An Integrated Study of Echinoid Taphonomy: Predictions for the Fossil Record of Four Echinoid Families

Abstract

Field observations of four common tropical Western Atlantic regular echinoids, Diadema antillarum, Eucidaris tribuloides, Echinometra lucunter and Tripneustes ventricosus, reveal that they are reduced to essentially bleached skeletons, devoid of organic material, within six days of death. This suggests that, in the absence of organic connective tissues, the degree to which stereom interlocks across plate sutures may become an important factor in determining the amount of breakage suffered by the corona in response to biostratinomic processes