T10 Biodiversity Dynamics in the Face of Environmental Change: Integrating Paleontological and Neontological Approaches to Macroevolution I

Sunday, 22 October 2017
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 608

HOW DOES A WINNER EQUIP ITSELF? A TRAIT-BASED ANALYSIS OF COMPETITIVE OUTCOMES OVER 2 MILLION YEARS

Paper number: T10-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

A benthic community of encrusting organisms has lived and evolved side-by-side in coastal New Zealand over more than two million years. Everyday for the two million years, colonies of cheilostome bryozoans fought for space, without which they can neither feed nor reproduce. Because space is such a crucial resource for encrusting organisms, competition for territory is likely to have consequences for both short-term and long-term evolutionary outcomes. We studied both fossil and contemporary colonies of cheilostomes in the Wanganui Basin of North Island, New Zealand, to document patterns of competitive overgrowths. We ask the questions: which traits can predict overgrowth outcomes and whether some of those traits change over time and why. Using thousands of interactions, we show that zooid size is in important predictor in competitive overgrowths, together with other traits such as spines, avicularia and budding types, but that size also changes through time within a given species.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-296308

© Copyright 2017 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.