APPLICATION OF MICROFOSSILS
IN PALAEOENVIRONMENT
INTERPRETATION
PRESENTED BY,
SIBANI CHAKRAVARTY
LEENA PAWE
CONTENTS
Introduction
FOSSILS
MICROFOSSILS
PALAEOENVIRONMENT
interpreting palaeoenvironment with the
help of microfossils
FORAMINIFERA
PHYTOPLANKTOn
Radiolaria
Ostracods
pollen and spores
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
FOSSILS:
The actual remains or indirect evidences of
prehistoric life preserved within rocks under natural
conditions.
Fossils are of two type:
Macrofossils
Microfossils
PALAEOENVIRONMENT:
An environment prevailing at a particular time
in the geological past.
Radiolaria
Foraminifera
Conodont Diatom
INTERPRETING
PALAEOENVIRONMENT
WITH THE HELP OF
MICROFOSSILS
Advantage of using microfossils in
palaeoenvoronment
They possess a shell or a test, which is so
robust that they are not easily destroyed
after their deposition.
Many groups have a short stratigraphic
range.
They are numerous in small (a few grams)
sediment or rock sample.
They have a widespread occurrence.
Most group have a high species diversity
and are sensitive environmental indicators.
INTERPRETING
PALAEOENVIRONMENT
WITH
THE HELP OF FORAMINIFERA
Foraminifera are
protozoans(single-celled
animals generally the
size of a sand grain)
Shells are either
composed of secreted
calcium carbonate
(calcareous forams) or of
sediment particles
collected by the
organism from the
surrounding
environment
(agglutinated forams)
Live in all marine
environments from
the deepest ocean
floor to the intertidal
salt marshes that are
found behind barrier
islands or around the
margins of estuaries.
Different kinds of
foraminifera inhabit
different
environments.
They comprise both
planktonic and
benthic forms.
PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA AND BENTHIC
FORAMINIFERA
Planktonic
foraminifera are those
species that float in
the upper layers of the
ocean water. They live
near surface waters
between 10 and 50mt
and are intolerant to
brackish water.
Benthic
foraminifera are
those species that
live on the sea bed
or just beneath
the sediment
surface
Paleoenvironmental
interpretations are made possible
by recognizing several kinds of
patterns in foraminiferal
assemblages.
1. percent planktonics — The proportion
of planktonic specimens increases from
0 percent in shallow marine
environments and gradually decreases
in deep marine environments.
2. species diversity — This is simply the
number of benthic species in a standard-
sized sample. The general pattern
recognizable in marine environments
today is of increasing diversity away
from shore (i.e., with increasing water
depth)
3. shell-type ratios — The proportions of three
types of walls (agglutinated, hyaline,
porcelaneous) in a sample of foraminifera is also
characteristic of particular environments in
modern seas and oceans.
For example, assemblages
characterized by high proportions of
agglutinated taxa are found in intertidal
marshes. Assemblages dominated by porcelaneous
species characterise shallow tropical environment.
4. taxonomic approach — It involves the
inference of palaeoenvironments based on the
known environmental preferences of modern
species or genera.
Different type of foraminifera
species repesenting different
environment
Marsh fauna is dominated by simple
agglutinated taxa.
The beach fauna is often characterized by
broken, coarsely perforate calcareous
forms.
The brackish water fauna generally consist
of agglutinated species.
The simple agglutinated species indicate
bay and lagoonal environment.
The abyssal and hadal zone are
represented by highly diverse agglutinated
species.
INTERPRETING
PALAEOENVIRONMEN
T WITH THE HELP OF
OTHER
MICROFOSSILS
PHYTOPLANKTONS
D I N O F L A G E L L AT E S
D I A T O M S
C O C C O L I T H O P H O R E S
DINOFLAGELLATES
Unicellular planktonic
organisms included in
flagellate algae
Live 50m above photic
zone
20 – 150µm long
Equipped with two
dissimilar flagella
The majority
of the species are
believed to be
marine but they are
also common in
freshwater
lakes,ponds,rivers
and other aquatic
media.
Dinoflagellate fossils
There are several inherent problems
in interpreting the palaeoenvironments:
1. Those of pre-Quarternary age are
not easy to relate to taxa of known habit.
2. Some may not encyst and
therefore leave no fossil record.
3.Cyst which are formed may sink
and drift to be preserved at depth and
conditions beyond the tolerence of the
species.
DIATOMS
Unicellular algae
Often jointed with
one another forming a
colony.
Most characteristic
feature is the
possession of a cell
wall composed of a
bivalve skeleton (often
called frustules).
Pelagic habit enables them to
disperse widely.
Live practically where light and
moisture occur,including all
marine,brackish and freshwater
environments.
Correlates strongly with waters of
high nitrate and phosphorous
concentrations.
Contd……………
Ratios between oxygen isotopes
18
O and 16O indicate absolute
temperatures in Quaternary
deposits.
Freshwater diatoms reveals the
effects of changing acidity and
climate.
COCCOLITHOPHORES
Unicellular and
predominantly autotrophic
nanoplankton (commonly
5 -60µm in size)
Cell is surrounded by
coccoliths (3 – 15µm in
diameter)
Most common coccoliths
in the microfossil records
are the so-called
heterococcoliths.
Abundant in marine sediments
particularly in zones of oceanic upwelling
Few species adapted to freshwater and
brackish water.
The ratio between coccoliths of warm
and cold water
type(Discoaster:Chiasmolithus) is a
useful tool for indicating the changing
palaeotemperature through late
Cenozoic time.
RADIOLARIA
Marine protozoans
Possess skeletons
(50 - 200µm in size)
Fossil forms are
made of opaline silica.
Different species
may occur in
assemblages at
distinct water depths.
Particularly useful where calcareous
microfossils have suffered dissolution.
Indicates changing calcium
carbonate compensation depth with
time.
OSTRACODS
Microscopic marine
invertebrates bearing
bivalved calcareous
carapace.
Predominantly
benthic or pelagic
throughout their life.
Palaeoenvironment
can be inferred from
carapace morphology.
Moist forest soils ; small ponds and
lakes (even hot-water
springs) ;brackish ;normal marine
and hypersaline water bodies are
characterised from their distinct
assemblages.
Palaeoenvironment of Miocene to
Recent times can be studied.
Outlines the nature of
palaeosalinities and their
fluctuations in marginal marine
sequences such as those of
Carboniferous,Jurassic,Cretaceous
and Cenozoic.
POLLEN AND SPORES
Fossils are deposited in
basins formed under
different environments.
Provides information of
man’s early environment
and his effect upon it.
Determines the response
of plant communities to
environmental change.
Reflects terrestrial,
lacustrine, fluviatile and
deltaic environment.
CONCLUSION
One of the basic tenets of geology is the
“PRESENT is the key to the PAST”.
It includes documentation of the
distribution of organisms today as well as
understanding of combination of
environmental variables controlling those
distributions.
As a result the information is used to
reconstruct the past environments by using
the fossilized representatives of the modern
forms.
LIMITATIONS
1. Many fossils are preserved in
environments other than those in
which they lived.
2. It is impossible to make probable
deductions about palaeoenvironment
of organisms which are now exticnt.
3.The interpretation of past
environment in the light of modern
ones may not be valid since
geographical factors may have
changed.
4. Similarly the organisms themselves
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MICROFOSSIL
M.D.Brasier
MICROFOSSILS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
P.K.Kathal
INTRODUCTION TO PALAEONTOLOGY
Amal Dasgupta
PRINCIPLES OF INVERTEBRATE
PALAEONTOLOGY
Shrock and Twenhofel
INTERNET SOURCES………………..
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