| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Jurigan, Isabela
;
Ricardi-Branco, Fresia
;
Dentzien-Dias, Paula
Total Authors: 3
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | Journal of South American Earth Sciences; v. 127, p. 18-pg., 2023-05-29. |
| Abstract | |
Fossilized feces (coprolites) are remarkable tools for paleobiology and paleoecology assessment. Here they are used to reconstruct the Permian interactions between organisms that once composed a large interior sea at Western Gondwana. Coprolites from the Corumbatai Formation were retrieved from a distal tempestite layer and investigated about their morphology, texture, and food inclusions, applying hand sample description, petro-graphic analysis, EDS/SEM, and confocal microscopy. Seven morphotypes were recognized, which were probably derived from fishes, like xenacanthid sharks, basal Actinopterygii (Palaeonisciformes), petalodontids/dipnoan, and possible tetrapods, such as temnospondyls and diapsids. Four coprofabrics were also recognized and allowed the establishment of four different feeding/digestive strategies and, consequently, the definition of carnivorous-piscivorous predators as top predators, but also as occupants of intermediate trophic niches. Durophagic/deposit feeders were occupants of inferior trophic niches. This food web developed under stressful conditions, during a moment of aridization of the Paran & PRIME;a Basin, in association with ostracods and sponges' proliferation, and during this moment palaeoniscoid fishes seem to have been the main exploited resource in the environment. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 14/50938-8 - INCT 2014: in Photonics Applied to Cell Biology |
| Grantee: | Hernandes Faustino de Carvalho |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Projects - Thematic Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 19/16727-3 - Tafonomical landscapes |
| Grantee: | Fresia Soledad Ricardi Torres Branco |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |