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Jurassic submarine troglobites: is there any link to the recent submarine cave fauna?

  • ANCHIALINE ECOSYSTEMS
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Abstract

Recent submarine caves are inhabited by endemic faunas adapted to oligotrophism, darkness and a tranquil environment. Many of their representatives are archaic types of animals resembling fossils from very early times in evolution. This article compares fossil fauna from Jurassic neptunian dykes (originally sea bed clefts) from the Western Carpathians with the Recent cave-dwelling fauna. The ostracods Pokornyopsis feifeli are particularly important. In the Western Carpathians, these were exclusively found in the Middle/Late Jurassic fissure fillings, but in the non-Tethyan Germanic Jurassic this species was found in deep-marine claystones. They are phylogenetic forerunners of the recent genus Danielopolina inhabiting both anchialine caves and deep seas. This indicates a Jurassic migration of deep-marine fauna to cryptic habitats. Other examples of cryptic communities include the Upper Jurassic cavity-dwelling fauna dominated by serpulids and scleractinian corals. Associated suspension feeders include thecideidine brachiopods, oysters, bryozoans, sponges, crinoids and sessile foraminifers. Serpulid-dominated bioconstructions have recent analogies in the Mediterranean and Carribean seas. Different type of dyke communities represent the Late Jurassic fauna of small sized ammonites which originated from both Tethyan and Boreal paleobioprovinces. It has not been established whether these amonites were juvenile, dwarfed specimens adapted to limited cave space or size-sorted adult specimens.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr. Mariusz Salamon of the Silesian University in Poland, and to an anonymous reviewer for both the review and useful comments. The language correction and the many useful comments by Dr. Bill Humphreys from the Western Australian Museum and by Dr. Ray Marshall (Sydney, Australia) are also acknowledged. This research was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under contracts No. APVV-0248-07, APVV-0280-07 and APVV-0465-06 and by VEGA Agency grant No. 2/0068/08.

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  1. Department of Geology and Paleontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina-G, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Roman Aubrecht & Ján Schlögl

  2. Geophysical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 845 28, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Roman Aubrecht

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  1. Roman Aubrecht
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Correspondence to Roman Aubrecht.

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Guest editors: C. Wicks & W. F. Humphreys / Anchialine Ecosystems: reflections and prospects

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Aubrecht, R., Schlögl, J. Jurassic submarine troglobites: is there any link to the recent submarine cave fauna?. Hydrobiologia 677, 3–14 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0687-3

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