Chapter 11: Fossil Assemblages

You should have available an example collection of organisms from each time interval mentioned above. Your first task will be to identify the organisms (you will receive assistance with this), and then to examine their morphologies closely. Knowing that these organisms could all be found preserved in a marine soft-bottom environment, can you say anything about the following?

1. Examining each animal, can you place it into any of the ecological categories defined above? Where do you think it lived? How did it feed? Be speculative, but also be ready to support your speculations with morphological observations.

2. Can you say anything about how some of these organisms may have interacted with each other? Sketch what you think the community may have looked like when it was alive (no da Vincis required, but try not to be too Dali-esque).

11.2.1 Questions

1. What do you think may have been the numerically dominant organisms in each community? Why?

2. Can you characterize each community using several of the terms defined earlier? What, if any, changes occur as you move through the Phanerozoic? Given your copious knowledge of paleoecology, can you speculate as to any of the reasons for any changes that you may have perceived?

3. Can you think of any experiments, or types of data, that you would like to see to test some of your conclusions?

Back to Chapter Eleven.