Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic significance of freshwater bivalves in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Western Interior, USA

Abstract

Freshwater unionid bivalves are spatially and temporally distributed throughout the Morrison depositional basin, and locally dominate the biomass of many aquatic depositional environments. Two bivalve assemblages are identified. Within-channel assemblages are death assemblages that have been transported and may represent mixed assemblages from multiple communities. These assemblages are predominately disarticulated, in current stable orientations, and composed of higher stream velocity ecophenotypes (medium size, lanceolate form, and very thick shells). The floodplain-pond assemblages are disturbed neighborhood assemblages in the mudstones inhabited during life. The bivalves are predominately articulated, variable in size, and composed of low stream velocity ecophenotypes (large maximum sizes, ovate shell shapes, and thinner shells). The glochidial parasitic larval stage of unionid bivalves provides an effective means of dispersing species throughout drainage basins. These larvae attach to fish and are carried through the fluvial drainage where the larvae detach and establish new bivalve communities. Preliminary paleobiogeographic analyses are drawn at the genus level because of the need to reevaluate bivalve species of the Morrison. Unio spp. and Vetulonaia spp. are widespread throughout the Morrison depositional basin, but Hadrodon spp. are restricted to the eastern portion of the Colorado Plateau during Salt Wash Member deposition, suggesting that Salt Wash drainage was isolated from other contemporaneous regions of the basin. Bivalves from five localities in the Morrison Formation were thin-sectioned for growth band analysis. Growth bands of modern unionid bivalves are produced when the valves are forced to close. Closure can produce annual growth bands in response to seasonal variation, such as temperature-induced hibernation, or precipitation-induced aestivation or turbidity. Pseudoannual growth bands form from non-cyclical events such as predation attacks or isolated storm turbidity. Vetulonaia sp. from the Tidwell Member, Green River, Utah, and from Tidwell-equivalent beds at Como Bluff, Wyoming, exhibits continuous growth with no annual banding, suggesting that seasonality of climate and discharge did not vary appreciable during the year. Hadrodon sp. from the Salt Wash Member in Colorado National Monument, Colorado, exhibits annual banding with subequal light and dark bands indicating seasonal cyclicity. Vetulonaia sp. from the Cleveland-Lloyd locality, Utah, exhibits complex banding that indicates a combination of annual and pseudoannual bands. This suggests seasonal cyclicity and intermittent periods of environmental stress (predation, storm-produced turbidity and/or volcanic ash falls). Specimens of Vetulonaia sp. from Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, are replaced by chert with faint ghosts of bands that are too poorly preserved for environmental interpretations. Preliminary growth band studies suggest a change from a uniform optimum habitat in the Tidwell Member to strongly developed annual growth banding in the Salt Wash Member, suggesting cyclic annual precipitation, and finally to irregular banding produced by a complex interaction of weakly developed annual growth bands and pseudoannual bands in the Brushy Basin Member.