Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:30:50.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mississippian coral latitudinal diversity gradients (western interior United States): Testing the limits of high resolution diversity data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Gregory E. Webb ,
William J. Sando  and
Anne Raymond
Gregory E. Webb
Affiliation:
1Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843
William J. Sando
Affiliation:
2United States Geological Survey, National Museum of Natural History, E-308, Washington D.C., 20560
Anne Raymond
Affiliation:
1Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analysis of high resolution diversity data for Mississippian corals in the western interior United States yielded mild latitudinal diversity gradients despite the small geographic area covered by samples and a large influence on diversity patterns by geographic sampling intensity (sample bias). Three competing plate tectonic reconstructions were tested using the diversity patterns. Although none could be forcefully rejected, one reconstruction proved less consistent with diversity patterns than the other two and additional coral diversity data from farther north in Canada would better discriminate the two equivalent reconstructions.

Despite the relatively high sampling intensity represented by the analyzed database, diversity patterns were greatly affected by sample abundance and distribution. Hence, some effort at recognizing and accounting for sample bias should be undertaken in any study of latitudinal diversity gradients. Small-scale geographic lumping of sample localities had only small effects on geographic diversity patterns. However, large-scale (e.g., regional) geographic lumping of diversity data may not yield latitudinally sensitive diversity patterns. Temporal changes in coral diversity in this region reflect changes in eustacy, local tectonism, and terrigenous sediment flux, far more than they do shifting latitude. Highest regional diversity occurred during the interval when the studied region occupied the highest latitude. Therefore, diversity data from different regions may not be comparable, in terms of latitudinal inference. Small-scale stratigraphic lumping of the data caused a nearly complete loss of the latitudinal diversity patterns apparent prior to lumping. Hence, the narrowest possible stratigraphic resolution should be maintained in analyzing latitudinal diversity gradients.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 71 , Issue 5 , September 1997 , pp. 780 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bambach, R. K. 1990. Late Palaeozoic provinciality in the marine realm, p. 307–323. In McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R. (eds.), Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography. Geological Society Memoir, 12.Google Scholar
Belasky, P. 1992. Assessment of sampling bias in biogeography by means of a probabilistic estimate of taxonomic diversity: application to modern Indo-Pacific reef corals. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 99:243–270.Google Scholar
Belasky, P. 1994. Biogeography of Permian corals and the determination of longitude in tectonic reconstructions of the Paleopacific region, p. 621–646. In Embry, A. F., Beauchamp, B., and Glass, D. J. (eds.), Pangea: Global Environments and Resources. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 17.Google Scholar
Belasky, P., and Runnegar, B. 1993. Biogeographic constraints for tectonic reconstructions of the Pacific region. Geology, 21:979–982.Google Scholar
Belasky, P., and Runnegar, B. 1994. Permian longitudes of Wrangellia, Stikinia, and Eastern Klamath terranes based on coral biogeography. Geology, 22:1095–1098.Google Scholar
Fedorowski, J. 1981. Carboniferous corals: distribution and sequence. Acta Paleontologica Polonica, 26:87–160.Google Scholar
Golonka, J., Ross, M. I., and Scotese, C. R. 1994. Phanerozoic palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic modeling maps, p. 1–47. In Embry, A. F., Beauchamp, B., and Glass, D. J. (eds.), Pangea: Global Environments and Resources. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 17.Google Scholar
Hallam, A. 1984. Distribution of marine invertebrates in relation to climate, p. 107–124. In Brenchley, P. (ed.), Fossils and Climate. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Henderson, R. A., and Heron, M. L. 1977. A probabilistic method of paleobiogeographic analysis. Lethaia, 10:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jablonski, D. 1993. The tropics as a source of evolutionary novelty through geological time. Nature, 364:142–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, P. H., Raymond, A., and Lutken, C. B. 1990. Carboniferous brachiopod migration and latitudinal diversity: a new paleoclimatic method, p. 325–332. In McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R. (eds.), Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography. Geological Society Memoir, 12.Google Scholar
Koch, C. F., and Morgan, J. P. 1988. On the expected distribution of species' ranges. Paleobiology, 14:126–138.Google Scholar
Ma, T. Y. H. 1937. On the seasonal growth of Palaeozoic tetracorals and the climate during the Devonian Period. Palaeontologia Sinica, Series B, 2(3):1–97.Google Scholar
Ma, T. Y. H. 1954. Climate and the relative positions of the continents during the Lower Carboniferous period. Acta Geologia Taiwanica, 6:1–86.Google Scholar
