The earliest bathymodiolin mussels: an evaluation of Eocene and Oligocene taxa from deep-sea methane seep deposits in western Washington State, USA

2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Kiel ◽  
Kazutaka Amano

Bathymodiolin mussels are a group of bivalves associated with deep-sea hydrothermal vents and other reducing deep-sea habitats, and they have a particularly rich early Cenozoic fossil record in western Washington State, U.S.A. Here we recognize six species from middle Eocene to latest Oligocene deep-water methane seep deposits in western Washington. Two of them are new: Vulcanidas? goederti from the middle Eocene Humptulips Formation and Bathymodiolus (sensu lato) satsopensis from the late Oligocene part of the Lincoln Creek Formation. Very similar to the latter but more elongate are specimens from the early Oligocene Jansen Creek Member of the Makah Formation and are identified as B. (s.l.) aff. satsopensis. Bathymodiolus (s.l.) inouei Amano and Jenkins, 2011 is reported from the Lincoln Creek Formation. Idas? olympicus Kiel and Goedert, 2007 was previously known from late Eocene to Oligocene whale and wood falls in western Washington and is here reported from Oligocene seep deposits of the Makah and Pysht Formations. Vulcanidas? goederti occurs at a seep deposit from a paleodepth possibly as great as 2000 m, suggesting that its living relative, Vulcanidas insolatus Cosel and Marshall, 2010, which lives at depths of only 150–500 m, is derived from a deep-water ancestor. The bathymodiolins in western Washington indicate that the group originated at least in the middle Eocene and underwent a first diversification in the late Eocene to Oligocene. Early ontogenetic shells of all fossil species investigated so far, including the middle Eocene Vulcanidas? goederti, reflect planktotrophic larval development indicating that this developmental mode is an ancestral trait of bathymodiolins.

Facies ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn Peckmann ◽  
James L. Goedert ◽  
Till Heinrichs ◽  
Jochen Hoefs ◽  
Joachim Reitner

Facies ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Goedert ◽  
Volker Thiel ◽  
Oliver Schmale ◽  
Weldon W. Rau ◽  
Walter Michaelis ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1770) ◽  
pp. 20131243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Lorion ◽  
Steffen Kiel ◽  
Baptiste Faure ◽  
Masaru Kawato ◽  
Simon Y. W. Ho ◽  
...  

Adaptive radiations present fascinating opportunities for studying the evolutionary process. Most cases come from isolated lakes or islands, where unoccupied ecological space is filled through novel adaptations. Here, we describe an unusual example of an adaptive radiation: symbiotic mussels that colonized island-like chemosynthetic environments such as hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and sunken organic substrates on the vast deep-sea floor. Our time-calibrated molecular phylogeny suggests that the group originated and acquired sulfur-oxidizing symbionts in the Late Cretaceous, possibly while inhabiting organic substrates and long before its major radiation in the Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene. The first appearance of intracellular and methanotrophic symbionts was detected only after this major radiation. Thus, contrary to expectations, the major radiation may have not been triggered by the evolution of novel types of symbioses. We hypothesize that environmental factors, such as increased habitat availability and/or increased dispersal capabilities, sparked the radiation. Intracellular and methanotrophic symbionts were acquired in several independent lineages and marked the onset of a second wave of diversification at vents and seeps. Changes in habitat type resulted in adaptive trends in shell lengths (related to the availability of space and energy, and physiological trade-offs) and in the successive colonization of greater water depths.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Hill ◽  
Leonie J. Scriven

A re-investigation of macrofossils previously referred to the extantpodocarpaceous genus Falcatifolium Laubenfels shows thatno records can be sustained. Falcatifolium australisD.R.Greenwood from Middle Eocene sediments in Victoria bears littleresemblance to extant species in the genus and is transferred to the newfossil genus Sigmaphyllum R.S.Hill & L.J.Scriven.Specimens from Early Oligocene sediments in Tasmania previously assigned toFalcatifolium are described as a second species ofSigmaphyllum, S. tasmanensisR.S.Hill & L.J.Scriven, and specimens from mid to late Eocene sediments inTasmania previously assigned to Falcatifolium do notbelong to that genus, although their true generic affinities are uncertain.Dispersed cuticle specimens from Late Eocene–Oligocene sediments inSouth Australia referred to Falcatifolium are notreliable records of the genus and require further investigation. However,Dacrycarpus eocenica D.R.Greenwood, from Middle Eocenesediments in Victoria is transferred to Falcatifolium,and is similar to the extant species F. angustumLaubenfels, which has a leaf morphology unusual for the genus.Falcatifolium eocenica (D.R.Greenwood) R.S.Hill & L.J.Scriven is the only reliable record of the genus in the Australian fossilrecord to date.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 2977-3018 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Pascher ◽  
C. J. Hollis ◽  
S. M. Bohaty ◽  
G. Cortese ◽  
R. M. McKay

