Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T15:05:19.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Confidence intervals on stratigraphic ranges with nonrandom distributions of fossil horizons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Charles R. Marshall
Charles R. Marshall*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Molecular Biology Institute, and Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A generalized method for calculating confidence intervals on the position of the true end point of a stratigraphic range when the distributions of fossil horizons is nonrandom is presented. The method requires a quantitative measure of collecting and/or preservation biases with stratigraphic position. This fossil recovery potential function may be based on (among other variables) bedding-plane surface areas, or, given a water depth curve, an a priori estimate of the preservation potential with water depth. The approach assumes that the observed distribution of fossil horizons is consistent with the distribution predicted by the fossil recovery potential function, an assumption that must be tested before the method is applied. Unlike previous methods for calculating confidence intervals on the end points of stratigraphic ranges, this method may be applied when the number of fossil horizons is correlated with stratigraphic position. The approach should only be applied to sections that have been sampled continuously, or approximately continuously. Its efficacy will depend on how accurately fossil recovery potentials can be determined. A method is also presented for estimating the probability that a species became extinct during a major hiatus in the rock record.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Spring 1997 , pp. 165 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Bayer, U., and McGhee, G. R. 1985. Evolution in marginal epicontinental basins: the role of phylogenetic and ecologic factors (ammonite replacements in the German Lower and Middle Jurassic). pp. 164–220In Bayer, U. and Seilacher, A., eds. Sedimentary and evolutionary cycles. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, J. R., and Stanton, R. J. 1990. Paleoecology: concepts and applications, Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Flynn, L. J., Pilbeam, D., Jacobs, L., Barry, J. C., Behrensmeyer, A. K., and Kappelman, J. W. 1990. The Siwaliks of Pakistan: time and faunas in a Miocene terrestrial setting. Geology 98:589–604.Google Scholar
Geitgy, J. E., and Carr, T. R. 1987. Temperature as a factor affecting conodont diversity and distribution. pp. 241–255in Austin, R. L., ed. Conodonts: investigative techniques and applications. Ellis Horwood, Chichester.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1994. Confidence limits on stratigraphic ranges: estimating times of origination and extinction from the fossil record. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 26:A122.Google Scholar
Holland, S. M. 1995. The stratigraphic distribution of fossils. Paleobiology 21:92–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. 1991. The stratigraphy of shell concentrations. pp. 211–290In Allison, P. and Briggs, D., eds. Taphonomy: releasing the data locked in the fossil record. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kidwell, S. M., and Flessa, K. W. 1995. The quality of the fossil record: populations, species and communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 26:269–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, C. R. 1990a. Confidence intervals on stratigraphic ranges. Paleobiology 16:1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, C. R. 1990b. The fossil record and estimating divergence times between lineages: maximum divergence times and the importance of reliable phylogenies. Journal of Molecular Evolution 30:400–408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, C. R. 1991. Estimation of taxonomic ranges from the fossil record. In Gilinsky, N. and Signor, P. W., eds. Analytical paleobiology. Paleontological Society Short Courses in Paleontology No. 4:19–38. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Marshall, C. R. 1994. Confidence intervals on stratigraphic ranges: partial relaxation of the assumption of a random distribution of fossil horizons. Paleobiology 20:459–469.Google Scholar
Marshall, C. R. 1995a. Distinguishing between sudden and gradual extinctions in the fossil record: predicting the position of the Cretaceous–Tertiary iridium anomaly using the ammonite fossil record on Seymour Island, Antarctica. Geology 23:731–734.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, C. R. 1995b. Stratigraphy, the true order of species originations and extinctions, and testing ancestor-descendent hypotheses among Caribbean Neogene bryozoans. pp. 208–235In Erwin, D. H. and Anstey, R. L., eds. New approaches to speciation in the fossil record. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Marshall, C. R., and Ward, P. D. 1996. Sudden and gradual molluscan extinctions in the latest Cretaceous in Western European Tethys. Science 274:1360–1363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshik, P. A. 1993. Confidence intervals on stratigraphic sections with variable fossil preservation. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 25:A56.Google Scholar
McKinney, M. L. 1986. Biostratigraphic gap analysis. Journal of Geology 14:36–38.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, C. R. C. 1982. The adequacy of the fossil record. pp. 75–117In Joysey, K. A. and Friday, A. E., eds. Problems of phylogenetic reconstruction. Systematics Association Special Volume 21. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1985. Mathematical models of cladogenesis. Paleobiology 11:42–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1964. Time in stratigraphy. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Springer, M. S. 1990. The effect of random range truncations on patterns of evolution in the fossil record. Paleobiology 16:512–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, D., and Sadler, P. M. 1989. Classical confidence intervals and Bayesian probability estimates for ends of local taxon ranges. Mathematical Geology 21:411–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweet, W. C. 1988. The Conodonta: morphology, taxonomy, paleoecology, and evolutionary history of a long-extinct animal phylum. Clarendon, New York.Google Scholar
Sweet, W.C., and Bergström, S. M. 1984. Conodont provinces and biofacies of the Late Ordovician. Geological Society of America Special Paper 196:69–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Wagoner, J. C., Mitchum, R. M., Campion, K. M., and Rahmanian, V. D. 1990. Siliciclastic sequence stratigraphy in well logs, cores and outcrops. Methods in Exploration Series No. 7. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Okla.Google Scholar
Wise, K. P. 1989. The estimation of true taxonomic durations from fossil occurrence data. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar