Lab 3.

B: Fossils
Aquatic Macro-Organisms

Watch this Intro to Marine Invertebrate Identification:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Q5jHJ_dGQ&ab_channel=Earth.Parts
Marine Organisms with mineralized hard parts (initially CaCO3 or SiO2):
1. Prokarya: Archea & Bacteria (e.g. cyanobacteria -> Stromatolites)
2. Eukarya:
a. Protists: protozoa (animal-like: amoeboid -> foraminifera: bentic, planktonic),
protophyta (plant-like: red/green/brown algea, coccoliths)
b. Archeoplastida -> Plants + Algae: red algae (Rhodophyta), green algae (Chlorophyt
c. Animalia:
- Porifera: Sponges
- Cnidaria: Stromatoporoids, Corals: Rugose, Tabulate, Scleractinian...
- Bryozoans
- Brachiopods
- Mollusca (Chitons, Bivlaves, Gastropods, Pteropods, Cephalopods, Belemnoids)
- Arthropods (Decapods, Ostracodes, Barnacles, Trilobites)
- Echinoderms (Crinoids-sea lilies, sea urchins, star fish ..)

Terms:
Aquatic: can live in all types of water, fresh water = lake, river.. to salt water = marine
Marine: salty ocean water
Limnic: fresh water in a lake
Rivers: fresh water in river
Terrestrial: lives on continent (need air)
 Cyanobacteria Mats – Stromatolites: Shapes
• Since Archean (c. 3.5 Ga) to recent
• Aquatic - saline, shallow water (photic zone)
• Encrusting and trapping/binding sediment LLH
Laterally linked hemispheroids (LLH) vs.
vertically stacked hemispheroids (SH)
• Biologically mediated abiogenic precipitation of
calcite (CaCO3) due to microbial mat
SH
photosynthesis
 Stromatolite (England)
Stromatolite:
sediment trapping algae mats
Younging direction Fossilized (e.g. Argentina)

Stromatolite (Morocco), top view

Recent (Shark Bay, Australia)

Phylum Porifera: Sponge
Lower Cambrian to recent (possibly Precambrian?)
• Solitary and colonial (can build reefs, Jurassic)
• Aquatic (limnic, marine), sessile-benthic
• Filter-feeder, some carnivores (feed on crustaceans)
• Host photosynthesizing micro-organisms (endosymb.)
• Mineralogy: low-high Mg-calcite (CaCO3), spongin, SiO2 spicules (up to 1mm)
• Endo- or exoskeleton: porous walls, shape variable
• No organs, no try tissue

Siliceous Sponge Spicules = needles

Modern Sponges
 Phylum Cnidaria - Class Anthozoa: The Corals
• Time of living: Ordovician to recent (still living: Scleractinia)
• Six-fold Symmetry
• Calcite or aragonite skeletal structures occupied by polyps

Rugosa Tabulata Scleractinia

Ordovician to Permian Ordovician to Permian Triassic to Recent
Phylum Cnidaria: Tabulate Corals
• Tabulate corals (c. 300 extinct species, Hexacorals)
• Ordovician to Permian (Permian-Triassic Extinction)
• Reef builder (colonial, hermatypic)
• Shallow marine: warm, tropical, photic zone
• Skeleton parts: Septae reduced, tabulae (horizontal partitions) – CaCO3

Halysites (chain coral)

 Heliolites

Favosites
Phylum Cnidaria: Rugosa
• Rugosa Corals: c. 10 species
• Middle Ordovician to Late Permian (P-T Extinction)
• Mostly solitary up to 1 m (some patch-building: many close to each other)
• Shallow marine: warm, tropical, photic zone

Thin section of a Horn Coral Rugosa (Horn) Coral

Phylum Cnidaria: Scleractinia
• Middle Triassic to Recent
• Marine: Mostly tropical warm shallow water, more than 27 ppm Salinity
• Shallow marine-photic zone: Symbiotic with Zooxanthellae (Dinoflagelates)
-> color
• Deep marine: cold water
• Some solitary at abyssal depth or cold regions
• Many reef builder: mostly colonial
• CaCO3

Solitary Scleractinia
(asymbiotic)

Colonial Scleractinia (symbiotic, meandering pattern) Rugose Septa Scleractinian Septa

Phylum Bryozoa
• Ordovician to recent, most important in Paleozoic
• Aquatic (limnic, marine), sessile-benthic, warm to cold water
• Colonial (individuals are zooids, the colony is a zoarium)
• Filter-feeder (lophophore = filter apparatus)
• Shape: upright dendritic or fan-shaped, flat and encrusting
• CaCO3
Fossil Bryozoa
zooids

