Geological Society of America

T191 Advances in Virtual Paleontology: Applications, Digitization, and Dissemination (Posters)

Tuesday, 12 October 2021
2:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall A

MARINE NURSERIES FORMED BY EDIACARAN FRONDS

Paper number: T191-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Authors

Lucas Bittof Presenting Author
Vanderbilt University, Dandridge, TN
Brandt Gibson
Earth and Environmental Science, Nashville, TN
Frances Dunn
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford
Imran A. Rahman
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, GA
Simon Darroch
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Abstract

Modern seagrass communities can induce canopy flow, where water flow within the seagrass canopy is slowed relative to the flow above. This creates a nursery habitat, providing shelter for juvenile animals. It was previously hypothesized that Ediacaran rangeomorph communities engendered canopy flow, and so we evaluate the possibility that these communities acted as nurseries by slowing water flow within the canopy. To address this, we constructed 3-D models of frondose organisms with varying levels of morphological detail, which were used in computer simulations of water flow (computational fluid dynamics, or CFD). The results allow us to establish the minimum level of anatomical complexity that needs to be represented in individual models in order to accurately reconstruct patterns of fluid flow. In addition, our simulations shed further light on the feasibility of osmotrophy in frondose Ediacaran organisms. These data provide the starting point for large-scale CFD simulations of flow around communities of Ediacaran fronds, revealing the extent to which these communities induce canopy flow and hence whether they would have been effective nursery habitats.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 53, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-371270

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