Taphonomic features and population dynamics of the Upper Devonian Famennian Dzieduszyckia fauna in South China
Li Tong1, Dong Lin1, Yuan Zhi-Wei1, Ling Kun1, Ning Meng2, Qin Shu-Jian1, Yang Run-Yu1, Liu Wei1, Nie Ting1, Li Chen-Qing1, Sun Yuan-Lin1
1 School of Earth and Space Science,Peking University,Beijing 100871, China; 2 Institute of Sedimentary Geology,Chengdu University of Technology,Chengdu 610059, China
Abstract:Dzieduszyckia is a rhynchonellide brachiopods genus,featured by its bisulcate,strongly costate shell. It is widely accepted that Dzieduszyckia developed in cold-seep environments. This study aims to investigate the primary living environments of Dzieduszyckia in South China and their population features. Comparison of depositional features between coquinas from platform and intra-platform basin indicates that Dzieduszyckia in South China primarily occupied the platform niches,which is different from that in North American and Morocco. It suggests that Dzieduszyckia had a larger ecological plasticity than the modern organisms present in the cold-seep environment. More than one thousand specimens of Dzieduszyckia from three localities were collected in this study. These three populations have an extremely high abundance with high proportions of growth asymmetry,which resulted from squeezing of individuals during growth,suggesting a dense crowed life habit for the brachiopods. The Dzieduszyckia populations barely coexisted with other benthic animals,showing an extremely low diversity in the entire area. Length-frequency distribution and survivorship curve reveal that each of the Dzieduszyckia populations has a low juvenile mortality. The identical shell length in the same natural coquina also supports that the majority of individuals grew up and died naturally. All evidence suggests that Dzieduszyckia takes tight-growth pattern as the survival strategy,living in a unique environment that was not suitable for other benthic organisms.
Li Tong,Dong Lin,Yuan Zhi-Wei et al. Taphonomic features and population dynamics of the Upper Devonian Famennian Dzieduszyckia fauna in South China[J]. JOPC, 2021, 23(6): 1210-1224.
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