The Early Miocene Cape Melville Formation fossil assemblage and the evolution of modern Antarctic marine communities

Whittle, Rowan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6953-5829; Quaglio, Fernanda; Griffiths, Huw ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1764-223X; Linse, Katrin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3477-3047; Crame, J. Alistair ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5027-9965. 2014 The Early Miocene Cape Melville Formation fossil assemblage and the evolution of modern Antarctic marine communities. Naturwissenschaften, 101 (1). 47-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1128-0

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Abstract/Summary

The fossil community from the Early Miocene Cape Melville Formation (King George Island, Antarctica) does not show the archaic retrograde nature of modern Antarctic marine communities, despite evidence, such as the presence of dropstones, diamictites and striated rocks, that it was deposited in a glacial environment. Unlike modern Antarctic settings, and the upper units of the Eocene La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica, which are 10 million years older, the Cape Melville Formation community is not dominated by sessile suspension feeding ophiuroids, crinoids or brachiopods. Instead, it is dominated by infaunal bivalves, with a significant component of decapods, similar to present day South American settings. It is possible that the archaic retrograde structure of the modern community did not fully evolve until relatively recently, maybe due to factors such as further cooling and isolation of the continent leading to glaciations, which resulted in a loss of shallow shelf habitats.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1128-0
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Environmental Change and Evolution
ISSN:	0028-1042
Date made live:	16 Jan 2014 10:04 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/503542

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1128-0

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Environmental Change and Evolution

ISSN:

0028-1042

Date made live:

16 Jan 2014 10:04 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/503542