Quantitative Community Analysis: Recurrent Group and Cluster Techniques Applied to the Fauna of the Upper Devonian Sonyea Group, New York

MacDonald, K. B.

doi:10.1086/628123

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Similarity is based on an unweighted Jaccard's coefficient and clustering was done using single linkage (Sneath and Sokal, 1973). This technique groups samples based upon co-occurrence of items using presence--absence data and ignores mutual absences {Macdonald, 1975). Clusters are linked at the value of the two most highly correlated items among the clusters (Sneath and Sokal, 1973).…”

Section: Bio Tic Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin, Northwestern Wyoming (U.S.A.)

Winkler

1983

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Winkler, D. A., 1983. Paleoecology of an early Eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the Clarks Fork Basin, northwestern Wyoming (U.S.A.). Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimmatol., Palaeoecol.,.The paleoecology and depositional history of an early Eocene vertebrate assemblage dominated by small mammals is analyzed at a richly fossiliferous locality in the Willwood Formation, northwestern Wyoming. Systematic surface sampling using a quadrat net, screen washing, and quarrying of fresh sediment show that all vertebrate material in these fluvial deposits is contained in dark gray mudstones representing the A horizons of paleosols. Seven such paleosols occur in 22 m of stratigraphic section. The fauna includes 34 species of mammals, and also birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and gastropods. All vertebrate fossil material is fragmented, but it shows no evidence of transportation or current sorting. Surface weathering and possibly carnivore activity are responsible for the fragmentation and for an overabundance of dense and compact skeletal elements.Detailed surface collections were made to obtain multiple samples from the different bone beds (paleosols). Principle component analysis shows that differences in the type and abundance of fossils from the various collecting areas are related to differences between contained bone beds, not differences along single bone beds. One paleosol has a red B horizon and six have an orange B horizon. The gray-over-red colored paleosol is faunally distinct from gray-over-orange paleosols. It contains the only specimens of two large, archaic mammals, and no very small mammalian taxa.Cluster analysis on the occurrence of vertebrate taxa is used to define subsets of the fauna that may represent animals living in different habitats. Separate clusters are formed by a group of the most common terrestrial herbivorous mammals and the crocodilian Allognathosuchus, and by a group of small, possibly arboreal herbivores and carnivores.The relative abundance of each mammalian species was initially calculated from a sample representing a minimum of 300 individual animals collected from the surface. The surface sample is dominated by mammals that are medium-sized for the fauna. Screen washing yields a greater relative abundance of very small mammals than was found on the surface. This indicates that the surface sample is biased against small forms. Corrected relative abundances based on both surface and washing samples show that the fauna is dominated numerically by very small mammals (one multituberculate species and several insectivores). Screen washing of fresh matrix is the best means of sampling a locality for paleoecological purposes. 1Present address:

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Section: Bio Tic Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin, Northwestern Wyoming (U.S.A.)

Winkler

1983

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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“…This method of analysis was chosen as it is nonparametric; that is, the samples do not have to be random or normally distributed, statistical criteria not met by the present collections. Additionally, cluster analysis has been fairly commonly used in geologic research (Kaesler, 1966;Maddocks, 1966;Bonham-Carter, 1967;Valentine and Peddicord, 1967;Mello and Buzas, 1968;Hazel, 1970Hazel, , 1971MacDonald, 1975;Smosna and Warshauer, 1978; Warshauer and Smosna, 1977) and is generally easy to understand (Sneath and Sokal, 1973). Similarities were calculated by use of Sorensen's coefficient, a quantified similarity coefficient previously used for ecologic and paleoecologic studies (Bray and Curtis, 1957;Park, 1968Park, , 1974Gevirtz and others, 1971;Gevirtz, 1974 2 ) that lacks the problems inherent with distance functions (Sepkoski, 1974).…”

Section: Paleoecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeocopid and podocopid Ostracoda from the Lexington Limestone and Clays Ferry Formation (Middle and Upper Ordovician) of central Kentucky

Warshauer¹,

Berdan²

1982

Professional Paper

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“…The paleoecology of the major benthic communities of the shelf and delta-front facies of the Genesee and Sonyea have been described in modern quantitative studies (Thayer, 1973(Thayer, , 1974Macdonald, 1975;Bowen and others, 1974;and McGhee and Sutton, 1981). A resurvey of the biostratigraphy of the ammonoid cephalopods was begun by M. R. House to determine the horizons and ranges of the type specimens in terms of the newer correlations.…”

Section: Ammonoid Faunas and Horizonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ammonoid horizons in the Upper Devonian Genesee Formation of New York: Legacy of the Genesee, Portage, and Chemung

Kirchgasser¹

1985

The Catskill Delta

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The names Genesee, Portage and Chemung are indelibly linked to the early Upper Devonian stratigraphy of the Catskill delta in western New York. For over a century generations of stratigraphers struggled in the attempt to correlate these groups eastward from the Genesee Valley into sections around the delta-front at Cayuga Lake. Rapid thickening and intertonguing of facies were the chief difficulties, but the misinterpretation of ammonoids also played a major role in obscuring the facies relationships. Manticoceras sinuosum (Hall, 1843), the index fossil of the Portage Group, was mistaken by James Hall and J. M. Clarke and later workers for species of Ponticeras and Koenenites from horizons in the older Genesee Formation east of Canandaigua Lake. Some of these Genesee ammonoid horizons have been traced from the pelagic facies in the basin into the benthic facies of the delta-front. One of these horizons in the Upper Penn Yan and Middle Ithaca Members may record an interval of transgression or standstill in the progradation of the delta. The ammonoid horizons in the GeneseeFormation at Cayuga Lake are stratigraphic markers which should aid in the taxonomic and biostratigraphic revision of the benthic groups and in the refinement of the paleoecological associations in the delta-front facies.In commencing investigations of any kind, where the objects are numerous, lines must be occasionally drawn; they are to the mind, like steps or rounds of a ladder: we have then a place to stand and look around, and to ascertain fully our position. Vanuxem (1842)

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Quantitative Community Analysis: Recurrent Group and Cluster Techniques Applied to the Fauna of the Upper Devonian Sonyea Group, New York

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

Paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin, Northwestern Wyoming (U.S.A.)

Paleoecology of an early eocene mammalian fauna from paleosols in the clarks fork basin, Northwestern Wyoming (U.S.A.)

Palaeocopid and podocopid Ostracoda from the Lexington Limestone and Clays Ferry Formation (Middle and Upper Ordovician) of central Kentucky

Ammonoid horizons in the Upper Devonian Genesee Formation of New York: Legacy of the Genesee, Portage, and Chemung

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