Crustaceans from a bitumen clast in Carboniferous glacial diamictite of Oman extend fossil record of copepods

Seldon, Paul A.; Huys, Rony; Stephenson, Michael H.; Heward, Alan P.; Taylor, Paul N.. 2010 Crustaceans from a bitumen clast in Carboniferous glacial diamictite of Oman extend fossil record of copepods. Nature Communications, 1, 50. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1049

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Official URL: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.html

Abstract/Summary

Copepod crustaceans are extremely abundant but, because of their small size and fragility, they fossilize poorly. Their fossil record consists of one Cretaceous (c. 115 Ma) parasite and a few Miocene (c. 14 Ma) fossils. In this paper, we describe abundant crustacean fragments, including copepods, from a single bitumen clast in a glacial diamictite of late Carboniferous age (c. 303 Ma) from eastern Oman. Geochemistry identifies the source of the bitumen as an oilfield some 100–300 km to the southwest, which is consistent with an ice flow direction from glacial striae. The bitumen likely originated as an oil seep into a subglacial lake. This find extends the fossil record of copepods by some 188 Ma, and of free-living forms by 289 Ma. The copepods include evidence of the extant family Canthocamptidae, believed to have colonized fresh water in Pangaea during Carboniferous times.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1049
Programmes:	BGS Programmes 2010 > Energy Science
ISSN:	20411723
Date made live:	20 Dec 2010 13:29 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12799

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1049

Programmes:

BGS Programmes 2010 > Energy Science

ISSN:

20411723

Date made live:

20 Dec 2010 13:29 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12799