Oxygen Isotope Variability within Nautilus Shell Growth Bands
Benjamin J. Linzmeier, Reinhard Kozdon, Shanan E. Peters, John W. Valley 2016 (PLOS One full article)
Benjamin J. Linzmeier, Reinhard Kozdon, Shanan E. Peters, John W. Valley 2016 (PLOS One full article)
Implications of sub-daily isotope sampling in Cephalopods
89]) have been used to interpret ontogenetic habitat change and mean living depth [7–9,11,44,79,80,89–91]. This study suggests that estimating the activity and mobility of extinct cephalopods is possible by analyzing δ18O within growth bands in samples that preserve nacreous microstructure and the original mineralogy. These techniques can be used to test morphological hypotheses about the swimming ecology of ammonites [81,92,93]. Inferring depth migration behavior from δ18O in fossil material is a new approach for studies of marine ecology for situations where: 1) growth banding can be imaged to provide a physiological chronometer, and 2) a sufficient temperature or salinity gradient within ambient waters is present, which when analyzing fossil material can be determined by data from foraminifera or other benthic and planktonic organisms .