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Middle Palaeozoic of Morocco: The Earliest-Known Methane Seep Metazoan Ecosystems

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Ancient Hydrocarbon Seeps

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 53))

Abstract

Despite much effort aimed to better constrain the fossil record of chemosynthesis-based communities, our understanding of their early evolution remains fragmentary. Until recently, a dominant perception was that, unlike the Cenozoic, bivalve-dominated chemosynthesis-based ecosystems, the Palaeozoic to mid-Mesozoic methane seeps and hydrothermal vents were dominated by brachiopods. Recent discoveries from the oldest-known seep palaeoecosystems, found in the middle Palaeozoic of Morocco, have questioned this view, documenting Silurian and Middle Devonian seeps with abundant large, semi-infaunal, modiomorphid bivalves. While representing a lineage unrelated to modern seep-obligate bivalves, the mid-Palaeozoic seep bivalves display morphology and occurrence mode strikingly similar to those of their modern counterparts, suggesting their chemosymbiotic lifestyle. The studies of Moroccan seeps provide, therefore, a new look at the concept of modern chemosynthesis-based communities as a ‘glimpse of antiquity’, showing that, despite the taxonomic differences, it is true in terms of recurring morphological themes. The presence of ‘modern-type’, bivalve-dominated seep communities in the Silurian and mid-Devonian of Morocco is particularly intriguing given the absence of rich bivalve clusters at younger Palaeozoic seeps, including the youngest, upper Devonian seep of Morocco, which hosts the oldest occurrence of dimerelloidean brachiopods, a lineage notably successful in seep assemblages until the Early Cretaceous.

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Acknowledgements

Part of the work summarised in this contribution was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, grants No. 2012/07/N/ST10/04044 (to MJ) and 2013/11/B/ST10/00243 (to BB); Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, grant No. N307 016237 (to BB); and German Research Council (DFG), grant No. Be 1296/7 (to ZB). The manuscript benefited from helpful reviews by L. Agirrezabala (University of the Basque Country) and B. Cavalazzi (University of Bologna).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Isotope Research Unit, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Michał Jakubowicz & Zdzisław Belka

  2. Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Błażej Berkowski

  3. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

    Krzysztof Hryniewicz

Authors
  1. Michał Jakubowicz
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  2. Błażej Berkowski
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  3. Krzysztof Hryniewicz
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  4. Zdzisław Belka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michał Jakubowicz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

    Andrzej Kaim

  2. School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    J. Kirk Cochran

  3. Department of Invertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA

    Neil H. Landman

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Jakubowicz, M., Berkowski, B., Hryniewicz, K., Belka, Z. (2022). Middle Palaeozoic of Morocco: The Earliest-Known Methane Seep Metazoan Ecosystems. In: Kaim, A., Cochran, J.K., Landman, N.H. (eds) Ancient Hydrocarbon Seeps. Topics in Geobiology, vol 53. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05623-9_16

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