Morphometrics indicates giant Ordovician macluritid gastropods switched life habit during ontogeny

Paleontologists have long speculated that the bizarre, giant Ordovician gastropods Maclurites Le Sueur, 1818 and Maclurina Ulrich and Scofield, 1897 lived more like suspension-feeding oysters than typical algivorous snails. Geometric and eigenshape morphometrics demonstrate the plausibility of this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of paleontology 2014-09, Vol.88 (5), p.1050-1055
Main Authors: Novack-Gottshall, Philip M, Burton, Keoki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Aperture
Atlantic Ocean
Baffin Island
biometry
Canada
Eastern Canada
eigenshape analysis
feeding
Frobisher Bay
functional morphology
Gastropoda
Invertebrata
invertebrate
Maclurina
Maclurites
Macluritidae
Minors
Mollusca
morphology
North Atlantic
Nunavut
Ocean floor
ontogeny
Ordovician
Oysters
Paleontology
Paleozoic
shells
size
Trends
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Summary:Paleontologists have long speculated that the bizarre, giant Ordovician gastropods Maclurites Le Sueur, 1818 and Maclurina Ulrich and Scofield, 1897 lived more like suspension-feeding oysters than typical algivorous snails. Geometric and eigenshape morphometrics demonstrate the plausibility of this lifestyle, but with a twist. The apertures of these gastropods were small ellipsoids when young, transitioning rapidly to polygonal morphologies at maturity, with angulations (sinuses) occurring in regions associated with development of mature ctenidia (gills) and enhanced stability on the seafloor. Combined with knowledge of extant suspension-feeding gastropods and functional and phylogenetic analysis of the anatomy of other fossil relatives, this ontogenetic pattern suggests these snails began life as typical mobile algae-grazers, but switched to sedentary suspension-feeders as they aged.
ISSN:0022-3360
1937-2337
DOI:10.1666/13-129