Fossils and Evolution

870:125
Review syllabus
Text
Supplemental resources
Objectives
Tests and grading
Trip to Ashfall (NE)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 1

 Ch. 1Key concepts to know
The fossil record is incomplete. Biological, mechanical and
diagenetic agents all destroy potential fossils.
Normal fossil preservation is favored by rapid burial of
durable hard parts.
Exceptional preservation occurs via rapid burial in fine-
grained sediments under low oxygen conditions.
The fossil record is biased because of differential
preservation and uneven sampling. It is biased in favor of:
1) durably skeletonized organisms; 2) marine organisms;
3) geologically recent organisms
Because of biases, knowledge of past life is far better at
higher taxonomic levels than at lower taxonomic levels

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 2

 Key terms
(know definitions)
Taphonomy
Biocenosis
Thanatocenosis
Necrolysis
Biostratinomy
Diagenesis
Lagersttten
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 3
 Why study fossils?
Fossil = remains or traces of a once-living
organism
Paleontology = the study of fossils
Importance of paleontology
Biostratigraphy (age dating of rocks)
Evolution
Paleoecology/paleoenvironmental interpretation
Paleogeography/paleobiogeography
Simple fascination

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 4

 Modes of preservation
1. Unaltered remains (frozen mammoths; insects in
amber; unaltered shells & bones)
2. Permineralization (infilling of void spaces)
3. Replacement (molecule by molecule
substitution)
4. Impressions
5. Carbonization
6. Molds / casts
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 5
 Eocene mammal
with partially preserved
fur and flesh (Germany)

Carbonized Jurassic leaf

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 6

 Taphonomy = science of fossilization
Many steps in the process of fossilization, with significant
removal of specimens at every step
Once fossilized, the odds of being collected are low (uplift
and exposure; weathering; discovery; chance, etc.)

Life assemblage Necrolysis Death assemblage

(biocenosis) (scavenging, decay) (thanatocenosis)

Biostratinomy
(break-up, scattering and
shallow burial of remains)

Initial Diagenesis Final

fossil assemblage (deep burial, recrystallization, fossil assemblage
dissolution, metamorphism, etc.)
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 7
Life assemblage
(biocenosis)

Destruction of most soft tissues

Death assemblage
(thanatocenosis)

Destruction of most hard tissues

Total fossil
assemblage

Destruction of most fossils

Fossils actually
discovered
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 8
 Quality of the fossil record
The fossil record is highly biased
Number of fossils is but a fraction of the
number of once-living plants and animals

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 9

 Fossilization is a rare event!
Some estimates:
> 4,500,000 living species of plants and animals
250,000 described fossil species
Thus, all described fossil species represent < 5% of the
total number of living species
Yet, fossil record covers billions of years and todays
biota is but a snapshot
If preservation were truly efficient, then number of
fossil species should dwarf number of extant species

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 10

 Standing crop in m2
(offshore Japan)
m

197 shells (~ 200)

Average lifespan = 2
years, thus:
1000 empty shells in 10
years
m 100,000,000 empty shells
in 1 m.y.
A stack of shells 1000 m
high if a layer of 1000
shells is 1 cm thick (actual
sedimentary thickness is
~320 m/m.y.)
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 11
 Sources of bias
Uneven preservation potential
Sampling bias

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 12

 Uneven preservation potential
Preservation potential of organisms is
goverened by
Resistance to destruction
Biological, mechanical, chemical
Hard parts vs. soft parts
Habitat (during life)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 13

 Destruction
Biologic destruction includes
Predation
Scavenging
Boring
Bacterial decay

Example:
Radiograph of heavily
bored
Fossils gastropod
& EvolutionChapter 1 14
 Destruction
Mechanical destruction includes breakage
and abrasion due to particle interactions
caused by wind, waves, currents
Some shells and bones are more resistant to
abrasion and breakage than others
Different sizes of the same shells vary in their
resistance to abrasion and breakage

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 15

 Abrasion experiment
(multitaxa)

gastropod
coral

alga coral gastropod

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 16

Abrasion experiment
(marine bivalves)

large shells

small shells

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 17

 Durability of vertebrate bones
Durability is governed by bone density and
thickness; also by surface area-to-volume ratio:
Least durable
Ribs, vertebrae, breastbone, hip (part), shoulder blade, fingers,
toes
Intermediate
Thigh, shin, upper and lower arms, ankles and wrists, hip (part)
Most durable
Teeth, jaws, skull

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 18

 Destruction
Chemical destruction varies with:
the original skeletal mineralogy of a fossil
the chemistry of subsurface fluids
temperature of burial environment

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 19

 Relative chemical stability
<-- low stability high stability -->
opaline hi-Mg low-Mg apatite
fossil groups silica
aragonite
calcite calcite (CaPO4)
organic

radiolarians
diatoms
sponges
calcareous algae
calcareous forams
mollusks most oysters
tabulates
cnidarians rugosans
scleractinians
stromatoporoids ?? ??
echinoderms
brachiopods
bryozoa
arthropods
conodonts
vertebrates
graptolites
dinoflagellates
pollen/spores

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 20

 Destruction
Chemical stability vs. temperature and
pressure
Silica is more stable in cold water
Carbonate is more stable in warm water and
under low pressures
Dissolution occurs under high pressure and low
temperature conditions

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 21

Distribution of modern deep sea
pelagic sediments

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 22

 Resistance to destruction
Hard parts are much more likely to be
preserved than soft parts (but soft parts and
even pigments can be preserved)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 23

 Environment and preservability
Best preservation generally occurs in calm,
aquatic environments
Exceptional preservation occurs in fine-
grained sediments in the absence of oxygen,
(biologically inert burial conditions)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 24

 Environment and preservability
Lagersttten (Mother lode) = deposits that
contain large numbers of unusually well preserved
fossils
Burgess Shale (Cambrian, Canada)
Hunsrck Shale (Devonian, Germany)
Mazon Creek Shale (Pennsylvanian, Illinois)
Solnhofen Limestone (Jurassic, Germany)
Baltic amber (Oligocene, Germany)
La Brea tar deposits (Pleistocene, California)
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 25
 Lagersttten
(Hunsrck Shale, Devonian of Germany)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 26

 Lagersttten
(Solnhofen Limestone, Germany)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 27

 Lagersttten
(Burgess Shale, Cambrian of Alberta)

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 28

Tully monster
(Mazon Creek Shale,
Pennsylvanian of Illinois)

Check out U-Haul website

http://www.uhaul.com/supergraphics/tully/the_graphic.html

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 29

 Sampling bias
Fossil record is best in most recent
geologic systems
Younger rocks are less likely to be covered or
obscured by other rocks
Younger rocks are less likely to have been
eroded, metamorphosed or subducted

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 30

Fossil species diversity vs sediment
volume/exposure

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 31

 Consequences of preservation
and sampling bias
Knowledge of past life is far better at higher
taxonomic levels than at lower taxonomic
levels
In a given sample, youd only need to look at a
small number of specimens to find all of the
phyla present, but youd have to look at a lot of
specimens to find all of the species present!

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 32

 Sampling bias:
Danish Miocene mollusks

Phyla 1
Classes 3
Orders 12
Families 44
Genera 64
Species 86
Individual shells 2,954
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 33
 Sampling bias:
Danish Miocene mollusks
If sample size were larger, then more
species and possibly more genera might
have been found, but probably no more
classes or phyla
If sample size were smaller, then fewer
genera and species would have been found,
but probably no fewer classes or phyla

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 34

 Rarefaction curve
[How many taxa would have been found had the sample been smaller?]

Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 35

 Conclusions
Every assemblage of fossils represents an
extremely biased sample of the organisms
once living in an area
Lack of fossils in a rock cannot be taken to
mean that organisms were not living in the
area
Absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence
Fossils & EvolutionChapter 1 36