Abstract. The Eocene was characterised by "greenhouse" climate conditions that were gradually terminated by a long-term cooling trend through the middle and late Eocene. This long-term trend was determined by several large-scale climate perturbations that culminated in a shift to "ice-house" climates at the Eocene–Oligocene Transition. Geochemical and micropaleontological proxies suggest that tropical-to-subtropical sea-surface temperatures persisted into the late Eocene in the high-latitude Southwest Pacific Ocean. Here, we present radiolarian microfossil assemblage and foraminiferal oxygen and carbon stable isotope data from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Sites 277, 280, 281 and 283 from the middle Eocene to early Oligocene (~ 40–33 Ma) to identify oceanographic changes in the Southwest Pacific across this major transition in Earth's climate history. The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum at ~ 40 Ma is characterised by a negative shift in foraminiferal oxygen isotope values and a radiolarian assemblage consisting of about 5 % of low latitude taxa Amphicraspedum prolixum group and Amphymenium murrayanum. In the early late Eocene at ~ 37 Ma, a positive oxygen isotope shift can be correlated to the Priabonian Oxygen Isotope Maximum (PrOM) event – a short-lived cooling event recognized throughout the Southern Ocean. Radiolarian abundance, diversity, and preservation increase during the middle of this event at Site 277 at the same time as diatoms. The PrOM and latest Eocene radiolarian assemblages are characterised by abundant high-latitude taxa. These high-latitude taxa also increase in abundance during the late Eocene and early Oligocene at DSDP Sites 280, 281 and 283 and are associated with very high diatom abundance. We therefore infer a~northward expansion of high-latitude radiolarian taxa onto the Campbell Plateau towards the end of the late Eocene. In the early Oligocene (~ 33 Ma) there is an overall decrease in radiolarian abundance and diversity at Site 277, and diatoms are absent. These data indicate that, once the Tasman Gateway was fully open in the early Oligocene, a frontal system similar to the present day was established, with nutrient-depleted subantarctic waters bathing the area around DSDP Site 277, resulting in a more oligotrophic siliceous plankton assemblage.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4759 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-596
Author(s):  
DANIEL L. GEIGER ◽  
JAMES L. GOEDERT

Recent and fossil global scissurellids were monographed by Geiger (2012) and additional species were recently described from Brazil (Pimenta & Geiger 2015). Here, we describe an additional fossil species from shallow water strata of the late Eocene Gries Ranch Formation in Lewis County, Washington State, USA. 


1998 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
IVAN S. ZAGORCHEV

The Paril Formation (South Pirin and Slavyanka Mountains, southwestern Bulgaria) and the Prodromos Formation (Orvilos and Menikion Mountains, northern Greece) consist of breccia and olistostrome built up predominantly of marble fragments from the Precambrian Dobrostan Marble Formation (Bulgaria) and its equivalent Bos-Dag Marble Formation (Greece). The breccia and olistostrome are interbedded with thin layers of calcarenites (with occasional marble pebbles), siltstones, sandstones and limestones. The Paril and Prodromos formations unconformably cover the Precambrian marbles, and are themselves covered unconformably by Miocene and Pliocene sediments (Nevrokop Formation). The rocks of the Paril Formation are intruded by the Palaeogene (Late Eocene–Early Oligocene) Teshovo granitoid pluton, and are deformed and preserved in the two limbs of a Palaeogene anticline cored by the Teshovo pluton (Teshovo anticline). The Palaeocene–Middle Eocene age of the formations is based on these contact relations, and on occasional finds of Tertiary pollen, as well as on correlations with similar formations of the Laki (Kroumovgrad) Group throughout the Rhodope region.The presence of Palaeogene sediments within the pre-Palaeogene Pirin–Pangaion structural zone invalidates the concept of a ‘Rhodope metamorphic core complex’ that supposedly has undergone Palaeogene amphibolite-facies regional metamorphism, and afterwards has been exhumed by rapid crustal extension in Late Oligocene–Miocene times along a regional detachment surface. Other Palaeogene formations of pre-Priabonian (Middle Eocene and/or Bartonian) or earliest Priabonian age occur at the base of the Palaeogene sections in the Mesta graben complex (Dobrinishka Formation) and the Padesh basin (Souhostrel and Komatinitsa formations). The deposition of coarse continental sediments grading into marine formations (Laki or Kroumovgrad Group) in the Rhodope region at the beginning of the Palaeogene Period marks the first intense fragmentation of the mid- to late Cretaceous orogen, in particular, of the thickened body of the Morava-Rhodope structural zone situated to the south of the Srednogorie zone. The Srednogorie zone itself was folded and uplifted in Late Cretaceous time, thus dividing Palaeocene–Middle Eocene flysch of the Louda Kamchiya trough to the north, from the newly formed East Rhodope–West Thrace depression to the south.


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