Ecosystem Structure and Trophic Network in the Late Early Cretaceous Crato Biome
The fossil record is uninformative concerning the habits and lifestyles of extinct organisms. Living species are positioned within a trophic hierarchy, presumably extinct taxa were susceptible to the same kind of environmental pressures operating today. I
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Crato Ecosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trophic Network of the Crato Biome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cross-References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Abstract
The fossil record is uninformative concerning the habits and lifestyles of extinct organisms. Living species are positioned within a trophic hierarchy, presumably extinct taxa were susceptible to the same kind of environmental pressures operating today. In the past, the organisms held similar behavioral and evolutionary dynamics, but the paleoecological investigations are limited by the incompleteness of the fossil record. So, the opportunities to exanimate the structure of ancient ecosystem are extremely rare. The Cretaceous Crato Formation, northeastern Brazil, offers one of these opportunities. Crato fossils provide essential evidence for understanding major issues regarding evolution and paleoecology of this ancient ecosystem. The Crato Fm. deposition took place under anoxic and hypersaline bottom water conditions, as evidenced by the virtually undisturbed M. Mendes (*) Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] F. I. Bezerra Programa de Pós-graduação em Geologia - Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil K. Adami Centro de Engenharias, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 R. Iannuzzi et al. (eds.), Brazilian Paleofloras, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90913-4_33-1
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lamination pattern, the occurrence of halite pseudomorphs and by the absence of a benthonic fauna. These particular paleoenvironmental conditions made it possible to preserve an exceptional fauna and flora with fine details and even labile tissues. The fossil fauna and flora of the Crato limestone are considered to be predominantly allochthonous. Despite the high-fidelity preservation
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