Astronomically controlled deep‐sea life in the Late Cretaceous reconstructed from ultra‐high‐resolution inoceramid shell archives
- Autor(en)
- Adam Wierzbicki, Erik Wolfgring, Michael Wagreich, Mariusz Kędzierski, Regina Mertz‐Kraus
- Abstrakt
The periodicity of the mutual position of celestial bodies in the Earth-Moon-Sun system is crucial to the functioning of life on Earth. Biological rhythms affect most of the processes inside organisms, and some can be recorded in skeletal remains, allowing one to reconstruct the cycles that occur in nature deep in time. In the present study, we have used ultra-high-resolution elemental ratio scans of Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and Mn/Ca from the fossil, ca. 70 Ma old inoceramid bivalve Inoceramus (Platyceramus) salisburgensis from deep aphotic water and identified a clear regularity of repetition of the geochemical signal every of ~0.006 mm. We estimate that the shell accretion rate is on average ~0.4 cm of shell thickness per lunar year. Visible light–dark lamination, interpreted as a seasonal signal corresponding to the semilunar-related cycle, gives a rough shell age estimate and growth rate for this large bivalve species supported by a dual feeding strategy. We recognize a biological clock that follows either a semilunar (model A) or a tidal (model B) cycle. This cycle of tidal dominance seems to fit better considering the biological behaviour of I. (P.) salisburgensis, including the estimated age and growth rate of the studied specimens. We interpret that the major control in such deep-sea environment, well below the photic zone and storm wave base, was due to barotropic tidal forces, thus changing the water pressure.
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Paläontologie, Institut für Geologie
- Externe Organisation(en)
- Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
- Journal
- Geobiology
- Band
- 21
- Seiten
- 474-490
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 17
- ISSN
- 1472-4677
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12548
- Publikationsdatum
- 02-2023
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 105203 Bioklimatologie, 401101 Ackerbau, 105101 Allgemeine Geologie, 103006 Chemische Physik
- Schlagwörter
- ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- Allgemeine Umweltwissenschaft, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Allgemeine Erdkunde und Planetologie
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/521e7ae1-52b4-4f38-93e2-e6e3e321d32b