Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:08:10.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleobiologic features of Trabeculites maculatus (Tabulata, Late Ordovician, southern Manitoba)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Dong-Jin Lee  and
Robert J. Elias
Dong-Jin Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, Andong 760-749, Korea, and Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2, Canada
Robert J. Elias
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, Andong 760-749, Korea, and Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Detailed analysis of certain growth characteristics in Trabeculites maculatus contributes to an understanding of the paleobiology and phylogeny of early tabulate corals. Some coralla of T. maculatus contain peculiar, vertically oriented cylindrical lacunae (open areas) that are lenticular, or in one case circular, in cross section. The nature of these structures and their relation to adjacent corallites suggest that they were formed by the coral in response to soft-bodied biotic associates of unknown taxonomic affinity.

Trabeculites maculatus is an unusual tabulate coral featuring both axial and lateral modes of corallite increase. Axial increase was common, often occurring in association with rejuvenation following injury and less commonly involving normal, undamaged corallites. Lateral increase of normal corallites was typical, but this form of increase could also be involved in the termination of lacunae and occurred in response to a divergent growth pattern around the circular lacuna. Corallite decrease was fairly common, usually taking place adjacent to lenticular lacunae but in some cases involving normal corallites not associated with lacunae. Corallite fusion was uncommon; it could be either temporary or permanent. Conspicuous relocation of corallites and restructuring of corallite arrangement generally involved mass rejuvenation and/or regeneration, usually over a large surface area of the corallum.

The growth features in T. maculatus are fundamentally the same as those in the co-occurring Saffordophyllum newcombae, including types of axial increase unknown in other tabulate corals. The basic paleobiologic similarity of these species supports the interpretation that the genera they represent are closely related phylogenetically. The relationship of these taxa to other tabulates, however, remains unresolved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 78 , Issue 6 , November 2004 , pp. 1056 - 1071
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

Bassler, R. S. 1950. Faunal lists and descriptions of Paleozoic corals. Geological Society of America Memoir, 44, 315 p.Google Scholar
Bolton, T. E., and Nowlan, G. S. 1979. A Late Ordovician fossil assemblage from an outlier north of Aberdeen Lake, District of Keewatin. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin, 321:1–26.Google Scholar
Caramanica, F. P. 1973. Ordovician corals of the Williston Basin periphery. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 570 p.Google Scholar
Caramanica, F. P. 1992. Ordovician corals of the Red River–Stony Mountain Province, p. 23–97. In Erickson, J. M. and Hoganson, J. W. (eds.), Proceedings of the F. D. Holland Jr., Geological Symposium. North Dakota Geological Survey Miscellaneous Series, 76.Google Scholar
Elias, R. J. 1981. Solitary rugose corals of the Selkirk Member, Red River Formation (late Middle or Upper Ordovician), southern Manitoba. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin, 344, 53 p.Google Scholar
Elias, R. J. 1991. Environmental cycles and bioevents in the Upper Ordovician Red River–Stony Mountain solitary rugose coral province of North America, p. 205–211. In Barnes, C. R. and Williams, S. H. (eds.), Advances in Ordovician Geology. Geological Survey of Canada Paper, 90–9.Google Scholar
Flower, R. H. 1961. Part I: Montoya and related colonial corals. New Mexico State Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir, 7:1–97.Google Scholar
Flower, R. H., and Duncan, H. M. 1975. Some problems in coral phylogeny and classification, p. 175–192. In Pojeta, J. Jr. and Pope, J. K. (eds.), Studies in Paleontology and Stratigraphy. Bulletins of American Paleontology, 67(287).Google Scholar
Hill, D. 1981. Tabulata, p. F430–F669. In Teichert, C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part F: Coelenterata, Supplement 1, Rugosa and Tabulata, 2. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Jones, O. A. 1936. The controlling effect of environment upon the corallum in Favosites; with a revision of some massive species on this basis. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 10, 17:1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, A. C. 1977. Origin of dolomite mottling in Ordovician limestones from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, 25:480–504.Google Scholar
Lee, D.-J., and Elias, R. J. 2000. Paleobiologic and evolutionary significance of corallite increase and associated features in Saffordophyllum newcombae (Tabulata, Late Ordovician, southern Manitoba). Journal of Paleontology, 74:404–425.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, B., Tchi, Y., Jin, C., Li, Y., and Yan, Y. 1988. Monograph of Palaeozoic Corals: Tabulatomorphic Corals. Vol. 1. Geological Publishing House, Beijing, 467 p. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
Nelson, S. J. 1963. Ordovician paleontology of the northern Hudson Bay Lowland. Geological Society of America Memoir, 90, 152 p.Google Scholar
Nicholson, H. A. 1874. On Columnopora, a new genus of tabulate corals. Geological Magazine, decade 2, 1:253–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, H. A. 1879. On the Structure and Affinities of the “Tabulate Corals” of the Palaeozoic Period. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 342 p.Google Scholar
Pandolfi, J. M. 1989. Phylogenetic analysis of the early tabulate corals. Palaeontology, 32:745–764.Google Scholar
Scoffin, T. P., and Bradshaw, C. 2000. The taphonomic significance of endoliths in dead—versus live—coral skeletons. Palaios, 15:248–254.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scrutton, C. T. 1984. Origin and early evolution of tabulate corals, p. 110–118. In Oliver, W. A. Jr., Sando, W. J., Cairns, S. D., Coates, A. G., Macintyre, I. G., Bayer, F. M., and Sorauf, J. E. (eds.), Recent Advances in the Paleobiology and Geology of the Cnidaria. Palaeontographica Americana, 54.Google Scholar
Scrutton, C. T. 1997. The Palaeozoic corals, I: origins and relationships. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 51:177–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tapanila, L. 2002. A new endosymbiont in Late Ordovician tabulate corals from Anticosti Island, eastern Canada. Ichnos, 9:109–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westrop, S. R., and Ludvigsen, R. 1983. Systematics and paleoecology of Upper Ordovician trilobites from the Selkirk Member of the Red River Formation, southern Manitoba. Manitoba Department of Energy and Mines Geological Report, 82–2, 51 p.Google Scholar
Winchell, N. H., and Schuchert, C. 1895. Sponges, graptolites, and corals from the Lower Silurian of Minnesota, p. 55–95. In The Geology of Minnesota, Final Report, Volume 3, Part 1, Paleontology. Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey.Google Scholar