Late Paleozoic larval paleobiology and evolutionary dynamics inferred from molluscs of the Buckhorn Asphalt and other lagerstätten

许多重要的古生物学问题只能通过对保存异常完好的化石的分析来解决，例如来自美国俄克拉何马州宾夕法尼亚沙棘沥青的软体动物(特别是腹足类)。这块Lagerstätte化石包含了迄今为止保存最完好的古生代软体动物材料，包括幼虫贝壳、原始贝壳矿物学和微观结构。软体动物壳在很大程度上反映了个体发育的变化。古生代早期个体发育壳，包括幼虫壳，很少被保存下来，仅用于分类学目的。然而，早期个体发育壳的信息含量要高得多。我们想要量化巴克霍恩沥青和其他保存完好的地点的浮游营养软体动物物种的比例，作为石炭纪初级生产的证据。这将是重建晚古生代食物网、古群落和古多样性的重要一步。我们知道，浮游营养型腹足类幼虫的贝壳可能与同一个体的成虫贝壳相似，也可能不相似。因此，我们希望通过对幼虫和成虫的比较形态空间分析来测试异时性的活动。异时性是进化过程中讨论最多的一种，腹足类是深入研究这些进化过程的最佳对象。

Many important paleobiological questions can only be solved by the analysis of exceptionally wellpreserved fossils such as the molluscs (especially gastropods) from the Pennsylvanian Buckhorn Asphalt (Oklahoma, USA). This fossil lagerstätte contains by far the best preserved Paleozoic mollusc material including larval shells, original shell mineralogy and microstructures. Mollusc shells reflect ontogenetic change to a high degree. Paleozoic early ontogenetic shells including larval shells are rarely preserved and have been used for taxonomic purposes only. However, the information content of early ontogenetic shells is much higher. The abundance of gastropod larval shells with planktotrophic larval development forms a proxy for ancient primary production even if direct fossil record of phytoplankton is lacking as is the case during the enigmatic Late Paleozoic ¿Phytoplankton Blackout¿. We want to quantify the proportion of planktotrophic mollusc species from the Buckhorn Asphalt and other sites with exceptional preservation as evidence for primary production during the Carboniferous. This will be an important step towards the reconstruction of Late Paleozoic food webs, paleocommunities, and paleodiversity. We are aware that planktotrophic gastropod larval shells may or may not resemble adult shells within the same individual. Therefore, we want to test the activity of heterochrony through a comparative morphospace analysis of larval and adult shells. Heterochrony is one of the most discussed evolutionary processes and gastropods belong to the best objects to study these processes in deep time.