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Rowan Lee Honors Thesis Final.pdf (4.71 MB)

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The Molluscan Taphofacies of and Influence of Callianassid Shrimp on a Carbonate Lagoon (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands)

Lee, Rowan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin155960059729332

Abstract Details

2019, BA, Oberlin College, Geology.
Sediments collect in reef lagoons, and the shells within these can record changes in the environment as they accumulate. Smuggler’s Cove (St. Croix, USVI) has been accumulating a sediment package for at least 5,000 years based on radiocarbon ages. Callianassid shrimp severely bioturbate this lagoon’s sediment package by moving shell material into shelly, subsurface lags that have a high chance of becoming fossilized. Shell condition (taphonomy) was compared between surface and lag to see whether the lag is an accurate representation of the living surface fauna. Guild membership, taxon, and mollusk size between surface and lag assemblages were analyzed. It was found that the surface beds were more similar to each other than to lags regardless of habitat, and subsurface beds were also more like one another. The dominance of infaunal guilds and the scarcity of epifaunal guilds in the subsurface suggests that it is difficult for callianassids to bring down surface shells. The decrease in taphonomic alteration in the lower beds suggests that shrimp are not pulling shells down by size alone but rather by life guild, favoring infaunal over epifaunal organisms. Since infaunal organisms are less subject to taphonomic alteration than epifaunal ones and tend to be small, guild membership is driving the overall taphonomic signal and influences the results for species and size. Therefore, infaunal species may be overrepresented in the fossil record in these types of environments. The epifaunal surface shells on the other hand, may persist there until degraded into sand.
Karla Parsons-Hubbard (Advisor)
Steven F. Wojtal (Committee Member)
Dennis K. Hubbard (Committee Member)
98 p.
Geology; Paleoecology; Paleontology
taphonomy; taphofacies; seagrass; mollusks; Callianassa; St Croix; lagoon; infuanal; epifaunal; paleontology; bioturbation; environmental change; Smugglers cove

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lee, R. (2019). The Molluscan Taphofacies of and Influence of Callianassid Shrimp on a Carbonate Lagoon (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands) [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin155960059729332

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lee, Rowan. The Molluscan Taphofacies of and Influence of Callianassid Shrimp on a Carbonate Lagoon (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands). 2019. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin155960059729332.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lee, Rowan. "The Molluscan Taphofacies of and Influence of Callianassid Shrimp on a Carbonate Lagoon (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands)." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin155960059729332

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin155960059729332
286
© 2018, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Molluscan Taphofacies of and Influence of Callianassid Shrimp on a Carbonate Lagoon (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands) by Rowan Lee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.