T115 Surf to Sea, Small to Large, Bottom to Top: Ecosystem Perspectives on the Marine Fossil Record I

Wednesday, 28 October 2020
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Meeting Rooms

MODELING HARDPART PRESERVATION AS A RESULT OF MIXING, ADVECTION, AND DISINTEGRATION OF SKELETAL REMAINS IN SEDIMENT

Paper number: T115-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:35 AM – 10:45 AM

Authors

Abstract

Preservation of skeletal remains is controlled by interactions of physical, chemical, and biological processes whose intensity determines the quality of the (sub)fossil record and of the ecological inferences made from it.

We present a model of mixing, advection, and disintegration of skeletal remains in sediment that is based on a reaction-diffusion-advection equation. The resulting age-depth-distribution of skeletal remains in the sediment describes the taphonomic pathway from primary skeletal input via death assemblage and historical assemblage into the fossil record.

We use this model to discuss the effects of both extrinsic (Bioturbation, Sedimentation) and intrinsic (Skeletal robustness) taphonomic parameters on (1) skeletal enrichment or depletion and (2) time averaging in the fossil record.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 52, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2020AM-350951

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