Selective extinction and survival across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain
- New Jersey State Museum, Trenton (United States)
The inner Atlantic Coastal Plain in New Jersey and the Delmarva Peninsula is underlain by an Upper Cretaceous-lower Tertiary sequence of marine and paralic sand, clay, and glauconitic beds. Campanian, Maastrichtian, Danian, and Thanetian deposits are especially fossiliferous and yield a succession of marine faunas that reveal a pattern of selective extinction and survival across the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary in this area. Cretaceous benthic invertebrate communities are dominated by oysters and other semi-infaunal and infaunal molluscs with planktotrophic larval stages. These are replaced in the Danian by brachiopod-dominated communities that are composed of epifaunal benthos with a variety of nonplanktotrophic reproductive strategies. A similar pattern is observable in the nektonic cephalopod populations in this sequence; the typical ammonites of the Cretaceous became extinct at the K/T boundary, whereas the nautilids survived. Ammonites are thought to have had a planktotrophic larval stage, whereas nautilids are known to lay large lecithotrophic eggs. This pattern of differential survival is attributed to the planktonic population crash at the K/T boundary which placed planktotrophically reproducing species at a disadvantage while favoring the varied groups that practiced alternative reproductive strategies.
- OSTI ID:
- 5996741
- Journal Information:
- Geology; (United States), Journal Name: Geology; (United States) Vol. 19:10; ISSN GLGYB; ISSN 0091-7613
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580000* -- Geosciences
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CENOZOIC ERA
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEATH
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FEDERAL REGION II
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGY
MESOZOIC ERA
NEW JERSEY
NORTH AMERICA
PALEONTOLOGY
REPRODUCTION
STRATIGRAPHY
SURVIVAL CURVES
TERTIARY PERIOD
USA