Biostratigraphy
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them. The aim is correlation, demonstrating that a particular horizon in one geological section represents the same period of time as another horizon at some other section; the fossils are useful because sediments of the same age can look different because of local variations in the sedimentary environment. For example, one section might have been made up of clays and marls while another has more chalky limestones, but if the fossil species recorded are similar, the two sediments are to have been laid down at the same time. Biostratigraphy originated in the early 19th century, where geologists recognised that the correlation of fossil assemblages between rocks of similar type but different age decreased as the difference in age increased; the method was well-established. Ammonites, graptolites and trilobites are index fossils that are used in biostratigraphy.
Microfossils such as acritarchs, conodonts, dinoflagellate cysts, pollen and foraminiferans are frequently used. Different fossils work well for sediments of different ages. To work well, the fossils used must be widespread geographically, so that they can occur in many different places, they must be short lived as a species, so that the period of time during which they could be incorporated in the sediment is narrow. The longer lived the species, the poorer the stratigraphic precision, so fossils that evolve such as ammonites, are favoured over forms that evolve much more like nautiloids. Biostratigraphic correlations are based on a fauna, not an individual species, as this allows greater precision. Further, if only one species is present in a sample, it can mean that the strata were formed in the known fossil range of that organism. For instance, the presence of the trace fossil Treptichnus pedum was used to define the base of the Cambrian period, but it has since been found in older strata.
Fossil assemblages were traditionally used to designate the duration of periods. Since a large change in fauna was required to make early stratigraphers create a new period, most of the periods we recognise today are terminated by a major extinction event or faunal turnover. A stage is a major subdivision of strata, each systematically following the other each bearing a unique assemblage of fossils. Therefore, stages can be defined as a group of strata containing the same major fossil assemblages. French palaeontologist Alcide d'Orbigny is credited for the invention of this concept, he named stages after geographic localities with good sections of rock strata that bear the characteristic fossils on which the stages are based. In 1856 German palaeontologist Albert Oppel introduced the concept of zone. A zone includes strata characterised by the overlapping range of fossils, they represent the time between the appearance of species chosen at the base of the zone and the appearance of other species chosen at the base of the next succeeding zone.
Oppel's zones are named after a particular distinctive fossil species, called an index fossil. Index fossils are one of the species from the assemblage of species; the zone is the fundamental biostratigraphic unit. Its thickness range from a few to hundreds of metres, its extant range from local to worldwide. Biostratigraphic units are divided into six principal kinds of biozones: Taxon range biozones represent the known stratigraphic and geographic range of occurrence of a single taxon. Concurrent range biozone include the concurrent, coincident, or overlapping part of the range of two specified taxa. Interval biozone include the strata between two specific biostratigraphic surfaces, it can be based on highest occurrences. Lineage biozone are strata containing species representing a specific segment of an evolutionary lineage. Assemblage biozones are strata. Abundance biozones are strata in which the abundance of a particular taxon or group of taxa is greater than in the adjacent part of the section.
To be useful in stratigraphic correlation index fossils should be: Independent of their environment Geographically widespread Rapidly evolvingEasy to preserve Easy to identify Fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and determinable order and therefore any time period can be recognized by its fossil content. Biostratigraphic Lithostratigraphic Column Generator
Micropaleontology
Micropaleontology is the branch of paleontology that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and its characteristic details. Microfossils are fossils that are between 0.001mm and 1 mm in size, the study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. Fossils which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, such as a hand lens, are referred to as macrofossils. For example, some colonial organisms, such as Bryozoa have large colonies, but are classified by fine skeletal details of the small individuals of the colony. In another example, many fossil genera of Foraminifera, which are protists are known from shells that were as big as coins, such as the genus Nummulites. Microfossils are a common feature of the geological record, from the Precambrian to the Holocene, they are most common in deposits of marine environments, but occur in brackish water, fresh water and terrestrial sedimentary deposits.
While every kingdom of life is represented in the microfossil record, the most abundant forms are protist skeletons or cysts from the Chrysophyta, Sarcodina and chitinozoans, together with pollen and spores from the vascular plants. In 2017, fossilized microorganisms, or microfossils, were announced to have been discovered in hydrothermal vent precipitates in the Nuvvuagittuq Belt of Quebec, Canada that may be as old as 4.28 billion years old, the oldest record of life on Earth, suggesting "an instantaneous emergence of life", after ocean formation 4.41 billion years ago, not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 billion years ago. Nonetheless, life may have started earlier, at nearly 4.5 billion years ago, as claimed by some researchers. Micropaleontology can be divided into four areas of study on the basis of microfossil composition: calcareous, as in coccoliths and foraminifera, phosphatic, as in the study of some vertebrates, siliceous, as in diatoms and radiolaria, or organic, as in the pollen and spores studied in palynology.
