Fish taphonomy and paleoecology

Abstract

The contribution of fish studies to the paleoecology of ancient waters generally takes the form of (1) fish taphonomy or (2) inference using analogies from modern fish. (1) Taphonomy contributes information about depositional environment, limnology, life history, mortality, and preservation. Taphonomic reconstruction of ecology and preservation depends on the applicability of modern ecological and limnological information. (2) Modern taxonomic or functional analogues provide possible interpretations of limiting factors, behaviors, and trophic dynamics, inferred from presumed functional relationships between morphology and habitats or feeding modes. But the inferences become weak with increased geologic age or phyletic distance between subject and analogue. Decay, transport, and burial can be experimentally studied as processes in which information is lost, reorganized, or stored under the control of biogenic or hydrodynamic energy. Because potential information depends on initial complexity of the organisms, fish skeletons are rich sources of data. The several distinctive ways in which parts of the skeleton are rearranged (by bacteria, currents, or scavengers) provide new information. The neglected role of temperature in controlling gas formation and buoyancy of carcasses is a source of data equal in importance to scavengers and currents.