Deep Time Biogeomorphology 2: Animals as Ancient Ecosystem Engineers

Abstract

This thematic set is the second of a pair of volumes delving into the co-evolution of life and sedimentary environments in deep time. Whilst the full gamut of life-sediment interactions is far too vast to cover in its entirety, across both volumes this set provides examples of how different organisms have interacted with sedimentary environments across the entirety of the Phanerozoic. The first thematic set of this pair focussed on plant-sediment interactions from the Carboniferous to the Pliocene (Davies et al., 2022; PALAIOS Volume 37, Issue 6), whereas this second set has a loose running theme of 'animals'; documenting examples of interactions between metazoans and the environments that they occupied.