Recent Bryozoa
Phylum Echinodermata
• Cambrian to recent (mostly, some extinct), but are important Paleozoic Reef builders
• “Spiny Skin”
• Solitary, marine (shallow to deep marine), sessile-benthic or mobile-benthic
some may be planktonic (a type of crinoid)
• 5 fold-radial symmetry, endoskeleton
Crinoids (Sea lily)
• Ordovician to Recent
• VERY IMPORTANT component of many
Limestones
• Low to high Mg-Calcite (CaCO3)
• Crown, stalk (stem) out of discs
• Sessile or planktonic
Crinoidal Limestone
Echinoids (Sea urchin)
• Ordovician to Recent
• Vagrant-benthic (epi- or endobenthic)
• Regular or irregular (mouth same side of anus)
• Long or short spines, tube feet, Feeding apparatus
(Aristotle’s lantern)
• Mineralogy: high Mg-Calcite – CaCO3

Aristotle’s
lantern
Asteroidea (Starfish)
• Ordovician to Recent
• Marine (any, even extreme environ., vagrant-epibenthic)
• Feeding: predators on benthic invertebrates, filtering
• Mineralogy: high Mg-Calcite – CaCO3
• 5 fold symmetry, tube feet, eyes at tips of arms
• Can survive short periods without water

(Top) (Bottom)
Phylum Brachiopoda
• Lower Cambrian to recent, but mostly a Paleozoic reef builder
• Solitary (but form cover), sessile-epibenthic, some endobenthic, some drifting (e.g. on
wood)
• Marine (shallow to deep), Filter-feeder (Lophophor)
• Mineralogy: CaCO3 -> Calcite (no to low Mg) or chitineous-phosphatic
• Biconvex symmetric/dissimilar shells, Lophophor = filter apparatus, pedicle (anchor
mechanism, foot-like), shells stay together upon death! -> both shells together
preserved!
Structure that supports the
Lophophore

Symmetry axis

Bi-convex symmetry,
dissimilar valves clamp
tightly shut upon death
 Phylum Mollusca
Tend to become more important after the Paleozoic
Bivalves (Mollusca)
• C. 15000 species (e.g. oysters, clams, mussels..)
• Cambrian to recent, but only important reef builders after End-Permian Extinction
• Solitary (but form cover/reef: rudist reefs)
• Aquatic (limnic, marine, shallow to deep marine, any type of water)
• Filter-feeder
• Mineralogy: Calcite or Aragonite (secretion by mantle) – CaCO3
• Multi-layer shells, bilateral symmetry/mirror images, shells fall apart upon death!!
Mostly only one Bilateral symmetry, similar valves
shell found (rarely
stuck together)

* Break open upon death

 15 cm large
Bivalve fossile
England

Storm deposit
of bivalve shells
In limestone (England)
Gastropod (Mollusca)
• Snails (preserved hard shells)
• Cambrian to recent
• Solitary
• Aquatic (fresh to salt water, shallow to
deep – all water) + terrestrial
• Mobile-benthic, some planktonic
• Mineralogy: CaCO3 - Calcite (no to low
Mg or Aragonite)
• Often coiled, exoskeleton
 Gastropod Gastropod OR Bivalve Shells –
Fossil (Spain) may lead to formation of
Coquina (if cemented)

Gastropod shells in limestone

(England), storm layer
 Class Cephalopoda (Mollusca)
• Solitary
• Marine nektonic (buoyancy, propelling)
• Endo- (Belemnites) or exoskeleton (Nautilus, Ammonites, Ortho/Endo-ceras)
• Also: Squid, octopi, cuttlefish: poorly represented in fossil record
• CaCO3

Ammonitic cephalopod - extinct

Nautilus (living)
 Venter (siphuncle)
(hole or pipe-like)
Pressure adjustment
used for propelling
and buoyancy
Types of Coiled
Cephalopods

Suture Patterns – get more complex over time

 Straight (exoskeleton) Orthoceras in dark grey
Cephalopod, Orthoceras limestone (Morocco)

Coiled Cephalopod (exoskeleton), Ammonite Southern England limestone with ammonites

Times of living – Some Cephalopods

• Nautiloidea – general (Ordovician – 1 still living)

Includes: straight Endoceras: Mid- to Upper Ordovician
straight Orthoceras: Ordovician – Late Triassic
coiled Nautilus: Late Triassic – still existing
• Ammonoidea (Devonian – End of Cretaceous)
includes: Ammonites, Goniatites…
-> type depends of exact type…(classified by suture line pattern)
• Belemnitidea:
Subgroup Belemnites: Jurassic-Cretaceous
Belemnites (endoskeleton)
Soft tissue around (on outside)

Rostrum (preserved
hard part)
 Ostracods (a small crustacean)
Phylum Arthropoda Typically A few mm big
Trilobites (Arthoropoda)
• Lower Cambrian to Permian
• Solitary, mobile-benthic, Agnostos (tiny): planktonic?
• Marine
• Mineralogy: Calcite (no Mg) – CaCO3
• Segmented hard parts, grow by skinning/casting
• 3 Segments: Cephalon (head piece, facial suture line),
Thorax (main body segment), Pygidium (back piece), spinal
axis segments, some have facetted eyes
• Roll up when in danger
Trilobite Parts
in clastic shale