This division reflects differences in the mineralogical and chemical composition of microfossil remains rather than any strict taxonomic or ecological distinctions. Most researchers in this field, known as micropaleontologists, are specialists in one or more taxonomic groups. Calcareous microfossils include coccoliths, calcareous dinoflagellate cysts, ostracods. Phosphatic microfossils include conodonts, some scolecodonts, Shark spines and teeth, other Fish remains. Siliceous microfossils include diatoms, silicoflagellates, phytoliths, some scolecodonts, sponge spicules; the study of organic microfossils is called palynology. Organic microfossils include pollen, chitinozoans, acritarchs, dinoflagellate cysts, fungal remains. Sediment or rock samples are collected from either cores or outcrops, the microfossils they contain are extracted by a variety of physical and chemical laboratory techniques, including sieving, density separation by centrifuge or in heavy liquids, chemical digestion of the unwanted fraction.
The resulting concentrated sample of microfossils is mounted on a slide for analysis by light microscope. Taxa are identified and counted; the enormous numbers of microfossils that a small sediment sample can yield allows the collection of statistically robust datasets which can be subjected to multivariate analysis. A typical microfossil study will involve identification of a few hundred specimens from each sample. Microfossils are specially noteworthy for their importance in biostratigraphy. Since microfossils are extremely abundant and quick to appear and disappear from the stratigraphic record, they constitute ideal index fossils from a biostratigraphic perspective; the planktonic and nektonic habits of some microfossils give them the bonus of appearing across a wide range of facies or paleoenvironments, as well as having near-global distribution, making biostratigraphic correlation more powerful and effective. Microfossils from deep-sea sediments provide some of the most important records of global environmental change on long, medium or short timescales.
Across vast areas of the ocean floor, the shells of planktonic micro-organisms sinking from surface waters provide the dominant source of sediment, they continuously accumulate. Study of changes in assemblages of microfossils and changes in their shell chemistry are fundamental to research on climate change in the geological past. In addition to providing an excellent tool for sedimentary rock dating and for paleoenvironmental reconstruction – used in both petroleum geology and paleoceanography – micropaleontology has found a number of less orthodox applications, such as its growing role in forensic police investigation or in determining the provenance of archaeological artefacts. Micropaleontology is a tool of geoarchaeology used in the archaeological reconstruction of human habitation sites and environments. Changes in the microfossil population abundance in the stratigraphy of current and former water bodies reflect changes in environmental conditions. Occurring ostracods in freshwater bodies are impacted b
Trace fossil
A trace fossil ichnofossil, is a geological record of biological activity. Ichnology is the study of such traces, is the work of ichnologists. Trace fossils may consist of impressions made on or in the substrate by an organism: for example, borings, urolites and feeding marks, root cavities; the term in its broadest sense includes the remains of other organic material produced by an organism — for example coprolites or chemical markers — or sedimentological structures produced by biological means - for example, stromatolites. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, which are the fossilized remains of parts of organisms' bodies altered by chemical activity or mineralization. Sedimentary structures, for example those produced by empty shells rolling along the sea floor, are not produced through the behaviour of an organism and not considered trace fossils; the study of traces - ichnology - divides into paleoichnology, or the study of trace fossils, neoichnology, the study of modern traces. Ichnological science offers many challenges, as most traces reflect the behaviour — not the biological affinity — of their makers.
Accordingly, researchers classify trace fossils into form genera, based on their appearance and on the implied behaviour, or ethology, of their makers. Traces are better known in their fossilised form than in modern sediments; this makes it difficult to interpret some fossils by comparing them with modern traces though they may be extant or common. The main difficulties in accessing extant burrows stem from finding them in consolidated sediment, being able to access those formed in deeper water. Trace fossils are best preserved in sandstones, they may be found in shales and limestones. Trace fossils are difficult or impossible to assign to a specific maker. Only in rare occasions are the makers found in association with their tracks. Further different organisms may produce identical tracks. Therefore, conventional taxonomy is not applicable, a comprehensive form of taxonomy has been erected. At the highest level of the classification, five behavioral modes are recognized: Domichnia, dwelling structures reflecting the life position of the organism that created it.
Fodinichnia, three-dimensional structures left by animals which eat their way through sediment, such as deposit feeders. Fossils are further classified into form genera, a few of which are subdivided to a "species" level. Classification is based on shape and implied behavioural mode. To keep body and trace fossils nomenclatorially separate, ichnospecies are erected for trace fossils. Ichnotaxa are classified somewhat differently in zoological nomenclature than taxa based on body fossils. Examples include: Late Cambrian trace fossils from intertidal settings include Protichnites and Climactichnites, amongst others Mesozoic dinosaur footprints including ichnogenera such as Grallator and Anomoepus Triassic to Recent termite mounds, which can encompass several square kilometers of sediment Trace fossils are important paleoecological and paleoenvironmental indicators, because they are preserved in situ, or in the life position of the organism that made them; because identical fossils can be created by a range of different organisms, trace fossils can only reliably inform us of two things: the consistency of the sediment at the time of its deposition, the energy level of the depositional environment.
Attempts to deduce such traits as whether a deposit is marine or non-marine have been made, but shown to be unreliable. Trace fossils provide us with indirect evidence of life in the past, such as the footprints, burrows and feces left behind by animals, rather than the preserved remains of the body of the actual animal itself. Unlike most other fossils, which are produced only after the death of the organism concerned, trace fossils provide us with a record of the activity of an organism during its lifetime. Trace fossils are formed by organisms performing the functions of their everyday life, such as walking, burrowing, boring, or feeding. Tetrapod footprints, worm trails and the burrows made by clams and arthropods are all trace fossils; the most spectacular trace fossils are the huge, three-toed footprints produced by dinosaurs and related archosaurs. These imprints give scientists clues as to. Although the skeletons of dinosaurs can be reconstructed, only their fossilized footprints can determine how they stood and walked.
Such tracks can tell much about the gait of the animal which made them, what its stride was, whether or not the front limbs touched the ground. However, most trace fossils are rather less conspicuous, such as the trails made by segmented worms or nematodes; some of these worm castings are the only fossil record. Fossil footprints made by tetrapod vertebrates are difficult to identify to a particular species of animal, but they can provide valuable information such as the speed and behavior of the organism that made them; such trace fossils are formed when amphibians, mammals or birds walked across soft mud or sand which hardened sufficiently to retain the impressions before the next layer of sedimen
Geologic record
The geologic record in stratigraphy and other natural sciences refers to the entirety of the layers of rock strata — deposits laid down by volcanism or by deposition of sediment derived from weathering detritus including all its fossil content and the information it yields about the history of the Earth: its past climate, geography and the evolution of life on its surface. According to the law of superposition and volcanic rock layers are deposited on top of each other, they harden over time to become a solidified rock column, that may be intruded by igneous rocks and disrupted by tectonic events. At a certain locality on the Earth's surface, the rock column provides a cross section of the natural history in the area during the time covered by the age of the rocks; this is sometimes called the rock history and gives a window into the natural history of the location that spans many geological time units such as ages, epochs, or in some cases multiple major geologic periods—for the particular geographic region or regions.
The geologic record is in no one place complete for where geologic forces one age provide a low-lying region accumulating deposits much like a layer cake, in the next may have uplifted the region, the same area is instead one, weathering and being torn down by chemistry, wind and water. This is to say that in a given location, the geologic record can be and is quite interrupted as the ancient local environment was converted by geological forces into new landforms and features. Sediment core data at the mouths of large riverine drainage basins, some of which go 7 miles deep support the law of superposition; however using broadly occurring deposited layers trapped within differently located rock columns, geologists have pieced together a system of units covering most of the geologic time scale using the law of superposition, for where tectonic forces have uplifted one ridge newly subject to erosion and weathering in folding and faulting the strata, they have created a nearby trough or structural basin region that lies at a relative lower elevation that can accumulate additional deposits.
By comparing overall formations, geologic structures and local strata, calibrated by those layers which are widespread, a nearly complete geologic record has been constructed since the 17th century. Correcting for discordancies can be done in a number of ways and utilizing a number of technologies or field research results from studies in other disciplines. In this example, the study of layered rocks and the fossils they contain is called biostratigraphy and utilizes amassed geobiology and paleobiological knowledge. Fossils can be used to recognize rock layers of the same or different geologic ages, thereby coordinating locally occurring geologic stages to the overall geologic timeline; the pictures of the fossils of monocellular algae in this USGS figure were taken with a scanning electron microscope and have been magnified 250 times. In the U. S. state of South Carolina three marker species of fossil algae are found in a core of rock whereas in Virginia only two of the three species are found in the Eocene Series of rock layers spanning three stages and the geologic ages from 37.2–55.8 MA.
Comparing the record about the discordance in the record to the full rock column shows the non-occurrence of the missing species and that portion of the local rock record, from the early part of the middle Eocene is missing there. This is one form of discordancy and the means geologists use to compensate for local variations in the rock record. With the two remaining marker species it is possible to correlate rock layers of the same age in both South Carolina and Virginia, thereby "calibrate" the local rock column into its proper place in the overall geologic record; as the picture of the overall rock record emerged, discontinuities and similarities in one place were cross-correlated to those in others, it became useful to subdivide the overall geologic record into a series of component sub-sections representing different sized groups of layers within known geologic time, from the shortest time span stage to the largest thickest strata eonothem and time spans eon. Concurrent work in other natural science fields required a time continuum be defined, earth scientists decided to coordinate the system of rock layers and their identification criteria with that of the geologic time scale.
This gives the pairing between the physical layers of the left column and the time units of the center column in the table at right
