bioRxiv Science⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/566844

Reconstructing the ecology of a Jurassic pseudoplanktonic megaraft colony

Hunter, A. W.·Mitchell, E. G.·Casenove, D.·Mayers, C.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Pseudoplanktonic crinoid megaraft colonies are an enigma of the Jurassic. They are among the largest in-situ invertebrate accumulations ever to exist in the Phanerozoic fossil record. These megaraft colonies and are thought to have developed as floating filter-feeding communities due to an exceptionally rich relatively predator free oceanic niche, high in the water column enabling them to reach high densities on these log rafts. However, this pseudoplanktonic hypothesis has never actually been quantitatively tested and some researchers have cast doubt that this mode of life was even possible. The ecological structure of the crinoid colony is resolved using spatial point process techniques and its longevity using moisture diffusion models. Using spatial analysis we found that the crinoids would have trailed preferentially positioned at the back of migrating structures in the regions of least resistance, consistent with a floating, not benthic ecology. Additionally, we found using a series of moisture diffusion models at different log densities and sizes that ecosystem collapse did not take place solely due to colonies becoming overladen as previously assumed. We have found that these crinoid colonies studied could have existed for greater than 10 years, even up to 20 years exceeding the life expectancy of modern documented megaraft systems with implications for the role of modern raft communities in the biotic colonisation of oceanic islands and intercontinental dispersal of marine and terrestrial species.Significance statement Transoceanic rafting is the principle mechanism for the biotic colonisation of oceanic island ecosystems. However, no historic records exist of how long such biotic systems lasted. Here, we use a deep-time example from the Early Jurassic to test the viability of these pseudoplanktonic systems, resolving for the first time whether these systems were truly free floating planktonic and viable for long enough to allow its inhabitants to grow to maturity. Using spatial methods we show that these colonies have a comparable structure to modern marine pesudoplankton on maritime structures, whilst the application of methods normally used in commercial logging is used to demonstrate the viability of the system which was capable of lasting up to 20 years.View Full Text

Explore related subjects

paleontologyPreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Hunter, A. W., Mitchell, E. G., Casenove, D., Mayers, C.. 2019-03-04. Reconstructing the ecology of a Jurassic pseudoplanktonic megaraft colony. https://doi.org/10.1101/566844

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Feeding experiments with Senegal bichir Polypterus senegalus provide evidence for diet-related tooth damage and dental microwear

Dental microwear is a useful tool for reconstructing jaw movements and diet in toothed vertebrates, but its application to fishes (Actinopterygii and Chondrichthyes) remains limited. This is partly due to the lack of experiments directly linking diet and microwear in these groups; only one highly-derived teleost (Actinopterygii, or ray-finned fishes) species of recent origins, the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, has been subject to controlled feeding experiments. As sticklebacks are suction or ram feeders that live on macroplankton and insect larvae and do not use their dentitions for prey processing, the absence of experimental data from other fish species limits our ability to interpret dental microwear and infer diet and feeding style in a wider range of fossil and living species with various ecologies. Here we present the results of a second feeding experiment involving fishes using the basally-branching, biting, often-piscivorous ray-finned fish Senegal bichir Polypterus senegalus to evaluate whether controlled diet differences can generate detectable tooth damage and dental microwear patterns. Individuals were fed four different food items - loaches, shrimp, pellets, and mealworms - for one, two, and three months. We then examined tooth tip damage and linear microwear (scratches). Shrimp and mealworm feeding produced short scratches, whereas pellet and loach feeding produced long scratches. Most teeth exhibited apical tip damage despite the presence of a solid enameloid acrodin cap (a characteristic of ray-finned fishes), with damage being larger in loach-fed individuals and smaller in those fed with mealworms. Our results suggest a possible relationship between diet, tooth damage, and dental microwear in non-durophagous fishes which never-the-less use teeth for prey capture and processing, offering a framework for inferring diet in extinct forms with similar ecomorphology to Polypterus.

paleontology↗
bioRxiv2026

Diversity in early animal communities of the Ediacaran, Avalon assemblage

Diversity is an emergent property of macroecological and macroevolutionary processes. The Avalon assemblage preserves near-census snapshots of Ediacaran communities, enabling tests of the drivers of diversity. However, it remains unclear how alpha diversity varied among surfaces or whether variation reflected uneven sampling, abiotic context or biotic processes. We analysed diversity for 11,342 specimens across 22 surfaces and examined abiotic and biotic correlates. Despite compositional variation, most surfaces fell into four community types dominated by Fractofusus andersoni, F. misrai and/or Pectinifrons, Bradgatia, or upright fronds, with potential substructure within the upright-frond type, whereas Clapham's Pigeon Cove and Shingle Head communities, from the oldest and youngest formations, respectively, may indicate greater community differentiation near the sampled stratigraphic limits. Sampling effort varied widely, yet taxon-area curves showed richness was well captured on 12 of 22 surfaces, and Shannon and Simpson diversity remained consistent across sampling completeness and taxonomic treatments. Diversity showed no clear associations with locality or stratigraphic affiliation, but differed among community types and declined with increasing vertical segregation. Overall, these results suggest that, among the predominantly Newfoundland communities sampled, Avalon alpha diversity may have been shaped more by local community assembly and organisation than by broader geographic, environmental and temporal context.

paleontology↗
bioRxiv2026

Durophagous adaptations in a new crocodyliform from the Santonian of Hungary and a systematic reassessment of European Cretaceous atoposaurids

Atoposauridae comprises a group of diminutive, semiterrestrial, brevirostrine neosuchian crocodyliforms that represents a characteristic component of European Jurassic-Cretaceous tetrapod faunas. Although frequently evaluated within the context of crown-group Crocodylia origins, their highly contested phylogenetic relationships continue to obscure their precise role in crocodylomorph evolutionary history. Particular ambiguity surrounds the monophyly of the genus Theriosuchus - with some hypotheses inferring long-term persistence of the lineage in Mesozoic Europe, whereas others interpreting select Cretaceous species as representatives of separate, even non-atoposaurid clades (e.g. Sabresuchus spp). We describe a new, stratigraphically intermediate taxon from the Santonian of Hungary based on isolated cranial elements, consistently placed as the sister taxon of Sabresuchus (Theriosuchus) sympiestodon from the Maastrichtian of Romania by our comprehensive set of phylogenetic analyses using three separate datasets. Sabresuchus tribodon sp. nov. is either recovered within Atoposauridae (global datasets) or Paralligatoridae (ingroup analysis) and can be distinguished from all other representatives of these groups by a specialized morphology consisting of massive, thick-enameled bulbous posterior maxillary teeth ornamented with apicobasal ridges, an extremely short rostrum with a reduced number of maxillary and dentary teeth, and the significantly upturned dorsal margin of the posterior dentary and surangular. Comparable anatomical adaptations are present in ecomorphologically convergent extinct crocodyliforms whose inferred feeding ecology included durophagy. However, this complete suite of characters has not been previously documented in either atoposaurids or paralligatorids. Our systematic reassessment results in an up-to-date taxonomy of Cretaceous European atoposaurids and tentatively confirms the polyphyly of Theriosuchus, though more definitive conclusions require combining individual, differently focused datasets. We reinterpret Aprosuchus ghirai from the Maastrichtian of Romania as a junior synonym of Sabresuchus sympiestodon and the putative European notosuchian Ogresuchus furatus from the Maastrichtian of Spain as an indeterminate atoposaurid.

paleontology↗