This week’s fossils are from work Olev Vinn (University of Tartu, Estonia) and I did last summer that is soon to appear in the journal Lethaia. (An early electronic version of the manuscript has been available since November.) After numerous smaller studies describing symbiotic relationships recorded in Silurian fossils in the paleocontinent Baltica, we wrote a summary paper under Olev’s leadership. All the images are take by Olev and in the paper itself. I love this kind of study because it is about fossils as living, interacting organisms, not just static sets of characteristics.
For example, the top image is of the stromatoporoid Ecclimadictyon astrolaxum (a kind of hard sponge) with embedded rugosan corals (Palaeophyllum, with arrows) from the Jaagarahu Formation (Sheinwoodian) exposed at Abula cliff, Saaremaa Island, Estonia. The stromatoporoid and corals were growing together, each having their particular needs met and maybe even enhanced by the other.
The network of holes in this stromatoporoid from the Paadla Formation (Ludfordian) of Katri cliff, Saaremaa, represent the corallites of a syringoporid coral. Again, the coral and sponge formed an intergrown association.
This is a thin-section view of what was likely a soft-bodied worm (represented by Chaetosalpinx sibiriensis, noted by a white arrow) embedded in the tabulate coral Paleofavosites cf. collatatus from the Muksha Subformation (Homerian), Bagovitsa A, Podolia, Ukraine. Again, the worm was embedded in the living tissues of the host.
We found 13 such symbiotic associations in the Silurian of Baltica. Most of these interactions involved large skeletal organisms like stromatoporoids and corals, which provided stable hosts for smaller sessile filter-feeders and micro-predators. This work is part of a larger study looking at evolutionary trends in symbiotic associations during the Paleozoic.
References:
Tapanila, L. 2005. Palaeoecology and diversity of endosymbionts in Palaeozoic marine invertebrates: trace fossil evidence. Lethaia 38: 89–99.
Vinn, O. and Wilson, M.A. 2016. Symbiotic interactions in the Silurian of Baltica. Lethaia 49: 413–420.
Vinn, O., Wilson, M.A. and Motus, M.-A. 2014. Symbiotic endobiont biofacies in the Silurian of Baltica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 404: 24–29.
