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Growth rates of pterobranchs and the lifespan of graptolites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Susan Rigby  and
P. Noel Dilly
Susan Rigby
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ United Kingdom
P. Noel Dilly
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, Tooting, London SWI7 ORE United Kingdom
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Abstract

Pterobranchs are the closest living relatives of graptolites. Their skeleton is constructed from the same material, and in a homologous manner. Growth rates of the pterobranch Cephalodiscus gracilis are described for the first time and, along with rhabdopleuran growth rates, they are used to estimate the amount of time invested by a graptolite colony in growing its rhabdosome. This is a measure of minimum age. The significance of age calculations is shown for individuals and large communities of graptoloids. Large individuals can be shown to be much older than the time it would have taken them to settle through seawater and so it is shown that graptoloids moved up, as well as down, through the water column. Life tables constructed for biserial graptoloids from the Utica shale in Quebec, Canada, suggest that these graptoloids died from constant environmental stress. Graptoloid length can thus be a function of environment and should only cautiously be considered to be of taxonomic significance.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , Fall 1993 , pp. 459 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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