The Corbulidae, which today are slow, cumbersome, very shallow burrowers, developed special morphological features by which they obtained an outstanding capability to withstand the physical and biological stresses characteristic of their preferred habitat. These features are: an inequivalve, globose shape, thick shells, and conchiolin layers (at least one) embedded within their valves in a unique way. These features enable the corbulids to close their valves tightly during the unfavourable environmental conditions (e.g. low salinity, low oxygen content) which may prevail in the marginal marine regions inhabited by several corbulid species. The conchiolin layers act as a barrier preventing all chemically boring organisms from penetrating into the bivalve shell, or shell dissolution by sea water undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. The layered conchiolin weakens the shell mechanically, however, especially during fossilization, when the conchiolin is decomposed. The valve splits apart into two shells so completely different in appearance that they may be attributed to different taxa. The conchiolin layers are therefore of great ecological and palaeontological significance. The nature of these conchiolin layers in Corbula (Varicorbula) gibba (Olivi) is described and illustrated and their functional significance discussed in relation to other living and fossil corbulid species.
The fluted margins of ammonite septa were thought to resist the hydrostatic pressure upon the phragmocone while the ammonoid dived. However, ammonoids probably did not dive deeper than the extant nautilids, whose conchs, with the simple septa, sustain pressure correlative to depth of about 800 m. The backward and forward stretching lobes and saddles actually provide resistance to pressure perpendicular to the septum. Ammonoids lived for about three to five years, and septa were precipitated in intervals of nearly two weeks to two days, which explain the small dimensions of the scars of the adductor muscles, which were periodically detached and reattached. The weak hold between these small muscles and the buoyant conch was compensated for by the backward branching and expanding folds (forming the sutural lobes), into which the soft tissue penetrated and stiffened for a required period to firmly anchor the body to the conch throughout its whole circumference. The greater the complexity of the septa marginal fluting, the better the ammonoid could withstand the dragging force between the body and the buoyant conch, and hence the more aggressively the ammonoid predated and competed with other creatures.
We studied upper Albian to Turonian shallowmarine shelf deposits (Ajlun Group) of west central Jordan along a NNE-SSW running transect. The carbonate-dominated succession includes few siliciclastic intercalations, claystones and shales, and can be subdivided into five formations. The Naur, Fuheis and Hummar Formations of upper Albian to upper Cenomanian age represent shallow subtidal to supratidal platform environments. The uppermost Cenomanian to middle Turonian Shueib Formation includes deeper water deposits of the inner/mid-shelf and locally TOC-rich black shales. Shallow-marine platform environments once again dominate the Wadi As Sir Formation (middle-upper Turonian). A new multibiostratigraphic framework is based on ammonites (mainly of the middle Cenomanian rhotomagense Zone to the middle Turonian woollgari Zone) and calcareous nannofossils (biozones CC 9-CC 11), supplemented by benthic and planktonic foraminifers and ostracods. It forms the base of a sequence stratigraphic subdivision, containing eight sedimentary sequences (S1-S8), which are separated by four Cenomanian sequence boundaries (CeJo1-CeJo4) and three Turonian sequence boundaries (TuJo1-TuJo3). This scheme allows the correlation of the platform succession from distal to proximal shelf areas in contrast to previous correlations using lithologic units. Furthermore, comparisons between the platform successions and sequence patterns of west central Jordan and those from neighbouring areas allow to differentiate local, regional, and global controlling factors of platform development within the study area.
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