beds form by gradual accumulation of hardparts on the sea floor? Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 20(7):A255.Google Scholar
Rhoads, D.C., McCall, P.L., and Yingst, J.Y. 1978. Disturbance and production on the estaurine seafloor. American Scientist, 66:577–586.Google Scholar
Rollins, H.B., Carothers, M., and Donahue, J. 1979. Transgression, regression and fossil community succession. Lethaia, 12:89–104.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, R. 1976. Benthic faunal dynamics during succession following pollution abatement in a Swedish estuary. Oikos, 27:414–427.Google Scholar
Santos, S.L., and Simon, J.L. 1980. Response of soft-bottom benthos to annual catastrophic disturbance in a south Florida estuary. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 3:347–355.Google Scholar
Savarese, M., Gray, L.M., and Brett, C.E. 1986. Faunal and lithologic cyclicity in the Centerfield Member (Middle Devonian: Hamilton Group) of western New York: a reinterpretation of depositional history, p. 32–56. In Brett, C. E. (ed.), Dynamic Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian) in New York State, Part I: New York State Museum Bulletin 457.Google Scholar
Schindel, D.E. 1980. Microstratigraphic sampling and the limits of paleontologic resolution. Paleobiology, 6:408–426.Google Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1985. The Jeram model: event condensation in a modern intertidal environment, p. 336–341. In Bayer, U., and Seilacher, A. (eds.), Sedimentary and Evolutionary Cycles: Berlin, Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Simon, J.L., and Dauer, D.M. 1977. Reestablishment of a benthic community following natural defaunation, p. 139–154. In Coull, B.C. (ed.), Ecology of Marine Benthos: Columbia, University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Speyer, S.E., and Brett, C.E. 1985. Clustered trilobite assemblages in the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group. Lethaia, 18: 85–103.Google Scholar
Speyer, S.E., 1988. Paleobiology of size variation in Middle Devonian trilobites. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 20(7): A47.Google Scholar
Sutton, R.G., and McGhee, G. 1985. The evolution of Frasnian marine “community types” of south-central New York, p. 211–224. In Woodrow, D.L., and Sevon, W.D. (eds.), The Catskill Delta. Geological Society of America Special Paper 201.Google Scholar
Thayer, C.W. 1974. Marine paleoecology in the Upper Devonian of New York. Lethaia, 7: 121–155.Google Scholar
Vogel, K., Golubic, S., and Brett, C.E. 1987. Endolith associations and their relation to facies distribution in the Middle Devonian of New York State, U.S.A. Lethaia, 20:263–290.Google Scholar
Walker, K.R., and Alberstadt, L.P. 1975. Ecological succession as an aspect of structure in fossil communities. Paleobiology, 1:238–257.Google Scholar