Ma, T. Y. H. 1960. Climate and the relative positions of the continents during the Permian as deduced from the growth rate of reef corals. Geological Society of China Proceedings, 4:91–102.Google Scholar
Mamet, B. L., and Skipp, B. A. L. 1970a. Lower Carboniferous calcareous Foraminifera; preliminary zonation and stratigraphic implications for the Mississippian of North America. Compte Rendu, 6th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology, Sheffield, 3:1129–1146.Google Scholar
Mamet, B. L., and Skipp, B. A. L. 1970b. Preliminary foraminiferal correlations of Early Carboniferous strata in the North American Cordillera, p. 327–348. In Colloque sur la stratigraphie du Carbonifere. Liege University, Congres et Colloques, 55.Google Scholar
Mckerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R. 1990. Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography. Geological Society Memoir, 12, 435 p.Google Scholar
Newton, C. R. 1990. Palaeobiogeography, p. 452–460. In Briggs, D. E. G., and Crowther, P. R. (eds.), Palaeobiology: a Synthesis. Blackwell, London.Google Scholar
Oliver, W. A. Jr., and Pedder, A. E. H. 1989. Origins, migrations, and extinctions of Devonian Rugosa on the North American Plate. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir 8:231–237.Google Scholar
Pedder, A. E. H., and Oliver, W. A. Jr. 1990. Rugose coral distribution as a test of Devonian palaeogeographic models, p. 267–275. In McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R. (eds.), Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography. Geological Society Memoire, 12.Google Scholar
Pickett, J., and Wu, W. S. 1990. The succession of Early Carboniferous coral faunas in eastern Australia and China. Alcheringa, 14:89–108.Google Scholar
Raymond, A., Kelley, P. H., and Lutken, C. B. 1989. Polar glaciers and life at the equator: the history of Dinantian and Namurian (Carboniferous) climate. Geology, 17:408–411.Google Scholar
Raymond, A., Kelley, P. H., and Lutken, C. B. 1990. Dead by degrees: articulate brachiopods, paleoclimate and the mid-Carboniferous extinction event. Palaios, 5:111–123.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, S., Sando, W. J., and Kullmann, J. 1986. Utility of corals for biostratigraphic and zoogeographic analyses of the Carboniferous in the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain. Trabejos de Geologia, 16:37–60.Google Scholar
Rohde, K. 1992. Latitudinal diversity gradients in species diversity: the search for the primary cause. Oikos, 65:514–527.Google Scholar
Rosen, B. R. 1984. Reef coral biogeography and climate through the late Cainozoic: just islands in the sun or a critical pattern of islands?, p. 201–260. In Brenchley, P. (ed.), Fossils and Climate. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Sando, W. J. 1977. North American Mississippian coral biostratigraphy, p. 483–496. In Kauffman, E. G. and Hazel, J. E. (eds.), Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Sando, W. J. 1980. The paleoecology of Mississippian corals in the western conterminous United States. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 25:619–631.Google Scholar
Sando, W. J. 1989. Dynamics of Carboniferous coral distribution, western interior USA. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir 8:251–265.Google Scholar
Sando, W. J., and Bamber, E. W. 1985. Coral zonation of the Mississippian System in the western Interior province of North America. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1334, 61 p.Google Scholar
Sando, W. J., and Bamber., E. W. and Armstrong, A. K. 1977. The zoogeography of North American Mississippian corals. Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres Memoire 89:175–184.Google Scholar
Speed, R. C., Silberling, N. J., Elison, M. W., Nichols, K. M., and Snyder, W. S. 1989. Early Mesozoic tectonics of the western Great Basin, Nevada. American Geophysical Union Field Trip Guidebook T-122, 54 p.Google Scholar
Stehli, F. G. 1968. Taxonomic diversity gradients in pole location: the Recent model, p. 163–227. In Drake, E. T. (ed.), Evolution and Environment. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Valentine, J. W. 1984. Neogene marine climate trends: implications for biogeography and evolution of the shallow-sea biota. Geology, 12:647–650.Google Scholar
Webb, G. E. 1990. Lower Carboniferous coral fauna of the Rockhampton Group, east–central Queensland. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir, 10:1–167.Google Scholar
Witzke, B. J. 1990. Palaeoclimatic constraints for Palaeozoic palaeolatitudes of Laurentia and Euramerica, p. 57–73. In McKerrow, W. S., and Scotese, C. R. (eds.), Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography. Geological Society Memoir, 12.Google Scholar
Ziegler, A. M., Bambach, R. K., Parrish, J. T., Barrett, S. F., Gierlowski, E. H., Parker, W. C., Raymond, A., and Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1981. Paleozoic biogeography and climatology, p. 231–266. In Niklas, K. J. (ed.), Paleobotany, Paleoecology, and Evolution, 2. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Ziegler, A. M., Hulver, M. L., Lottes, A. L., and Schmachtenberg, W. F. 1984. Uniformitarianism and palaeoclimate: inferences from the distribution of carbonate rocks, p. 3–25. In Brenchley, P. (ed.), Fossils and Climate. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. 1989. Evolution of Laurussia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 102 p.Google Scholar