Paleolimnological significance of spinose and non-spinose morphs of Pyrgophorus hibbardi (Leonard and Franzen, 1944)

The basal portion of the Ogallala Formation (='Laverne Formation') (Lower Pliocene) Beaver County, Oklahoma, contains an interesting assemblage of non-marine fossil molluscs that include both spinose and non-spinose forms of the aquatic gastropod species Pyrgophorus hibbardi. The origin an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of paleolimnology 1998-07, Vol.20 (1), p.99-102
Main Authors: Miller, Barry B, Tevesz, Michael Js, Smith, Daniela C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brackish water
Carbon isotopes
Isotopes
Mollusks
Oxygen isotopes
Pliocene
Pyrgophorus hibbardi
Shellfish
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Summary:The basal portion of the Ogallala Formation (='Laverne Formation') (Lower Pliocene) Beaver County, Oklahoma, contains an interesting assemblage of non-marine fossil molluscs that include both spinose and non-spinose forms of the aquatic gastropod species Pyrgophorus hibbardi. The origin and paleolimnological significance of the spinose morph has been a source of much conjecture that has influenced environmental reconstructions of this assemblage. In one hypothesis the spinose forms of P. hibbardi are assumed to be associated with brackish water conditions by analogy with some populations of a related hydrobiid Potamopyrgus jenkinsi. To test the hypothesis that the spinose forms lived under different water conditions than the non-spinose morphs, we analyzed 10 specimens each of the two varieties for stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in the shell aragonite. The mean isotope ratios for the smooth and spinose morphs show no significant difference (oxygen: t = 0.28, df = 18, P (T ≤ t) 0.78 n.s.; carbon: t = 0.96, df = 18, P (T ≤ t) 0.35 n.s). We conclude that the lack of a statistically significant difference between the means of the oxygen and carbon isotope values for the smooth and spinose morphs suggests that the two forms lived in waters having similar isotope signatures. The considerable range in oxygen isotope values recorded by both morphs of P. hibbardi, including values as high as 5-6[per thousand], suggest that both morphs were associated with waters which were periodically evaporatively enriched in ^sup 18^O.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0921-2728
1573-0417
DOI:10.1023/A:1007918626424