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The significance of vertebrate microfossil size and shape distributions for faunal abundance reconstructions: a Late Cretaceous example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Richard W. Blob  and
Anthony R. Fiorillo
Richard W. Blob
Affiliation:
Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, rblob@midway.uchicago.edu
Anthony R. Fiorillo
Affiliation:
Dallas Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 150349, Dallas, Texas 75315, fiorillo@mail.smu.edu
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Abstract

Faunal abundance and fossil size and shape data from microvertebrate localities in the Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of south-central Montana illustrate that even when located in similar sedimentary facies, concentrations of vertebrate microfossils may exhibit strikingly different taphonomic profiles. Degrees of microfossil size and shape sorting may vary even among sites from the same sedimentary facies. In some instances, such variations may make it impossible to disregard taphonomic causes for differences sites exhibit in paleofaunal abundances. To limit the possibility that taphonomically generated faunal differences might be mistaken for true differences in paleoecology, comparisons of paleofaunal abundances should be restricted to microvertebrate sites both from similar sedimentary facies and with similar profiles of fossil sizes and shapes.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , Summer 1996 , pp. 422 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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