Degradation, Transport, and Diagenesis of Recent Crinoid Ossicles in Fernandez Bay, San Salvador Island, Bahamas

虽然海百合小骨（骨板）是许多古代石灰岩和页岩的共同组成部分，但从埋藏学的角度来看，它们受到的关注相对较少。随着最近海底沉积物中海龙骨小骨的记录，现在有机会对单个板块的埋藏学进行实际研究。该研究的主要重点在于板块退化领域：目标是确定相对耐磨损和溶解性，检查这些地学过程和其他过程在研究区域的分布，并对这些过程的速率设置一些限制。关于运输，目的是确定运输的听小骨聚集的地点，并看看听小骨是否作为床载移动。关于成岩作用的主要目标是确定小骨是否通过沉积物填充或早期成岩作用“预石化”，并确定从更新世礁岩中恢复的小骨是否仍然可以识别生物层组学特征。从沉积物上部2-3厘米和1-2米的岩心中提取的沉积物样本将用于绘制板块的分布及其变化的程度和类型。对海底的磨损、溶解和植入物的实验室实验将有助于确定过程和限制降解速度。因为绝大多数的海百合化石材料都是由分离的骨骼组成的，这种方法将有助于使大量的化石材料对其他科学家更有用，帮助从沉积学家到海百合专家的地质学家。

Although crinoid ossicles (skeletal plates) are common components of many ancient limestones and shales, they have received relatively little attention from the standpoint of taphonomy. With the recent documentation of crinoid ossicles in Recent sea floor sediment, the opportunity now exists to pursue actualistic studies of the taphonomy of individual plates. The main emphasis of the study lies in the area of plate degradation: objectives are to determine relative resistance to abrasion and dissolution, to examine the distribution of these taphonomic processes and others in the study area, and to set some constraints on the rates of these processes. With respect to transport, objectives are to determine the sites of accumulation of transported ossicles, and to see if ossicles travel as bedload. The primary objectives with regard to diagenesis are to determine if ossicles are "prefossilized" by sediment infilling or early diagenesis and to determine if biostratinomic signatures are still recognizable in ossicles recovered from Pleistocene reef rocks. Sediment samples taken from the upper 2-3 cm of the sediment and from 1-2 meter cores will be used to map the distribution of plates and their degree and type of alteration. Laboratory experiments of abrasion and dissolution and implants on the sea floor will aid in defining processes and constraining rates of degradation. Because the vast majority of fossil crinoid material consists of disarticulated skeletons, this approach will help to make a large volume of fossil material more useful to other scientists, assisting geologists from sedimentologists to crinoid specialists.