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Level and Climate Change in a Short‐Lived Seaway: Jurassic of the Western Interior

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Level and Climate Change in a Short‐Lived Seaway: Jurassic of the Western Interior University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences 2017-02 Faunal response to sea-level and climate change in a short-lived seaway: Jurassic of the Western Interior, USA Danise, S http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/9712 10.1111/pala.12278 Palaeontology All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. [Palaeontology, Vol. 60, Part 2, 2017, pp. 213–232] FAUNAL RESPONSE TO SEA-LEVEL AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN A SHORT-LIVED SEAWAY: JURASSIC OF THE WESTERN INTERIOR, USA by SILVIA DANISE1,2 and STEVEN M. HOLLAND1 1Department of Geology, University of Georgia, 210 Field Street, Athens, GA 30602-2501, USA; [email protected], [email protected] 2School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK Typescript received 29 October 2016; accepted in revised form 5 January 2017 Abstract: Understanding how regional ecosystems respond environments. The higher resilience of onshore communities to sea-level and environmental perturbations is a main chal- to third-order sea-level fluctuations and to the change from lenge in palaeoecology. Here we use quantitative abundance a carbonate to a siliciclastic system was driven by a few estimates, integrated within a sequence stratigraphic and abundant eurytopic species that persisted from the opening environmental framework, to reconstruct benthic commu- to the closing of the Seaway. Lower stability in offshore nity changes through the 13 myr history of the Jurassic facies was instead controlled by the presence of more vola- Sundance Seaway in the western United States. Sundance tile stenotopic species. Such increased onshore stability in Seaway communities are notable for their low richness and community composition contrasts with the well-documen- high dominance relative to most areas globally in the Juras- ted onshore increase in taxonomic turnover rates, and this sic, and this probably reflects steep temperature and salinity study underscores how ecological analyses of relative gradients along the 2000 km length of the Seaway that hin- abundance may contrast with taxonomically based analyses. dered colonization of species from the open ocean. Ordina- We also demonstrate the importance of a stratigraphic tion of samples shows a main turnover event at the palaeobiological approach to reconstructing the links Middle–Upper Jurassic transition, which coincided with a between environmental and faunal gradients, and how their shift from carbonate to siliciclastic depositional systems in evolution through time produces local stratigraphic changes the Seaway, probably initiated by northward drift from sub- in community composition. tropical latitudes to more humid temperate latitudes, and possibly global cooling. Turnover was not uniform across Key words: Jurassic, climate change, sea level, cooling the onshore–offshore gradient, but was higher in offshore event, benthos, stratigraphic palaeobiology. T HE deep-time fossil record can be used to understand Understanding the link between biotic turnover and envi- the ecological and evolutionary responses of species to ronmental change remains a challenge in palaeoecology, changes in their environment, and provides an important particularly because much environmental change has a tool for identifying those factors that might impart resili- minimal effect on turnover (e.g. Morris et al. 1995), ence in the face of environmental change (Willis et al. whereas some environmental change appears to trigger 2010). Studies of long-term change in regional communi- marked turnover, suggesting possible threshold effects ties have shown that turnover of ecosystems varies mark- (e.g. Hesselbo et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2009; Finnegan edly, ranging from long-lived relative faunal stability to et al. 2012; Danise et al. 2013, 2015). Variations in com- brief elevated turnover (Brett & Baird 1995; Behrensmeyer munity composition along onshore–offshore water-depth et al. 1997; Patzkowsky & Holland 1997; DiMichele et al. gradients (Holland & Patzkowsky 2004; Scarponi & 2004; Holland & Patzkowsky 2007; Ivany et al. 2009; Kowalewski 2004) raises the possibility of observing dif- Kowalewski et al. 2015). Stability can result from strong ferential responses to communities to the same environ- ecological interactions (Mougi & Kondoh 2012), broad mental perturbation (Holland & Patzkowsky 2007; Bonelli geographical range (Payne & Finnegan 2007), wide niche & Patzkowsky 2008). Distinguishing between true tempo- breadth (Jackson 1974), high population abundance ral changes in community composition and stratigraphi- (McKinney et al. 1996) and dispersal sufficient to allow cal variation in community composition resulting from habitat tracking (Brett et al. 2007; Zuschin et al. 2014). local changes in depositional environment requires a © 2017 The Authors. doi: 10.1111/pala.12278 213 Palaeontology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Palaeontological Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 214 PALAEONTOLOGY, VOLUME 60 stratigraphic palaeobiological approach of controlled sam- Utah, eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, within which pling within depositional environments of successive the Twin Creek Formation was deposited (Fig. 2). To the depositional sequences (Holland 1995, 2000; Patzkowsky east of this foredeep, a west to north-westward-facing & Holland 2012). This approach of interpreting the fossil ramp developed, upon which the Gypsum Spring and record against a sequence stratigraphical framework Sundance formations were deposited (Fig. 2). allows a deeper analysis of factors underlying the change Palaeogeographical reconstructions place Wyoming of fossil communities through time and space (e.g. Scar- from 22–30° N (Kocurek & Dott 1983; Saleeby & Busby- poni & Kowalewski 2004; Dominici & Kowalke 2007; Spera 1992) to 35–40° N in the Middle to Upper Jurassic Tomasovych et al. 2014). (Blakey 2014). Northward drift of North America during Here we present a species-level study of marine benthic the Jurassic (May & Butler 1986) caused Wyoming and community response to sea-level and climate change from surrounding areas to move northward from the subtropi- the Middle–Upper Jurassic Sundance Seaway of the west- cal arid belt into progressively more humid climates, ern United States. Globally, the Jurassic was characterized characterized by winter-wet conditions (Johnson 1992; by rapidly increasing ecospace utilization and biological Rees et al. 2000; Boucot et al. 2013). This northward drift diversification, and by the origin and radiation of the also moved the region from the belt of the easterly trade major groups that constitute modern marine ecosystems winds into the mid-latitudes with their westerly winds (Vermeij 1977; Sepkoski 1981; Bush & Bambach 2011; (Kocurek & Dott 1983). Finnegan et al. 2011). Despite the interest in Jurassic ecosystems, only one previous study has examined turn- over patterns in Jurassic regional communities, and it Stratigraphy and depositional environments reported near-stasis for approximately 20 myr (Tang & Bottjer 1996). Developed within marine deposits of Most studies of the Sundance Seaway predate modern the Jurassic Sundance Seaway are eight third-order, sequence stratigraphical concepts (e.g. Imlay 1947, 1956, unconformity-bounded, depositional sequences, collec- 1967; Peterson 1954). Three recent studies on the Gyp- tively representing approximately 13 myr (Pipiringos sum Spring and Sundance formations of the Bighorn 1968; Pipiringos & O’Sullivan 1978; Brenner & Peterson Basin, Wyoming, have developed the sequence strati- 1994; McMullen et al. 2014; Clement & Holland 2016). graphical framework used in this study (Parcell & Wil- Superimposed on these cyclical changes in sea level is a liams 2005; McMullen et al. 2014; Clement & Holland transition from subtropical arid climates into progres- 2016). We have extended this across Wyoming, into adja- sively more humid conditions (Boucot et al. 2013), result- cent parts of South Dakota, Montana and Idaho; this ing in part from the northward migration of the North extended sequence stratigraphical framework will be pub- American plate (Johnson 1992). These environmental and lished separately. climatic changes make the Sundance Seaway an ideal site The Gypsum Spring and Sundance formations are to investigate the linkage between environmental change exposed in Wyoming along the flanks of Late Cretaceous and turnover. to Cenozoic uplifts, including the Black Hills, Pryor Mountains, Bighorn Mountains, Wind River Mountains, Wyoming Range and Laramie Mountains. The Gypsum GEOLOGICAL SETTING Spring Formation, with a maximum thickness of about 80 m, was deposited on a north-westward-dipping mixed Palaeogeography and palaeoclimate evaporate–carbonate–siliciclastic ramp, with depositional environments that include distal ooid shoals, open shal- The study interval spans the Middle to Upper Jurassic low subtidal, restricted shallow subtidal, peritidal, salinas (Bajocian to Oxfordian;
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