Mechanisms and Rates of Preservation of Organic and Skeletal Remains in Continental Shelf and Slope Environments

大陆架和斜坡环境中有机和骨骼遗骸的保存机制和率

• 批准号: 9909317
• 负责人: Karla Parsons-Hubbard
• 金额: $ 10.25万
• 依托单位: Oberlin College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2003-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9909317&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mechanisms; Rates; Preservation; Organic; Skeletal

Mechanisms and Rates of Preservation of Organic and Skeletal remains inContinental Shelf and Slope EnvironmentsKarla Parsons-HubbardEAR-9909317A major impediment in the interpretation of fossil assemblages has been the inadequate understanding of the biases in it caused (a) by the taphonomic alteration of the original assemblage of living organisms and (b) by the time averaging of temporally distinct faunas. To better understand these taphonomic processes experiments were placed in a wide variety of environments of deposition in deep offshore settings in 1993 and 1994. The experiments consist of a variety of potentially preservable organisms such as bivalves, gastropods, urchins, crabs, and plant species. These materials have been allowed to decay on the sea floor since deployment. Collections were made after two years at all sites and the early taphonomic signature was assessed. The present work involves the collection of the experiments at year 8. Preliminary results show that this is a crucial time for the mollusk remains, particularly in waters within the photic zone. Dissolution and degradation by boring organisms have progressed to the point that the results from this work may be able to set the "life span" of mollusk remains in shallow waters at somewhere between 7 and 10 years and in deeper waters we may find much slower rates of degradation.

大陆架和斜坡环境中有机和骨骼遗骸的保存机制和速率解释化石组合的一个主要障碍是对其中的偏差理解不足，这种偏差是由(a)生物体原始组合的地学改变和(b)时间上不同的动物群的平均时间造成的。为了更好地理解这些埋藏过程，1993年和1994年在深海环境中进行了各种沉积环境的实验。实验包括各种可能保存的生物，如双壳类、腹足类、海胆、螃蟹和植物物种。自部署以来，这些材料一直被允许在海底腐烂。两年后在所有地点进行收集，并评估了早期的埋藏学特征。目前的工作包括收集8年级的实验。初步结果表明，这是软体动物遗骸的关键时期，特别是在光区的水域。通过钻孔生物的溶解和降解已经取得了进展，这项工作的结果可能能够将软体动物遗体在浅水区的“寿命”设定在7到10年之间，而在较深的水域，我们可能会发现降解速度要慢得多。