Multivariate analysis of environmentally controlled variation in Lagena: Late Maastrichtian,Sweden |
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| Authors: | JOR Hermelin BA Malmgren |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology, Stockholm University, Box 6801, S-113 86 Stockholm, Sweden |
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| Abstract: | Costate forms of Lagena (benthonic foraminifer) have been studied in an uppermost Maastrichtian bore-hole core sequence (28 levels) from southern Sweden. Analysis of a large sample shows that consistent assignment to previously described “species” of costate Lagena is not possible. This observation is supported by multivariate analysis of five morphologic variables which indicates that there are no distinct clusters of specimens along principal component axes associated with general size, number of costae, and relationships between roundness of test/length and number of costae. Specimens with a basal ring differ from specimens with an apical spine and those with no basal structure with regard to average number of costae. They also differ from specimens with no basal structure with regard to relationships between roundness of test/length and number of costae. These characters grade into each other thus preventing them from being used as taxonomic criteria.Mean ratios of benthonic foraminifers to total benthonic and planktonic formaminifers determined individually for each level are inversely related to mean relative frequencies of costate Lagena and directly related to mean general sizes of costate Lagena. The benthonic/planktonic ratio has been suggested by other workers to represent a paleobathymetric index across a continental slope and shelf when open marine conditions prevailed. If this were so in the Danish basin at the end of the Cretaceous, costate Lagena would have been relatively less frequent and larger at shallower depths.As a result of the study, the analyzed specimens are considered as representing a single morphospecies of the costate species Lagena sulcata. Between-level variation is regarded as ecophenotypic, and within-level variation as natural biologic variation of no taxonomic significance. A total of about 1000 species of Lagena has been described in the literature which is probably many orders of magnitude too great for a genus with such a simple morphology as Lagena. A revision of the taxonomy of Lagena is, therefore, probably necessary on a wide scale. |
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| Keywords: | Benthonic Foraminifera Biometric analysis Cretaceous Maastrichtian Paleoecology Sweden Taxonomy |
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