Experimental Models for Hydrodynamic Transport of Conodonts (Chordata) in Shallow Marine Environments

牙形刺已经被利用，特别是在过去的50年里， 年，作为地质年龄的主要生物指标。 对所观察到的分布进行了古生态学解释， 主要归因于牙形石动物的生活习惯， 人们普遍提到了死后 破坏死亡集会 死后的影响 对牙形石元素分布的影响 浅海碳酸盐环境将通过以下方式进行研究： 通过实验室沉降和水槽试验。 因为 这些磷酸盐颗粒的高度可变的尺寸和形状， 在不同的试验条件下， 静态流体和建议（1）临界条件（平均 流速），（2）内部运输 迁移性小底形;（3）元素的差异分选 沿着输送路径，以及（4）在流体流动期间的破裂量 运输 这些流体动力学差异 重要的是，因为他们会强烈影响 离散牙形石元素的分布，特别是在 中到高能区。 这些因素的量化 然后可以用来约束古生态解释的 潮缘碳酸盐岩中保存的牙形石组合。 这将允许定量方法来确定 牙形石元素死后迁移量 在他们下葬之前，也将允许直接统计 比较不同样品的组成，当 考虑了埋藏效应。 尸检定量 运输广泛地增强了生物地层的解释 牙形刺的古环境数据， 通过提供模型， 物理环境过程的解释， 在化石沉积物的形成中发挥了重要作用。

Conodonts have been utilized, especially during the last 50 years, as principal biologic indices of geologic age. Paleoecologic interpretations of observed distributions have been attributed largely to life habits of conodont animals, and only general mention has been made of the potential for post-mortem disruption of death assemblages. The effects of post-mortem transport processes on distributions of conodont elements in shallow-marine carbonate environments will be investigated by means of laboratory settling and flume experiments. Because of the highly variable sizes and shapes of these phosphatic grains, significant differences exist in terminal settling velocity in a static fluid and are suggested for (1) critical conditions (mean flow velocity) for initiation of movement, (2) transport within migrating small bedforms, (3) differential sorting of elements along a transport path, and (4) amount of breakage during fluid transport. These hydrodynamic differences are extremely important because they would have strongly influenced the distribution of discrete conodont elements, particularly in moderate to high energy regimes. Quantification of these factors can then be used to constrain the paleoecologic interpretation of preserved assemblages of conodonts in peritidal carbonate rocks. This will permit a quantitative approach to determining the amount of post-mortem transport experienced by conodont elements prior to their burial and will also allow for direct statistical comparison of the composition of different samples, when taphonomic effects are factored. Quantification of post-mortem transport broadly enhances the interpretation of biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental data of conodonts, with implications for the study of other skeletal allochems, by providing models for the interpretation of physical environmental processes that played a major role in the formation of fossiliferous deposits.