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The plankton and the benthos: origins and early history of an evolving relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Philip W. Signor  and
Geerat J. Vermeij
Philip W. Signor
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
Geerat J. Vermeij
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
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Abstract

Modern marine plankton communities include a broad diversity of metazoans that are suspension-feeding or micropredatory as adults. Many benthic marine species have larval stages that reside, and often feed, in the plankton for brief to very long periods of time, and most marine benthic communities include large numbers of suspension-feeders. This has not always been the case. Cambrian benthic communities included relatively few suspension-feeders. Similarly, there were few metazoan clades represented in the plankton, either as adult suspension-feeders or as larvae. Review of the fossil record suggests that the diversification of the plankton and suspension-feeding marine animals began in the Late Cambrian and continued into the Ordovician. These changes were accompanied by, and probably influenced, concurrent major changes in the marine realm, including an increase in tiering within benthic communities, the replacement of the Cambrian fauna by the Paleozoic fauna, and a general taxonomic diversification. The ultimate cause of these changes is uncertain, but it appears likely that the plankton was and is a refuge from predation and bioturbation for adults and larvae alike. The expansion in plankton biomass thus provided increased ecological opportunities for suspension-feeders in the plankton and benthos.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Summer 1994 , pp. 297 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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