Display Full Text | Download Full Text
42.23 MB PDF file

Degree

MS, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geology, 2009.

Abstract

Analysis of the fossil decapod faunas in coral reefs from localities at Topalu and Piatra in Central Dobrogea, Romania, yielded five new species and one new genus belonging to superfamilies Homolodromioidea Alcock, 1899, and Glaessneropsoidea Patrulius, 1959. Comparison of the abundance and diversity of decapod faunas from these Jurassic coral reefs with the abundance and diversity of decapod faunas from sponge-algal reefs in the same geographic area and of the same age (middle Oxfordian) has led to some interesting paleoecological differences. The coral reef environments yielded 30 specimens of decapods that represented six families in seven genera and ten species, including the new taxa. The sponge reef environments yielded 22 specimens that represented only three families with four genera and five species. These two different types of environments share only one genus in common, and no species. Thus, the number of specimens is similar, but the diversity is markedly different. Furthermore, the nearly complete taxonomic difference between the environments (no shared species and only one shared genus) suggests that the environments selected for different adaptations, leading to niche partitioning within and between habitats. The higher abundance and diversity in the coral environments may reflect a higher number of niches available for decapods, shallower water depth, higher oxygen content and/or difference in energy levels in the two environments, making coral reefs a more suitable environment for decapods.

Subject Headings

Earth; Geology; Paleoecology; Paleontology

Keywords

Decapod; Romania; Dobrogea; Jurassic; Brachyurans; Coral reefs.

Committee / Advisors

Dr. Rodney Feldmann (Advisor)
Dr. Carrie Schweitzer (Committee Member)
Dr. Neil Wells (Committee Member)

Pages

112p.

Document number: kent1237581989
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1237581989

This ETD has been downloaded 113 times (through March 2013)