Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T05:20:01.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fossil Mediterranean molluscs as sea-level indicators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

G. W. Richards
G. W. Richards
Affiliation:
Southwark College, Tanner Street, London, SE1 3DP, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Intertidal molluscs are known to occur in similar positions or zones on shores throughout the world. However, little is known about the extent to which these distributions are preserved in the fossil record. This study attempts to define the relationship to present sea level of live and dead intertidal molluscs in the Mediterranean, and utilizes this information to interpret the position at which Quaternary shorelines were formed.

The preservation of zonation patterns in the fossil record is affected by post-mortem transport, breakage and burial of the shell material. To take account of such taphonomic changes, experimental studies of shell transport and burial under waves and unidirectional currents were made, and the distribution of dead molluscs on modern shores were compared with live distributions. It proved possible to predict the frequency with which certain species were deposited on the modern shore and, by analogy, the likelihood of their preservation in the fossil record. Thus death assemblages in fossil shorelines can be accurately related to past sea levels.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 122 , Issue 4 , July 1985 , pp. 373 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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

Bernard, P. 1982. A variety of Strombus latus Gmelin, 1791 in the Gabon. Conchiglia 14, 17.Google Scholar
Boucot, A. J. 1981. Principles of Bent hie Marine Palaeoecology. New York: Academic Press, 463 pp.Google Scholar
Butzer, K. W. 1975. Pleistocene littoral-sedimentary cycles of the Mediterranean basin: a Mallorquin view. In After the Australopithecines (ed. Butzer, K. W. and Isaac, G.), pp. 25–71. The Hague: Moulton Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castany, G., Gobert, E. G. & Harson, L. 1956. Le Quaternaire marin de Monastir. Annales des Mines et de la Geologie Tunis, no. 19, 58 pp.Google Scholar
Donner, J., Eronen, M. & Jungner, H. (1977). The dating of the Holocene relative sea-level changes in Finnmark, North Norway. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 31, 103–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herm, D., Karray, R., Paskoff, R. & Sanlaville, P. 1975. Sur deux dépôts S`trombus bubonius du golfe de Tunis. Comptes Rendu Sommaire des Séances de la Société Géologique de France 1, 21–2.Google Scholar
Hill, M. O., Bunce, R. G. H. & Shaw, M. M. 1975. Indicator species analysis, a divisive polythetic method of classification, and its application to a survey of native pinewoods in Scotland. Journal of Ecology 63, 597–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. R. 1964. The Ecology of Rocky Shores. London: English University Press, 323 pp.Google Scholar
Maclntyre, I. G., Pllkey, O. H. & Stuckenrath, R. 1978. Relict oysters on the United States Atlantic continental shelf: a reconsideration of their usefulness in understanding Quaternary sea-level history. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 89, 277–82.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neev, D., Bakler, N., Moshkovitz, S., Kaufman, A., Magaritz, M. & Gofnar, R. 1973. Recent faulting along the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Nature, London 245, 254–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newell, R. C. 1979. Biology of Intertidal Animals, 3rd ed. Faversham, Kent: Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd. 781 pp.Google Scholar
Paskoff, R. & Sanlaville, P. 1983. Les Côtes de la Tunisie: variations du Niveau Marin depuis le Tyrrhenien. Collection de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranén, No. 14. Série Géographique et Préhistorique, 2. 192 pp.Google Scholar
Richards, G. W. 1983. Molluscan zonation on rocky shores in Malta. Journal of Conchology, London 31, 207–24.Google Scholar