Biotic Interactions among Recent and among Fossil Crinoids

Meyer, David L.; Ausich, William I.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-0740-3_9

Cited by 97 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Unfortunately, movement of complex camerate lineages toward the new, simplified, optimum would have first required the loss of Devonian-era defensive traits, such as thickened plates and spines (6,14). These defenses may have had some marginal value against the newly evolving crushers or remaining shearing predators in the Mississippian.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Persistent predator–prey dynamics revealed by mass extinction

Sallan

Kammer²,

Ausich³

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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108

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Predator-prey interactions are thought by many researchers to define both modern ecosystems and past macroevolutionary events. In modern ecosystems, experimental removal or addition of taxa is often used to determine trophic relationships and predator identity. Both characteristics are notoriously difficult to infer in the fossil record, where evidence of predation is usually limited to damage from failed attacks, individual stomach contents, onesided escalation, or modern analogs. As a result, the role of predation in macroevolution is often dismissed in favor of competition and abiotic factors. Here we show that the end-Devonian Hangenberg event (359 Mya) was a natural experiment in which vertebrate predators were both removed and added to an otherwise stable prey fauna, revealing specific and persistent trophic interactions. Despite apparently favorable environmental conditions, crinoids diversified only after removal of their vertebrate consumers, exhibiting predatory release on a geological time scale. In contrast, later Mississippian (359-318 Mya) camerate crinoids declined precipitously in the face of increasing predation pressure from new durophagous fishes. Camerate failure is linked to the retention of obsolete defenses or "legacy adaptations" that prevented coevolutionary escalation. Our results suggest that major crinoid evolutionary phenomena, including rapid diversification, faunal turnover, and species selection, might be linked to vertebrate predation. Thus, interactions observed in small ecosystems, such as Lotka-Volterra cycles and trophic cascades, could operate at geologic time scales and higher taxonomic ranks. Both trophic knock-on effects and retention of obsolete traits might be common in the aftermath of predator extinction.Carboniferous | durophagy | biodiversity | paleontology | macroecology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the Mid-Paleozoic Marine Revolution (MPMR), crinoids and other benthic invertebrates exhibited signs of escalation, including greater armature and spinosity (2,6,14). This has been linked to increased predation from nektonic ammonoids, arthropods, and especially jawed vertebrates-all devastated by the Hangenberg extinction (6,10,11,(15)(16)(17).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistent predator–prey dynamics revealed by mass extinction

Sallan

Kammer²,

Ausich³

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

108

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“…Before 1976, any boreholes with associated swellings on fossil crinoids were most commonly assigned to the parasitic activities of myzostomes (Graff 1885;Warn 1974). The studies of Welsh (1976), Brett (1978), and Meyer and Ausich (1983) restricted the myzostome infestations on fossil crinoids to spherical or ellipsoidal swellings on the arms and calyx with usually a single noncircular opening to the exterior. With this restricted definition of myzostome infestations, relations between crinoids and myzostomes are first recognized during the Pennsylvanian (Meyer and Ausich 1983).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cysticolous species live in the tissues of crinoids where they do not (or not significantly) deform the original skeleton but often induce the formation of minute skeletal ossicles reinforcing the walls of their shelters. Many deformities occurring on fossil crinoids have been attributed to myzostomes (Graff 1885;Warn 1974;Meyer and Ausich 1983), and the genus Myzoslomites Clarke, 1921 has been proposed for some of them. Franzen (1974) pointed out that extant myzostomes always produce deformities on the pinnules, arms, or calyx of crinoids and refuted the hypothesis of myzostomes being the agents responsible for deformities of fossil crinoid stalks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mycomyzostoma calcidicola gen. et sp. nov., the First Extant Parasitic Myzostome Infesting Crinoid Stalks, with a Nomenclatural Appendix by M. J. Grygier

Eeckhaut

1998

Spec.Div.

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A new genus and species of Myzostomida is described by means of light and electron microscopy. Mycomyzostoma calcidicola is a parasitic myzostome inducing cysts on the stalks of Saracrinus nobilis, a crinoid collected around New Caledonia. The main characteristics of the species are the unusual body shape of the female, the total regression of the female parapodia, the absence of digestive caeca in the females, the total regression of the digestive system in the males, and the site of the cysts. The discovery of M calcidicola re-opens the debate about the probable myzostomidan origin of parasitic traces occurring on prePennsylvanian crinoid stalks.

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The Associations between Fishes and Echinoderms

Karplus¹

2014

Symbiosis in Fishes

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Biotic Interactions among Recent and among Fossil Crinoids

Cited by 97 publications

References 44 publications

Persistent predator–prey dynamics revealed by mass extinction

Persistent predator–prey dynamics revealed by mass extinction

Mycomyzostoma calcidicola gen. et sp. nov., the First Extant Parasitic Myzostome Infesting Crinoid Stalks, with a Nomenclatural Appendix by M. J. Grygier

The Associations between Fishes and Echinoderms

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