Animal-Plant Relationships and Paleobiogeography of an Eocene Seagrass Community from Florida

Ivany, Linda C.; Portell, Roger W.; Jones, D. S.

doi:10.2307/3514943

Cited by 82 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…Reteporella grimaldii (Jullien in Jullien and Calvet 1903) is a Cheilostomata bryozoan from the Phidoloporidae family morphologically described as a convoluted compact three-dimensional colony spreading up to 40 mm in length and 80 mm horizontally, forming anastomoses defining funnels (Hayward and Ryland 1996). Coevolution of faunal assemblages at seagrasses dates back to the Cretaceous (Ivany et al 1990) including the cheilostomate bryozoan such as R. grimaldii (Voigt 1981), which is coeval with the first documented occurrence of the genus Posidonia (P. cretacea) (Boudouresque and Jeudy de Grissac 1983). Therefore, epibionts and seagrasses have coevolved since the end of the Mesozoic, which has conduced to highly adapted biocenosis with complex interactions with the substrate and among the different organisms forming such communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between the invasive macroalga Lophocladia lallemandii and the bryozoan Reteporella grimaldii at seagrass meadows: density and physiological responses

et al. 2009

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Invasive epiphyte Lophocladia lallemandii macroalga induces changes in the erect bryozoan Reteporella grimaldii at shallow Posidonia oceanica meadows at a Mediterranean pristine location. Bryozoan densities at noninvaded seagrass plots (88.32 ± 3.11 colonies m -2 ) are higher than those at invaded plots (13.39 ± 1.09 colonies m -2 ) with a fourfold decrease in number of colonies. Activation of enzymatic pathways (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase) and increase in lipid peroxidation malondialdehyde (MDA) [0.80 ± 0.06 nmol/mg prot at Posidonia oceanica plots to 1.08 ± 0.04 nmol/ mg prot at L. lallemandii (P \ 0.05)] is observed on sessile bryozoans as response to anoxia caused by L. lallemandii. d 13 C of bryozoan isotopic composition differed among treatments, covering a broad range (-19.30% invaded to -2.84% at noninvaded plots), suggesting modification of food sources. Induced shifts of a filter-feeding erect bryozoan by dense algal turfs at invaded seagrasses are demonstrated, highlighting the need to further address interaction across natural communities and alien species invaded systems before further cascade effects are driven.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between the invasive macroalga Lophocladia lallemandii and the bryozoan Reteporella grimaldii at seagrass meadows: density and physiological responses

et al. 2009

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“…There were at least two invasions of land plants into mangrove environments in the Late Cretaceous, three during the Eocene, and four in the Oligocene and Miocene (Ricklefs & Latham, 1993). At least two sea-grass genera are known from the latest Cretaceous, and others had arisen by the Eocene (den Hartog, 1970;Ivany, Portell & Jones, 1990). We do not know anything about the history of salt marsh plants, but their wide distribution implies origins no later than the Early Cenozoic.…”

Section: Land To Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Why are there so few evolutionary transitions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems?

Vermeij

Dudley

2000

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

152

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Insects and flowering plants have rarely invaded the sea. Explanations for this have traditionally centered on the unique shortcomings of these groups in the marine environment. We show, however, that transitions among terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments are infrequent in all major plant and animal clades except tetrapod vertebrates. In general, well-adapted incumbents are at a competitive advantage over would-be invaders from a physically different habitat. Data on the times and places of transition are consistent with our contention that evolutionary transitions among physically different environments are most likely when incumbents in the recipient environment exist in a regime of low-intensity competition and predation, as in terrestrial communities of the middle Paleozoic or the land biotas of oceanic islands. Freshwater environments, in which inferred intensities of predation are lower than in most marine and terrestrial environments, offer less biotic resistance to invaders than do communities in the sea or on land. Most invaders respond to novel physical circumstances by shutting down their metabolic machinery, and therefore add to their subordinate status as competitors with active incumbents. Only active tetrapods, particularly those with high and endothermically driven rates of metabolism, have successfully overcome this limitation.

