How to translate text using browser tools
24 September 2020 METAZOAN REEF CONSTRUCTION IN A MIDDLE ORDOVICIAN SEASCAPE: A CASE STUDY FROM THE MINGAN ARCHIPELAGO, QUEBEC
Amelia Penny, André Desrochers, Björn Kröger
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

The Ordovician (485–444 Ma) saw a global shift from microbial- to skeletal-dominated reefs, and the rise of corals and bryozoans as important reef-builders. Hypothetically, increasingly morphologically diverse and abundant reef-building metazoans increased spatial habitat heterogeneity in reef environments, an important component of reefs' capacity to support diverse communities. Quantifying the spatial scale and extent of this heterogeneity requires three-dimensional exposures of well-preserved reefs whose composition and spatial arrangement can be measured. The Darriwilian (c. 467–458 Ma) carbonate sequence of the Mingan Archipelago, Quebec, presents such exposures, and also provides an opportunity to establish how the distribution of skeletal-dominated metazoan reefs contributed to, and was influenced by, seafloor relief. This study includes two transects through a 200–300 m wide paleo-reef belt, which developed along a rocky paleo-coast line. The reefs are typically micrite-rich, meter-scale mounds, locally forming larger complexes. Here, we present quantitative evaluations of the composition of these reefs, and detailed mapping of reef distributions. There is high compositional heterogeneity between reefs at spatial scales ranging from meters to kilometers, contributed by differences in the volumetric contribution of skeletal material to the reef core, and in the identity of the dominant reef-builders. We suggest that the abundance and morphological diversity of Middle Ordovician reef building metazoans made them important contributors to environmental and substrate heterogeneity, likely enhancing the diversity of reef-dwelling communities.

Copyright © 2020, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology)
Amelia Penny, André Desrochers, and Björn Kröger "METAZOAN REEF CONSTRUCTION IN A MIDDLE ORDOVICIAN SEASCAPE: A CASE STUDY FROM THE MINGAN ARCHIPELAGO, QUEBEC," PALAIOS 35(8), 327-341, (24 September 2020). https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2020.010
Received: 11 February 2020; Accepted: 18 July 2020; Published: 24 September 2020
JOURNAL ARTICLE
15 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top