Temperature-Shell-Growth Relations of Recent and Interglacial Pleistocene Shoal-Water Biota from Bermuda
- Creators
- Epstein, S.
- Lowenstam, H. A.
Abstract
The method of measuring temperatures at which organic calcium carbonate is precipitated, by determining the isotopic composition of the oxygen in the calcium carbonate, has been applied to a study of skeletal growth of modern Bermuda biota and, to a limited extent, to its geographically and taxonomically related interglacial Pleistocene analogues. Mollusks constitute the bulk of the species studied. The results indicate that the temperature at which the animals deposit their skeleton is dependent upon the threshold limit of skeletal deposition of a given species and, under extreme conditions, upon environmental controls. The determined average temperature of skeletal deposition may range anywhere within a few degrees of the extreme annual fluctuation of temperature of the locality. Thus no single species can be used for determining the average paleotemperatures or the paleotemperature ranges. The study of fossils of certain interglacial Pleistocene deposits of Bermuda indicates that the temperature conditions under which the studied organisms lived are within a degree or two centigrade of the present temperature conditions.
Additional Information
© 1953 University of Chicago Press. We are indebted to Dr. F. Haas, of the Chicago Natural History Museum, for identifying and checking the forms examined and also for giving valuable advice on their ecology and for critically reading the manuscript. Drs. Boden and E. M. Kampa, of the Bermuda Biological Station, made available to us the results of their winter hydrographic survey prior to publication. We wish to express our appreciation to Dr. H. C. Urey, without whose encouragement, interest, and participation this research could not have been carried out. We are indebted to Mrs. Toshiko Mayeda for doing much of the work reported here. For financial support we are indebted to the Geological Society of America, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Office of Naval Research under Task Order XXVIII contract N6ori-20.Attached Files
Published - 30079694.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 122093
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230701-403291000.2
- Geological Society of America
- American Petroleum Institute
- N6ori-20
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Created
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2023-07-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-07-07Created from EPrint's last_modified field