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“…This history extends over the 50 million years of the fossil record of these mammals (mainly those in the Order Sirenia: dugongs and manatees), and chiefly involves the tropical-to-temperate, cosmopolitan marine angiosperms or seagrasses (Hydrocharitaceae and Potamogetonaceae), which today constitute one of the Earth's most productive ecosystems, as has presumably been true throughout the Cenozoic (Ivany et al, 1990). The greatly diminished diversity of modern sirenians, however, is a major obstacle to exploring how feeding adaptations, niche partitioning, and other…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the fossil record of seagrasses, scant though it is, gives no hint that this diversity was ever significantly greater: all known Tertiary seagrasses, even as far back as the Eocene, are referred to living genera, and many to living species (Larkum and den Hartog, 1989;Ivany et al, 1990). There is evidence (Lumbert et al, 1984;Ivany et al, 1990) that the Caribbean seagrass flora was more diverse in the Eocene than it is today, but not more diverse than the Indopacific seagrass flora of today.…”

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confidence: 99%

Use of tusks in feeding by dugongid sirenians: Observations and tests of hypotheses

Domning

Beatty

2007

The Anatomical Record

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Most living and fossil sea cows of the subfamily Dugonginae (Dugongidae, Sirenia, Mammalia) are characterized by large upper incisor tusks, which are thought to play an important role (at least primitively) in feeding on seagrass rhizomes. Testing this hypothesis is difficult, because the only extant tusked sirenian (Dugong dugon) is morphologically and perhaps behaviorally aberrant. The tests attempted here involve examination of stomach contents of wild Recent dugongs, experiments using plastic replicas of diverse tusks to harvest seagrasses, gross anatomical observations on tusks and skulls, measurements of tusk tip geometry, and observations of microwear on tusks. We conclude that (a) male D. dugon (with erupted tusks) do not consume more rhizomes than females (without erupted tusks); (b) the tusks do not play a significant role in feeding in the modern dugong; (c) larger, more bladelike tusks are more effective at harvesting rhizomes, but the effect of shape was not experimentally separated from the effect of exposed tusk length; (d) some fossil dugongines show apparent cranial adaptations for downward and backward cutting motions of their large, bladelike tusks; (e) geometry of wear surfaces is consistent with use of at least the more bladelike tusks as cutting instruments; (f) preliminary observations of microwear in D. dugon do not indicate more than occasional use of the tusks in purposeful harvesting of rhizomes, and then only opportunistically by large adult males. The hypothesis of such tusk use by extinct dugongines (in contrast to the living species) is so far corroborated, but available data and tests do not suffice to establish this conclusively. Anat Rec, 290:523-538, 2007Rec, 290:523-538, . 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: Sirenia, Dugongidae; Dugong dugon; tusk; feeding; seagrass rhizomes; stomach contents; dental microwear A quantitatively significant but poorly understood aspect of mammalian history is the long relationship between herbivorous marine mammals and the plants they have eaten. This history extends over the 50 million years of the fossil record of these mammals (mainly those in the Order Sirenia: dugongs and manatees), and chiefly involves the tropical-to-temperate, cosmopolitan marine angiosperms or seagrasses (Hydrocharitaceae and Potamogetonaceae), which today constitute one of the Earth's most productive ecosystems, as has presumably been true throughout the Cenozoic (Ivany et al., 1990). The greatly diminished diversity of modern sirenians, however, is a major obstacle to exploring how feeding adaptations, niche partitioning, and other

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Animal-Plant Relationships and Paleobiogeography of an Eocene Seagrass Community from Florida

Cited by 82 publications

References 0 publications

Interaction between the invasive macroalga Lophocladia lallemandii and the bryozoan Reteporella grimaldii at seagrass meadows: density and physiological responses

Interaction between the invasive macroalga Lophocladia lallemandii and the bryozoan Reteporella grimaldii at seagrass meadows: density and physiological responses

Why are there so few evolutionary transitions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems?

Use of tusks in feeding by dugongid sirenians: Observations and tests of hypotheses

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