Taphonomy - Springer978-90-481-8643-3/1.pdf · signals and animal-sediment relationships in the marine environment. ... The great challenges in paleontology are to deepen our understanding

Taphonomy

Process and Bias Through Time

second edition

Aims & Scope Topics in Geobiology Book Series

Topics in Geobiology series treats geobiology - the broad discipline that covers the history of life on Earth. The series aims for high quality, scholarly volumes of origi-nal research as well as broad reviews. Recent volumes have showcased a variety of organisms including cephalopods, corals, and rodents. They discuss the biology of these organisms-their ecology, phylogeny, and mode of life and in addition, their fossil record their distribution in time and space.Other volumes are more theme based such as predator-prey relationships, skeletal mineralization, paleobiogeography, and approaches to high resolution stratigraphy, that cover a broad range of organisms. One theme that is at the heart of the series is the interplay between the history of life and the changing environment. This is treated in skeletal mineralization and how such skeletons record environmental signals and animal-sediment relationships in the marine environment.The series editors also welcome any comments or suggestions for future volumes.

Series Editors: Neil H. Landman, [email protected] J. Harries, [email protected]

For other titles published in this series, go towww.springer.com/series/6623

TaphonomyProcess and Bias Through Time

second edition

Peter A. Allison ● David J. BottjerEditors

EditorsPeter A. AllisonDepartment of Earth Science & EngineeringSouth Kensington CampusImperial College LondonSW7 2AZ London United [email protected]

David J. BottjerDepartment of Earth SciencesUniversity of Southern California90089-0740 Los [email protected]

ISBN 978-90-481-8642-6 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8643-3DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8643-3Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Cover illustration: Main Image Caption – Illustration of Lower Devonian Hollardops from Bou Tserfine, Morocco (see p. 131)Small figure top left – Eurypterus dekayi from the Late Silurian Williamsville Formation in Ontario, Canada (see p. 202)Small figure top middle – Small Nummulites from the late Eocene, Autochthonous Molasse of Upper Austria (see p. 345)Small figure top right – Modern Limulus (see p. 202)

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v

Preface

The study of taphonomy has evolved substantially in recent decades. A brief history of the subject is given in Chapter 1 and will not be repeated here, however it is fair to say that there is now a first-order understanding of taphonomic processes. It is particularly noteworthy that taphonomic research breaches the barriers of tradi-tional research disciplines. The multi-disciplinarity of the subject is evidenced by the breadth of the publication base that supports the subject; consider for example, the quantity of vertebrate taphonomy research in the paleontological, archeologi-cal and forensic domains (e.g. see Chapter 8). The subject is also inter-disciplinary and this is particularly evidenced by work on inorganic and organic geochemistry (e.g. see Chapters 5, 6 and 11). It is also true that taphonomic research has always been quick to incorporate new approaches and techniques. This includes use of the latest data-bases (Chapters 2 and 16) and analytical methods (Chapters 13 and 14). Of course paleontological data is ultimately collected by field geologists and paleontologists and sedimentological and stratigraphic approaches continue to yield new insights (Chapters 3, 4 and 7).

The great challenges in paleontology are to deepen our understanding of the origins and evolution of life and elucidate the impact of global change on the bio-sphere. The first has obvious appeal because it is a basic fundamental question and the second is relevant to a modern world in the throes of climate change. Taphonomic research is pertinent to both of these grand challenges, not least because it is necessary to truly release the data locked in the fossil record. For example, the controversies surrounding the biogenicity of Archean fossils (see Chapters 13 and 14) are, in the broadest sense, taphonomic in nature. We also note that taphonomic research is now being used to evaluate our understanding of large-scale trends in biodiversity through time (see Chapters 2 and 3). It is also certainly feasible that global change and mass extinction could impact upon taphonomic processes. A reduction in the diversity of shell-destroying taxa, a change in the processing rate of bioturbating organisms, or a change in sedimentary/diagenetic environment could all influence fossil preservation. This emerging question is developed in Chapters 9 and 16.

The default assumption for paleontologists is that the fossil record is biased. The extent of the bias varies between extremes according to depositional circum-stances (see Chapters 4, 7 and 8) and can be mitigated for by using appropriate

vi Preface

research methodologies and statistical approaches, but it is still there. A deeper understanding of taphonomic process requires an evaluation of how taphonomic bias has changed over geological time. It is one thing to deal with a biased dataset and quite another to deal with a bias that has changed with time. This question lies at the heart of all of the chapters in this book. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the impact of biomolecular innovations in the evolution of organic skeletons; Chapters 2, 3, 11 and 12, tackle the issue of secular changes in diagenesis; Chapters 3, 4, 9 and 10 explore the nature of temporal change in taphonomic processes in marine environ-ments; Chapters 7 and 8 focus on terrestrial environments; and Chapters 14–16 evaluate the extent that taphonomic bias has changed during, or as a result of, major bio-events. This book as a whole does not define the extent to which taphonomic bias has changed through time. It does, however, go some way towards properly defining the questions that need to be asked before that can be done.

