• DOI:10.2110/palo.2009.p09-079r
• Corpus ID: 129360547

EARLY MOLLUSCAN EVOLUTION: EVIDENCE FROM THE TRACE FOSSIL RECORD

@inproceedings{Seilacher2010EARLYME,
  title={EARLY MOLLUSCAN EVOLUTION: EVIDENCE FROM THE TRACE FOSSIL RECORD},
  author={Adolf Seilacher and James W. Hagadorn},
  year={2010}
}

• A. Seilacher, J. Hagadorn
• Published 1 September 2010
• Geography, Environmental Science

Abstract Trace fossils extend the history of early molluscan evolution because they have a higher preservation potential in siliciclastic strata, where body fossils are rare or absent, and also because they better record the activities of soft-bodied animals. The earliest mollusks are recorded by fan-shaped scratch arrays associated with death masks of the Ediacaran animal Kimberella. Cambrian traces––Climactichnites, Musculopodus, Radulichnus––and fecal pellets record giant, but shell-less mollusks that intermittently left the water to graze the biofilms of intertidal sand flats. After the Cambrian, these traces become progressively restricted. Their subsequent disappearance results from closure of a taphonomic window, rather than from extinction of these animals or their grazing behavior. Other Paleozoic groups of shell-less mollusks may have responded to increasing predation pressures by becoming infaunal. Unlike surface trails, their backfilled burrows––Psammichnites, “Aulichnites-Olivellites,” Dictyodora––are commonly preserved. These burrows reflect the evolution of sophisticated search programs in shallow-marine as well as deep-sea environments, but none of them continues into the Mesozoic.