Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-31T02:10:59.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chemical element distributions within conodont elements and their functional implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Erik Cowing Katvala  and
Charles M. Henderson
Erik Cowing Katvala
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. E-mail: erik@croatoan.org
Charles M. Henderson
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. E-mail: erik@croatoan.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Electron microprobe analyses of platform (pectiniform Pa) elements of Permian conodonts reveal detailed and systematic chemical element distributions. The crown of the conodont element is more densely mineralized than the basal body and shows evidence of less dense mineralization in areas of rapid growth. Patterns in sodium and sulfur concentrations indicate oral to aboral differentiation within conodont elements. These chemical element patterns support oral exposure during life and functional use as a tooth, and they approximate the erupted and embedded positions of the conodont tooth when the animal was alive. Previously unrecognized spatial distributions of geochemically important chemical elements warrant consideration in future geochemical studies of conodonts.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , Summer 2012 , pp. 447 - 458
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

Aldridge, R. J., Briggs, D. E. G., Smith, M. P., Clarkson, E. N. K., and Clark, N. D. L. 1993. The anatomy of conodonts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 340:405–421.Google Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1976. The structure of some Middle Cambrian conodonts, and the early evolution of conodont structure and function. Lethaia. 9:185–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, L. E., Noel, J. A., and Larson, R. J. 1973. Neutron activation analysis of selected conodonts. InRhodes, F. H. T., ed. Conodont paleozoology. Geological Society of America Special Paper 141:67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. L., Sweet, W. C., Bergström, S. M., Klapper, G., Austin, R. L., Rhodes, F. H. T., Müller, K. J., Ziegler, W., Lindström, M., Miller, J. F., and Harris, A. G. 1981. Conodonta. Part W, Miscellanea, Supplement 2 of R. A. Robison, ed. Treatise on invertebrate paleontology. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo., and University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Dauphin, Y., and Williams, C. T. 2004. Diagenetic trends of dental tissues. Comptes Rendus Palevol 3:583–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deer, W. A., Howie, R. A., and Zussman, J. 1992. An introduction to the rock-forming minerals, 2d ed. Longman Scientific and Technical, Essex, U.K.Google Scholar
Denham, R. L. 1944. Conodonts. Journal of Paleontology 18:216–218.Google Scholar
Donoghue, P. C. J. 1998. Growth and patterning in the conodont skeleton. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 353:633–666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donoghue, P. C. J. 2001. Microstructural variation in conodont enamel is a functional adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268:1691–1698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donoghue, P. C. J., Forey, P. L., and Aldridge, R. J. 2000. Conodont affinity and chordate phylogeny. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 75:191–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donoghue, P. C. J., and Purnell, M. A. 1999. Growth, function, and the conodont fossil record. Geology 27:251–524.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, S. 1944. The composition of conodonts. Journal of Paleontology 18:133–140.Google Scholar
Eriksson, M., and Elfman, M. 2000. Enrichment of metals in the jaws of fossil and extant polychaetes: distribution and function. Lethaia 33:75–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girard, C., and Lécuyer, C. 2002. Variations in Ce anomalies of conodonts through the Frasnian/Famennian boundary of Poland (Kowala – Holy Cross Mountains): implications for the redox state of seawater and biodiversity. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 181:299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandjean, P., and Albarède, F. 1989. Ion probe measurement of rare earth elements in biogenic phosphates. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 53:3179–3183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, W. 1957. Über die Basis der Conodonten. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 31:8–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, W. 1960. Über die Basis bei den Gattungen Palmatolepis und Polygnathus (Conodontida). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 34:40–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, C. M., and Mei, S. 2007. Geographical clines in Permian and lower Triassic gondolellids and its role in taxonomy. Palaeoworld 16:190–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeppson, L. 1979. Conodont element function. Lethaia 12:153–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joachimski, M. M., and Buggisch, W. 2002. Conodont apatite δ18O signatures indicate climatic cooling as a trigger of the Late Devonian mass extinction. Geology 30:711–714.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, A. 2002. Amino acid residues in conodont elements. Journal of Paleontology 76:518–528.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, M. J., Schoeninger, M. J., and Barker, W. W. 1999. Altered states: effects of diagenesis on fossil tooth chemistry. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 63:2737–2747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krejsa, R. J., Bringas, P. Jr., and Slavkin, H. C. 1990. A neontological interpretation of conodont elements based on agnathan cyclostome tooth structure, function, and development. Lethaia 23:359–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, L. L., Lehrmann, D. J., and Harris, M. T. 2000. Correlations of the Road Canyon and Cutoff formations, West Texas, and its relevance to establishing an international Middle Permian (Guadalupian) Series. InWardlaw, B. R., Grant, R. E., and Rohr, D. M., eds. The Guadalupian symposium. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences 32:153–183.Google Scholar
Lindström, M. 1974. The conodont apparatus as a food-gathering mechanism. Palaeontology 17:729–744.Google Scholar
Lindström, M., and Ziegler, W. 1971. Feinstrukturelle Untersuchungen an Conodonten. 1. Die Überfamilie Panderodontacea. Geologica et Palaeontologica 5:9–33.Google Scholar
McConnell, D. 1973. Apatite: its crystal chemistry, mineralogy, utilization, and geologic and biologic occurrences. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, K. J., and Nogami, Y. 1971. Über den Feinbau der Conodonten. Memoirs of the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University Series of Geology and Mineralogy 38:1–88.Google Scholar
Nicoll, R. S. 1987. Form and function of the Pa element in the conodont animal. Pp. 77–90inAldridge, R. J., ed. Palaeobiology of conodonts. British Micropalaeontological Society Series, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, U.K.Google Scholar
Pietzner, H., Vahl, J., Werner, H., and Ziegler, W. 1968. Zur chemischen Zusammensetzung und Mikromorphologie der Conodonten. Palaeontographica, Abteilung A 128:115–152.Google Scholar
Purnell, M. A. 1993. Feeding mechanisms in conodonts and the function of the earliest vertebrate hard tissues. Geology 21:375–377.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purnell, M. A. 1994. Skeletal ontogeny and feedings mechanisms in conodonts. Lethaia 27:129–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purnell, M. A. 1995. Microwear on conodont elements and macrophagy in the first vertebrates. Nature 374:798–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qing, H., Barnes, C. R., Buhl, D., and Veizer, J. 1998. The strontium isotopic composition of Ordovician and Silurian brachiopods and conodonts: relationships to geological events and implications for coeval seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 62:1721–1733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rakovan, J. 2002. Growth and surface properties of apatite. Pp. 51–86inKohn, M. J., Rakovan, J., and Hughes, J. M., eds. Phosphates: geochemical, geobiological, and materials importance. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Mineralogical Society of America, Washington, D.C.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rensberger, J. M. 1995. Determination of stresses in mammalian dental enamel and their relevance to the interpretation of feeding behaviors in extinct taxa. Pp. 151–172inThomason, J. J., ed. Functional morphology in vertebrate paleontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rhodes, F. H. T. 1954. The zoological affinities of the conodonts. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 29:419–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sano, Y., and Terada, K. 2001. In situ ion microprobe U-Pb dating and REE abundances of a Carboniferous conodont. Geophysical Research Letters 28:831–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sansom, I. J. 1996. Pseudooneotodus: a histological study of an Ordovician to Devonian vertebrate lineage. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 118:47–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sansom, I. J., Smith, M. P., and Smith, M. M. 1994. Dentine in conodonts. Nature 368:591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweet, W. C. 1988. The Conodonta: morphology, taxonomy, paleoecology, and evolutionary history of a long-extinct animal phylum. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Turner, S., Burrow, C. J., Schultze, H-P., Blieck, A., Reif, W-E., Rexroad, C. B., Bultynck, P., and Nowlan, G. S. 2010. False teeth: conodont-vertebrate phylogenetic relationships revisited. Geodiversitas 32:545–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakita, M. 1993. Current studies on tooth enamel development in lower vertebrates. Acta Anatomica Nipponica 68:399–409.Google ScholarPubMed
Wright, J. 1985. Rare earth element distributions in Recent and fossil apatite: implications for paleoceanography and stratigraphy. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Oregon, Eugene.Google Scholar
Wright, J., Miller, J. F., and Holser, W. T. 1987. Conodont chemostratigraphy across the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary: western USA and southeast China. Pp. 256–283InAustin, R. L., ed. Conodonts: investigative techniques and applications. British Micropalaeontological Society Series, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, U.K.Google Scholar
Wright, J., Seymour, R. S., and Shaw, H. F. 1984. REE and Nd isotopes in conodont apatite: variations with geological age and depositional environment. InClark, D. L., ed. Conodont Biofacies and provincialism. Geological Society of America Special Paper 196:325–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar