Home / Ecology & Palaeoenvironment / Pseudoplanktonic Organisms Attached on Fossil Plants

BioConcepts: symphorism.

J.A. Caruso and A.M.F. Tomescu (2012): Microconchid encrusters colonizing land plants: the earliest North American record from the Early Devonian of Wyoming, USA. In PDF, Lethaia, 45: 490-494.
see also here.
About plant decay rates.
"... The Beartooth Butte Formation provides the first record of plant colonization by microconchids in North America and, along with only one other Early Devonian record from Germany, the oldest evidence for microconchids colonizing plant substrates ..."

Fred Clouter, Lower Eocene Fossils of the Isle of Sheppey: Fossil Trees & Logs. Teredo borings.

K. De Baets et al. (2021): The fossil record of parasitism: Its extent and taphonomic constraints. In PDF, The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism, pp. 1-50. See also here.

P.J. de Schutter et al. (2023): An exceptional concentration of marine fossils associated with wood-fall in the Terhagen Member (Boom Formation; Schelle, Belgium), Rupelian of the southern North Sea Basin. Free access, Geologica Belgica, 26.
"... A large fragment of driftwood was discovered in the marine Terhagen Member (Boom Formation, NP23) at Schelle (Belgium), representing the first well-documented case of wood-fall in the Rupelian of the North Sea Basin ..."

K.O. Emery (1955): Transportation of Rocks by Driftwood. Abstract, Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 25: 51-57.

H.J. Falcon-Lang et al. (2018): New insights on the stepwise collapse of the Carboniferous Coal Forests: Evidence from cyclothems and coniferopsid tree-stumps near the Desmoinesian–Missourian boundary in Peoria County, Illinois, USA. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 490: 375–392. See also here and there.
Note Fig. 8B: Cordaites leaf encrusted with spirorbids (Microconchus).

E.H. Gierlowski-Kordesch and C.F. Cassle (2015): The "Spirorbis" problem revisited: Sedimentology and biology of microconchids in marine-nonmarine transitions. Abstract, Earth-Science Reviews. See also here.

! R.G. Gillespie et al. (2012): Long-distance dispersal: a framework for hypothesis testing. Free access, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 27.
See likewise here (in PDF).

M.R. Gregory (2009): Environmental implications of plastic debris in marine settings - entanglement, ingestion, smothering, hangers-on, hitch-hiking and alien invasions. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364: 2013-2025.

H. Hagdorn et al. (2015): 15. Fossile Lebensgemeinschaften im Lettenkeuper. - p. 359-385, PDF file, in German. Go to PDF page 8:
! Microconchus cf. germanicus on plants from the germanotype Lower Keuper (Lettenkeuper, Erfurt Formation, Ladinian, Triassic).
In: Hagdorn, H., Schoch, R. & Schweigert, G. (eds.): Der Lettenkeuper - Ein Fenster in die Zeit vor den Dinosauriern. Palaeodiversity, Special Issue (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart).
! You may also navigate via back issues of Palaeodiversity 2015. Then scroll down to: Table of Contents "Special Issue: Der Lettenkeuper - Ein Fenster in die Zeit vor den Dinosauriern".
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

H. Hagdorn (2010): Posthörnchen-Röhren aus Muschelkalk und Keuper. PDF file, in German. Fossilien 4: 229–236.

S.J. Hageman et al. (2000): Cool-Water Carbonate Production from Epizoic Bryozoans on Ephemeral Substrates. In PDF, Palaios. See especially PDF page 27: Epiphytes on exterior of Metagoniolithon, articulated calcareous red algae.

A.T. Halamski and P.D. Taylor (2022): Angiosperm tree leaf as a bryozoan substrate: a case study from the Cretaceous and its taphonomic consequences. In PDF, Lethaia.
See also here.

Urweltmuseum Hauff, Holzmaden. A driftwood from the Liassic, 12 m long, settled by crinoids.
! See also here (image hosted by www.chemieunterricht.de).

E.A. Heise et al. (2011): Wood taphonomy in a tropical marine carbonate environment: Experimental results from Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 312: 363-379.
See also here.

G. Incagnone et al. (2015): How do freshwater organisms cross the "dry ocean"? A review on passive dispersal and colonization processes with a special focus on temporary ponds. See also here (in PDF).
Please note Fig. 1: Ephippia of cladocerans coating the stranded aquatic vegetation and the shores of Lake Iseo (Northern Italy).

K.-P. Kelber (1987): Spirorbidae (Polychaeta, Sedentaria) auf Pflanzen des Unteren Keupers - Ein Beitrag zur Phyto-Taphonomie. PDF file (in German), N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., 175: 261-294.

T. Kocí et al. (2023): The first record of a Konservat-Lagerstätten in which early post-settlement stages of fossil archaeobalanids (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha) are preserved. Abstract, Integrative Zoology, 2023; 0: 1–24. doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12728.
"... descriptions of early post settlement juveniles of Actinobalanus sloveniensis attached to mangrove leaves ..."

! N. Kramer (2016): Great river wood dynamics in Northern Canada. In PDF, Thesis, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.
See also here.

A. Krüger et al. (2021): 3D imaging of shark egg cases (Palaeoxyris) from Sweden with new insights into Early Jurassic shark ecology. Open access, GFF, 143: 229-247.
Note figure 11: Reconstruction of Palaeoxyris egg cases attached to Neocalamites (Equisitum) (sic!) stems.

E. Kustatscher et al. (2013): Early Cretaceous araucarian driftwood from hemipelagic sediments of the Puez area, South Tyrol, Italy. Free access, Cretaceous research, 41: 270-276.
Note figure 2A: A polished transverse section with some teredinid molluscan borings.

P.A. Magni et al. (2015): Evaluation of the floating time of a corpse found in a marine environment using the barnacle Lepas anatifera L. (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Pedunculata). Forensic Science International, 247. See also here (in PDF).

J. Masterson, Smithsonian Marine Station: Spirorbis spp.

! S. McLoughlin (2020): Marine and terrestrial invertebrate borings and fungal damage in Paleogene fossil woods from Seymour Island, Antarctica. In PDF, GFF, 122.
See also here.

D. Minchin (1996): Tar pellets and plastics as attachment surfaces for lepadid cirripedes in the North Atlantic Ocean. Abstract, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 32: 855-859. See also here (in PDF).

M. Poschmann (2017): Fossilien marin-terrestrischer Übergangsfazies der Nellenköpfchen-Formation (Unterdevon, höchstes Unter-Emsium) aus dem Dünnbachtal bei Treis-Karden (Untermosel, Rheinland-Pfalz, SW-Deutschland). PDF file, in German. Mainzer naturwiss. Archiv, 54: 47–63. See also here.
Note plate 3A-B: Lower Devonian plant fossils populated with Microconchus tubes.

A. Radwanski (2009): "Phoenix szaferi" (palm fruitbodies) reinterpreted as traces of wood-boring teredinid bivalves from the Lower Oligocene (Rupelian) of the Tatra Mountains, Poland. PDF file, Acta Palaeobotanica, 49: 279-286.
See also here.

Robert Randell, British Chalk Fossils: Driftwood with Teredo borings.

! N. Robin et al. (2018): The oldest shipworms (Bivalvia, Pholadoidea, Teredinidae) preserved with soft parts (western France): insights into the fossil record and evolution of Pholadoidea. In PDF, Palaeontology, 61: 905-918. See also here.
"... We report, from mid-Cretaceous logs of the Envigne Valley, France, exceptionally preserved wood-boring bivalves with silicified soft parts
[...] we report both the molluscs’ anatomy and their distribution inside the wood (using computed tomography)..."

F.-J. Scharfenberg et al. (2022): A possible terrestrial egg cluster in driftwood from the Lower Jurassic (Late Pliensbachian) of Buttenheim (Franconia, Germany), Free access, Zitteliana, 96: 135–143.

S. Schneider and A. Kaim (2012): Early ontogeny of Middle Jurassic hiatellids from a wood-fall association: implications for phylogeny and palaeoecology of Hiatellidae. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 78: 119-127.
"The specimens settled on sunken driftwood that served as an attachment surface and thus acted as a "benthic island" on the otherwise muddy seafloor."

A. Seilacher (2011): Developmental transformations in Jurassic driftwood crinoids. Abstract, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 130: 129–141.

D.E. Shcherbakov et al. (2021): Disaster microconchids from the uppermost Permian and Lower Triassic lacustrine strata of the Cis-Urals and the Tunguska and Kuznetsk basins (Russia). Abstract, Geological Magazine.
Note fig. 9: Reconstruction of an Early Triassic (Olenekian) lacustrine community of microconchid settlements on submerged sphenopsids (artwork: Andrey Atuchin).

! M.J. Simms (1986): Contrasting lifestyles in Lower Jurassic crinoids: a comparison of benthic and pseudopelagic Isocrinida. In PDF, Palaeontology.
Please notice text fig. 2: Distribution of crinoids on floating driftwood.

Spektrum.de, Lexikon der Biologie: Epökie (in German).

Paul D. Taylor & Olev Vinn (2006): Convergent morphology in small spiral worm tubes ("Spirorbis") and its palaeoenvironmental implications. Abstract, Journal of the Geological Society, 163: 225-228.

P.D. Taylor (1990): Preservation of soft-bodied and other organisms by bioimmuration - a review. In PDF, Palaeontology, 33.
Download a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here.
See especially on PDF page 11: Fig. 2: Zooids on the alga Fosliella inexpectata, Upper Maastrichtian.

! M. Thiel and L. Gutow (2005): The ecology of rafting in the marine environment. II. The rafting organisms and community. In PDF, Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, 43: 279-418. See also here.

! M. Thiel and L. Gutow (2005): The ecology of rafting in the marine environment. I. The floating substrata. Abstract. In: R.N. Gibson, R.J.A. Atkinson, and J.D.M. Gordon (eds.): Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, 42: 181–264 (Taylor & Francis). See also here (in PDF).
Note PDF page 184: A tree of 5–6 m in length populated with numerous hydrozoans, goose barnacles, isopods, and caprellids.

! M. Thiel and L. Gutow (2005): The ecology of rafting in the marine environment. II. The rafting organisms and community. In PDF. In: R.N. Gibson, R.J.A. Atkinson, and J.D.M. Gordon (eds.): Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, 43: 279-418. (Taylor & Francis). See also here (abstract).

! O. Vinn and P.D. Taylor (2007): Microconchid tubeworms from the Jurassic of England and France. In PDF, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Now recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! X. Wang et al. (2009): The Triassic Guanling fossil Group - A key GeoPark from Barren Mountain, Guizhou Province, China. PDF file.
! Note figure 29: A colony of Traumatocrinus sp. attached by root cirri to an agatized piece of driftwood!
PDF still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

X.F. Wang et al. (2008): The Late Triassic black shales of the Guanling area, Guizhou Province, south-west China: a unique marine reptile and pelagic crinoid fossil Lagerstätte. Palaeontology, 51: 27–61.
! See especially PDF page 14: Pseudoplanktic lifestile: A driftwood log 3.3 m long with Traumatocrinus crinoids attached to both ends; crinoid stem lengths range from approx. 1-7.4 m.
! Note also PDF page 16: The pseudoplanktonic lifestyle of a Traumatocrinus colony attached on drift wood. Wind makes the log drift in the surface water.
Also worth checking out: Treasure with blood: on the discovery of Traumatocrinus (Echinodermata, Triassic) crowns in China; by J.P. Lin (2014), Palaeoworld. See also here (in PDF).

J.M. Waters and D. Craw (2017): Large kelp-rafted rocks as potential dropstones in the Southern Ocean. Abstract, Marine Geology, 391: 13–19.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Pseudoplankton
Probiose, including Epökie (in German).
pseudoplanktonic
Log Jam.
Driftwood.
Treibholz (in German).
Large woody debris.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Microconchida
Spirorbis

M. Zaton et al. (2014): Microconchid tubeworms (Class Tentaculita) from the Joggins Formation (Pennsylvanian), Nova Scotia, Canada. Abstract, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

M. Zaton and R.L. Peck (2013): Morphology and palaeoecology of new, non-marine microconchid tubeworm from Lower Carboniferous (Upper Mississippian) of West Virginia, USA. M Zaton, RL Peck - Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae. See also here.
Please take notice: Fig 9. Microconchids encrusting land plants.

M. Zaton et al. (2012): Invasion of freshwater and variable marginal marine habitats by microconchid tubeworms - an evolutionary perspective. In PDF, Geobios, 45: 603-610. See also here.
Go to PDF page 5:
! Fig. 3 A, B. shows the earliest record of freshwater microconchids encrusting terrestrial plants (Drepanophycus) from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian-Emsian) of Wyoming, USA.