It is left to us as editors to thank: the contributors for their patience; the review-ers of the chapters for their valuable time and insight; our friends, family and col-leagues who have supported us; and the forbearance and support of the staff at Springer who have published this work.

Peter A. AllisonDavid J. Bottjer

vii

Contents

1 Taphonomy: Bias and Process Through Time ....................................... 1Peter A. Allison and David J. Bottjer

2 Taphonomic Overprints on Phanerozoic Trends in Biodiversity: Lithification and Other Secular Megabiases .......................................... 19Austin J.W. Hendy

3 Taphonomic Bias in Shelly Faunas Through Time: Early Aragonitic Dissolution and Its Implications for the Fossil Record .......................... 79Lesley Cherns, James R. Wheeley, and V. Paul Wright

4 Comparative Taphonomy and Sedimentology of Small-Scale Mixed Carbonate/Siliciclastic Cycles: Synopsis of Phanerozoic Examples.......................................................................... 107Carlton E. Brett, Peter A. Allison, and Austin J.W. Hendy

5 Taphonomy of Animal Organic Skeletons Through Time .................... 199Neal S. Gupta and Derek E.G. Briggs

6 Molecular Taphonomy of Plant Organic Skeletons ............................... 223Margaret E. Collinson

7 The Relationship Between Continental Landscape Evolution and the Plant-Fossil Record: Long Term Hydrologic Controls on Preservation ...................................................... 249Robert A. Gastaldo and Timothy M. Demko

8 Hierarchical Control of Terrestrial Vertebrate Taphonomy over Space and Time: Discussion of Mechanisms and Implications for Vertebrate Paleobiology ........................................ 287Christopher R. Noto

viii Contents

9 Microtaphofacies: Exploring the Potential for Taphonomic Analysis in Carbonates ........................................................................... 337James H. Nebelsick, Davide Bassi, and Michael W. Rasser

10 Taphonomy of Reefs Through Time ...................................................... 375Rachel Wood

11 Silicification Through Time .................................................................... 411Susan H. Butts and Derek E.G. Briggs

12 Phosphatization Through the Phanerozoic ........................................... 435Stephen Q. Dornbos

13 Three-Dimensional Morphological (CLSM) and Chemical (Raman) Imagery of Cellularly Mineralized Fossils .................................................................................. 457J. William Schopf, Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev, Abhishek B. Tripathi, and Andrew D. Czaja

14 Taphonomy in Temporally Unique Settings: An Environmental Traverse in Search of the Earliest Life on Earth ........................................................................................... 487Martin D. Brasier, David Wacey, and Nicola McLoughlin

15 Evolutionary Trends in Remarkable Fossil Preservation Across the Ediacaran–Cambrian Transition and the Impact of Metazoan Mixing ..................................................... 519Martin D. Brasier, Jonathan B. Antcliffe, and Richard H.T. Callow

16 Mass Extinctions and Changing Taphonomic Processes: Fidelity of the Guadalupian, Lopingian, and Early Triassic Fossil Records .......................................................................................... 569Margaret L. Fraiser, Matthew E. Clapham, and David J. Bottjer

Index ................................................................................................................. 591

ix

Contributors

Peter A. Allison Department of Earth Science and Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, UK [email protected]

Jonathan B. Antcliffe Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK [email protected]

Davide Bassi Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy [email protected]

David J. Bottjer Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740, USA [email protected]

Martin D. Brasier Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK [email protected]

Carl E. Brett Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA [email protected]

Derek E.G. Briggs Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P. O. Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA; Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, USA [email protected]

x Contributors

Susan H. Butts Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, USA [email protected]

Richard H. T. Callow Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PR, UK [email protected]

Lesley Cherns School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK [email protected]

Matthew E. Clapham Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA [email protected]

Margaret E. Collinson Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK [email protected]

Timothy M. Demko Department of Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA; ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, TX 77210, USA [email protected]

Steve Q. Dornbos Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413, USA [email protected]

Margaret L. Fraiser Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53203, USA [email protected]

Robert A. Gastaldo Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901, USA [email protected]

Neal S. Gupta Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520–8109 USA;

xiContributors

Geophysical Laboratory, 5251 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC, 20015, USA [email protected]

Austin J.W. Hendy Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá, República de Panamá; Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA [email protected]

Anatoliy B. Kudryavtsev Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life) and NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA [email protected]

Nicola McLoughlin Department of Earth Sciences and centre of Excellence in Geobiology, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway [email protected]

James H. Nebelsick Institute for Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Sigwartstrasse 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany [email protected]

Christopher R. Noto Department of Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 49401, USA [email protected]

Michael W. Rasser Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany [email protected]

J. William Schopf Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life), Molecular Biology Institute, and NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA [email protected]

Abhishek B. Tripathi Advanced Projects Office, Constellation Program, NASA Johnson Spacecraft Center, 77058, Houston, TX, USA [email protected]

xii Contributors

David Wacey Centre for Microscopy, Characterization and Analysis + School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia [email protected]

Rachel Wood Grant Institute of Earth Sciences, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, King’s Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK [email protected]

V. Paul Wright BG-Group, 100 Thames Valley Park, Reading RG6 1PT, UK [email protected]

J.R. WheeleySchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

A.D. CzajaDepartment of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life), University of California, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA