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Ecosystem Structure and Trophic Network in the Late Early Cretaceous Crato Biome

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Brazilian Paleofloras

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 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, the fossils are remarkable for their concentrated abundance as well as for their diversity. Therefore, understanding the trophic hierarchy of these organisms has already provided many important insights into the Early Cretaceous low-latitude Crato biome.

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Abbreviations

Fm.:

Geological formation

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil

    Márcio Mendes

  2. Programa de Pós-graduação em Geologia - Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil

    Francisco Irineudo Bezerra

  3. Centro de Engenharias, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil

    Karen Adami

Authors
  1. Márcio Mendes
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  2. Francisco Irineudo Bezerra
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  3. Karen Adami
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Márcio Mendes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Roberto Iannuzzi

  2. Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany

    Ronny Rößler

  3. Senckenberg Nature Research Society, Dresden, Germany

    Lutz Kunzmann

Glossary

Albian

It is an age or stage of the uppermost Lower Cretaceous, spanning the time between 113.0 ± 1.0 to 100.5 ± 0.9 million years ago.

Aptian

It is an age or stage of the Lower Cretaceous, spanning the time between 125.0 ± 1.0 to 113.0 ± 1.0 million years ago, approximately.

Fossil-Lagerstätten

Are fossil sites that exhibit extraordinary and often faunal and floral diversity.

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Mendes, M., Bezerra, F.I., Adami, K. (2020). Ecosystem Structure and Trophic Network in the Late Early Cretaceous Crato Biome. In: Iannuzzi, R., Rößler, R., Kunzmann, L. (eds) Brazilian Paleofloras. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90913-4_33-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90913-4_33-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90913-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90913-4

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